Located at the corner of Ontario Street and St. Clair Avenue, the privately funded plaza features a dynamic 9.5-foot stainless steel Superman statue in flight, mounted atop an 18-foot blue pillar.

The project began when public relations consultant Howard “Hutch” Stoller approached artist David Deming about celebrating Superman’s local roots. Deming, then president of the Cleveland Institute of Art, embraced the opportunity.

“I didn’t need any convincing,” Deming recalled during a recent interview with cleveland.com. “I grew up here and always wondered why the city had never done anything to acknowledge Siegel and Shuster, who created this iconic character.”

Deming’s design breaks from traditional Superman statues. “I thought those were awfully static looking,” he said. “It was always Superman standing with his feet spread apart, his hands on his hips and the cape straight down behind him. So flying became the choice.” Demning explained that he chose stainless steel rather than his usual bronze medium. “He is the Man of Steel,” Deming said.

Laura Siegal Larson, daughter of Jerry and Joanne Siegel, attended the unveiling on Saturday. She spoke of how her mom never game up hope that there would be a home for the statue someday. “She refused to take ‘no’ for an answer,” said Larso of her mother, a journalist who her family referred to as “the real Lois Lane.”

Larson also gave a shoutout to director James Gunn, who recently filmed many of the scenes for the latest “Superman” movie in Cleveland. “He did so much to honor the legacy of my dad and Joe,” she said during her speech.

The plaza includes whimsical elements like a phone booth containing Clark Kent’s clothes and glasses, plus informational signs telling Superman’s origin story.

For Gary Kaplan, president of the Siegel & Shuster Society, who has a personal connection to the project as Jerry Siegel’s second cousin, the monument represents Cleveland reclaiming its superhero heritage. “You always knew that he (Superman) came from Krypton, but I always knew he came from Cleveland,” said Kaplan.

The unveiling proceeded despite the organization being about $400,000 short of its $2.2 million goal. “We’re getting donations almost daily: small, medium, large. But we’d like to see corporations donate. We’ve not had success with that,” Kaplan noted.

But despite being short the money, the plaza was completed and the unveiling happened anyway. This means that the people who built it did it on faith that they would eventually be paid for the work it took to get it done. Perhaps it takes Superman to inspire that kind of faith and confidence.

If you want to donate to the project, there’s a link near the bottom of this page on the official SeigelAndShuster.com web site.