Whoever said you can’t find nature in the heart of the city has never been to Columbus, Ohio — well at least not recently. Columbus is making a big effort to replace roadways with greenways and alter people’s perceptions about what it means to live downtown. What used to be a dilapidated department store is what started it all. In 2002, Mayor Michael Coleman and the city council formed the nonprofit Columbus Downtown Development Corp. (CDDC), which was tasked with reshaping and revitalizing downtown into an urban hub. In 2008, The Lazarus Building, a department store that has been an urban icon for the last 100 years, received a $1 million facelift and is now fully leased to a mix of commercial, cultural and retail tenants in 1 million square feet of space. “The Lazarus Building suffered the same fate as malls and department stores in downtowns throughout the country,” recalls Guy Worley, CDDC president. “As more people left the cities for the suburbs, these malls and department stores were left to decay.” The building was the first LEED Gold-certified renovation project in Central Ohio — something the city takes pride in. “We didn’t want this project to come at …
