New GSA Park is a Dead Zone
To the East of St. Louis’ Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Courthouse is a dull and lifeless space. Green? Yes. Open? Yes. Well maintained? Yes. Interesting? Hardly.
The problem is we don’t need more open green spaces. We’ve got the entire riverfront and the Gateway Mall from the Arch Grounds to Union Station. We’ve got more vacant green space than we know what to do with it. What we are lacking are true urban streets and vibrant sidewalks.
Looking South along 10th Street the courthouse is to the right. The sidewalk is built for baseball game crowds which looks huge on non-game days. The neat row of trees would be better if they were between the parked cars and the pedestrian.
From the corner you can see an interesting series of chip gravel pathways and attractive park benches. But who would go here? At 5pm on a Monday evening I saw only a few workers walking to their cars in the parking garages to the East.
The space is supposedly a continuation of Bank of America’s useless green space to the North. In plan view it would appear they have made this great connection to the aforementioned Gateway Mall. In reality nothing about these blocks are compelling. Basically this section of the space, half a block, is done.
Benches line the linear space facing inward. This bench faces East with great views of the stadium parking garages in Cardinals red. Nice. Behind the bench is the sidewalk along 10th street. Even the benches don’t add life to the sidewalk.
To the Southeast is more of the massive and sterile parking garage. Note how the corner is treated to a different color scheme. Details.
The lovely red brick buildings in the background are the Cupples Station complex including a Westin Hotel. This is the closest thing this park space has to potential users beyond game day and weekday lunch hour.
The Southern edge is Clark Street. Here we are looking East with the garages, Cupples Station and the soon to be replaced Busch Stadium in the background. This entire sidewalk, a full city block, gets two street trees. No tree grates. No plantings. Maybe it is better they didn’t do more street trees?
No on-street parking is permitted along Clark. Of the four streets that border this green space only Clark is a two-way street. Walnut on the North, 9th on the East and 10th on the West are all one-way.
The Southeast corner of the block is an open green lawn area. To the North is a building that thankfully was spared the wrecking ball. It is my understanding this green section is being held for a courthouse annex to be built in the future. I would rather see future building sites in green rather than in asphalt.
Nothing is better than a green lawn. Blanket, a good book, bottle of water, iPod. Now that is some urban park use…
Oh wait, the grass is for looks only. This is not one of those spaces you are supposed to use. You are to walk by and think what a great amenity the green is but at the same time not be interested enough to actually want to spend time here. Well, mission accomplished.
With building equipment (in the background) and a parking garage as the backdrop I do see many urban park users getting turned away by GSA security.
The Eastern border of the look at me but don’t use me green space is 9th Street. It is one way going North into downtown, basically a high-speed exit ramp from I-64 (highway forty in St. Louis speak). Because moving cars is most important no on-street parking is permitted along 9th, except for police on game days. The only consolation is the street trees are mature and well space.
This place, like so many others downtown, is more for show than use. I’m sure the judges can look down from their chambers and see a pretty pattern of paths, green grass and feel good. Those of us that seek out exciting areas will continue to ignore this non-place.
– Steve
Personally, I would like to see most of the gateway mall opened up for development. It is a relic of the city beautiful movement that St. Louis decided to complete in the 80’s. A large number of this cities finest buildings were torn down to create something that is really only there for looks. The grand plan was also screwed up by allowing Gateway One to be built on the mall. The mall makes that part of downtown feel like a high-rise office park. We don’t need this much green space downtown. If we reduced the amount of green space, the spaces left would see much more intense use, giving those areas a much more vibrant feel. Also, we would be able to focus our resources on smaller spaces, allowing us to create really unique spaces. They should be left as they are until demand in downtown is high enough to dictate new construction, but when that point comes, many parts of the gateway mall should be opened up for new construction.
How bland. Clearly no consideration was given to the context of this park – who would want to sit on a bench and admire the Stadium West parking garage or the blank western wall of the Valley Building?
The only angle from which this green space looks good is from the air – the paths create an interesting criss-cross pattern, but of course, when you’re actually standing at street level, it’s impossible to appreciate it. I guess we can only hope that this urban plaza is temporary.
With regards to the green space next to the B of A Plaza, that parcel was originally intended to house a tower identical to the current B of A building, but it never got built.
You are right about the Filippine Garden… it isn’t until you see it from the sky (or 28-stories above ground) can you see the intricate pattern. The plaza/garden is a part of the General Services Administration’s “Art in Architecture” Program and was designed by Valerie Jaudon. The GSA program commissions fine art for Federal buildings nationwide.
Here is an image of the Filippine Garden from the sky:
http://www.urbanstlouis.com/images/renderings/filippine_garden.jpg
The physical reality of this non-space/ non-place is appalling, expressing a fear of urban messiness and disorder and a desire to control and, if possible, nullify it, as here. This is a public space without a public; a space drained of all life and made totally detached and abstract. It is a kind of vandalism done to the very idea of what a city is.
How convenient that this chillingly anti-human assemblage of lawns and paths is foisted on the city as an expression of art, yet–a move guaranteed to silence criticism. One can no longer approach this project as the uttrerly artless frittering-away of public space that it is. One has entered the realm of art, where only the certified–those bearing graduate degrees in some art-related field–may hold forth.
The only possible response to a place like this is to get out of it as fast as you can. The city’s challenge is to make such places part of the urban core again by dismantling them. Bring back the street grid and the buildings and you bring back the people.