Before the wrecking crews arrive, a Miami muralist has left his mark on the inside of a building that Cincinnati officials have already cleared for demolition. The old Crossroad Health Center in Over-the-Rhine, once a clinic serving the neighborhood's low-income residents, now holds a full interior paint job led by artist HOXXOH — and soon it will be gone, replaced by a parking lot.
A Building on Borrowed Time
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, a team led by the Miami artist known as HOXXOH painted the entire interior of the old Crossroad Health Center, and the piece is tied to Blink, Cincinnati's sprawling mural festival. HOXXOH, whose real name is Doug Hoekzema, is known for a distinctive technique: he sprays paint through various garden hose sprinkler attachments bought off the shelf, as WHYY has reported on his past work, including a commission to paint a corrugated steel fence around a 12,000-square-foot public patio at Philadelphia's The Noble apartment complex.
The Cincinnati building itself sits at the southeast corner of Vine and Liberty streets in Over-the-Rhine, according to local12.com, which reported that developer 3CDC received approval from the city of Cincinnati to demolish the Crossroad Health Center building. Per the same outlet's reporting, the plan would transform the site into a 51-space surface parking lot. The site had long served as a clinic for the low-income community of Over-the-Rhine, according to 3CDC's own project page.
A New Home for Crossroad's Patients
Crossroad Health Center hasn't disappeared — it's expanded. The organization's new facility on Race Street was preparing to open its doors to patients the following week, according to wcpo.com. The 21,500-square-foot building replaces the center's former Liberty Street location and features 18 rooms where patients can receive healthcare exams, dental care and prescription services, the station reported. Officials expect the move to boost the center's annual patient capacity from 4,000 to 6,000, per wcpo.com's account. 3CDC's project materials describe the broader effort as converting the existing Over-the-Rhine Recreation Center into a modern healthcare facility for Crossroad Health Center.
Art, Demolition and a Recurring Pattern
The fate of the HOXXOH piece echoes a pattern that has played out before in Over-the-Rhine. As NPR has documented, the neighborhood has seen hundreds of millions of dollars in redevelopment over the past two decades — and with it, the loss of public art. A mural in the neighborhood featuring local children, a dog, a hoagie and Steve Urkel was painted over in 2018 after a new bar purchased the building it was on, NPR reported. William Rankins Jr.'s three-story portrait of President Barack Obama stood on an Ollie's Trolley building in the West End from 2008 to 2019, per the same report, before it too was lost. NPR also noted that construction on FC Cincinnati's stadium, which began in 2019, triggered the displacement of several residents and Black-owned businesses, and that the team is now working on a $300 million residential and entertainment district across the street from Ollie's. Census data cited by NPR shows Over-the-Rhine lost 43 percent of its Black population between 2010 and 2020.
HOXXOH's Next Cincinnati Stop
HOXXOH isn't done in the region. The artist is scheduled to appear at Blink Alley Sessions in Covington on Saturday, joining a lineup that includes Birdseed Anthony, Sofles, Atomik and others, according to blinkcincinnati.com.
