RIP: Busch Stadium 1966 – 2005
All night long crowds gathered to watch the last of Busch Stadium fall.
One thing occurred to me, I have never seen so many people on these sidewalks on a non-game day. It was nice.
Then it happened…
Just before 12:30am this morning the final piece of Busch stadium came crashing to the ground. The freezing crowd roared with applause, car horns were honked. Fireworks went off.
It was both sad and exciting at the same time.
Next year the new Busch stadium, number three, will welcome Cardinal Baseball fans. While that first game will be thrilling for me the most exciting thing will be walking down a reopened Clark Street.
I’ve not seen too much detail on the future Ballpark Village (on the site of the old Busch Stadium) but I know someone that has seen drawings — he says it looks pretty good. We’ll have to wait and see.
In the meantime I’ve got a wish list for the redevelopment area:
We’ve got one chance to get the Ballpark Village right. Now is not the time to cut corners or compromise on the quality of the pedestrian environment.
– Steve
Too bad no one thought of the idea of preserving that last section as a ruin…or better yet, turning it over to Bob Cassilly to let him try his magic on it.
It could have been set up to do many things. Provide a connection (like an arch does), from the old to the new.
The Stan Musial Statue could have stayed in front of the old relic…with the statue serving as a welcome into a new St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum moved out of the “Bowling Hall of Fame” and into the remains of old Busch.
The seating areas could have been preserved as a knot hole gang free seating area, with the Cardinals offering rows of free seats to local charities.
The ground level facing the stadium could have been turned into an outdoor cafe/bar area. Inside, a restaurant with free ballpark views could have been built.
At night, it could have been artistically illuminated like the Roman Coliseum.
It would have been a draw for the new Ballpark Village area, and a tip of the hat to our historic city and baseball tradition.
A whole new set of photo ops connecting the Busch Arches to the Gateway Arch would have been possible.
It would have shared inspiration with the artist who came up with a website all sorts of alternative sites and uses for the Busch Arches.
Steve, since you were there, was anyone talking about such possibilities?
Since the demolition was over a month ahead of schedule, I wonder if these ideas were given a second thought.
[REPLY – I’m not a fan of ruins unless they really fit in with an urban context. In this case the last section is a block away from the new stadium and will have a building in between. Reconnecting the grid and bringing some much needed life to this part of downtown is far more important than holding onto the past. – SLP]
This morning at breakfast, my 7-year old lamented the last remnants of Busch Stadium being torn down and his thoughts echoed many of those we have heard from fans and others, put in simple child-like terms, “why did they have to tear it down?” was the question he kept asking.
Robert Frank, a photographer has a series of wonderful photos he has taken that show the process of the construction/deconstruction:
http://homepage.mac.com/ferdness/
RL’E
http://www.redbirdcentral.com/demolition_TL.htm
Don’t know if you’ve seen it, but the Cardinals’ Web site has a bit on the new “village.”
I think perhaps the coolest aspect of the new stadium is that street level along Clark is actually above the bleachers with a practically unobstructed view, meaning people along the sidewalk or in the street will be able to look down into the stadium and catch the game — a modern knothole gang. Certainly that will drive foot-traffic to the area beyond those who have tickets (of course on game days only).
Still it’s pretty cool.
http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050603&content_id=1073619&vkey=news_stl&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl
http://www.jgardnerphotography.com
Thanks for the pics from the actual event. I wasn’t eble to be there past 6 pm, and I had to watch it over the internet instead.
BTW, there is a link to new renderings at urbanstl.com. They are completely different than the outdated rendering on the outdated Cardinal’s site. And since everyone else is sharing links, http://www.ballparkconstruction.com is the best site out there. I’ll have new pics up tonight.
I second the request for restaurants having doors opening to the street. There’s a bar in Memphis that actually uses old fashioned clear garage doors that roll into the ceiling and leaves the bar counters on the perimeter of the room as the barrier to the street. It’s great, especially for a franchise.
I for one welcome the demise of Busch Stadium. Moreover, I enjoy the delicious irony in using the “ole’ headache ball” (which played such an important role in tearing down old St. Louis) to tear down a symbol of the new “Modern” St. Louis.
I believe there was an article in the NYT Magazine some time ago in which the author asked whether or not Modernist buildings merit preservation? Barring specific examples, he arrived at the same conclusion as myself: no. Let’s not forget that Busch Stadium was an example of an aesthetic which despised history, loathed preservation and insisted that “form should follow function.” As a result, concrete behemoths like Busch had very little ornamentation, even less respect for their urban surrounding and eventually came to resemble large ugly ashtrays in the middle of our city.
I am in no way defending BuschÂ’s kitschy and aesthetically uninspiring replacement. However, I think we need to call a spade a spade and accept the fact that Busch was ugly, no matter how many birthdays we spent there.
^What an incredibly uninformed OPINION.
I will agree on its less-than-stellar urban relationship, but as for modern architecture in general you just couldn’t be more wrong. Specifically, there are numerous well-known and not-so-well-known examples of stunning modern architecture here and around the world. The Arch is of the same era as Busch II. Dare you disparage it’s beauty — regardless of what it replaced?
I would argue (from an educated perspective — thank you very much) that Busch II exemplified the very essence of Classicism. I mean, pure iconic forms like the circle and the arch, how much more classical can you get? Just because it is not dripping with representations of flora or vestiges of non-functional structure does not invalidate it’s classical roots. It was pure. And a remarkable expression of that which you seem to disdain (form following function).
I will also agree with the mediocrity of the new ballpark. Seems a shame. At least we’ll get another wack at it in 30 years…
Thanks for your “informed” opinion, I’m sure it matters so much more than mine.
I still think that the Modernist aesthetic was fundamentally incompatible with industrial American cities and no matter how “classically pure” it was, I still think Busch II was out of place and unsightly.
That’s just my less-than-informed opinion.
[REPLY – For once my views fall somewhere in the middle — between those of Dustin & Matt. I think many people unfairly lump all modernist architecture in the same group and say it doesn’t work due to lack of ornamentation or whatever. I think in many examples that may be the case. But mostly I think the problem with modernism is not the aesthetic but site placement. The modernists were great at creating some really beautiful form but they didn’t know sh*t about where to place them in relationship to existing buildings or other modern buildings. But an example of good local modernism is the NW corner of Euclid & Maryland — that corner in front of the apartments is a beautiful composition that nicely works with the scale of the older buildings and relates very well with the sidewalk. It is stark, modern and urban.
Busch II, however, was not so great from the outside. Inside, yes it was moving. Outside an urban failure. But, not because it was modern. It was a failture because the building the surrouding streetscape & parking structures failed to provide necessary elements for urban life. – SLP]
I have no faith in the Ballpark Village being properly developed at ALL.
I’m thinking of the promises made to redevelop Keil Opera House so they could push the new hockey arena through. Not only did it not happen, but they found a way to convince the City Father’s that it wasn’t really in the contracts for them to do so.
I can see the baseball club owners doing only what they HAVE to do in order to usher people through to the new park. Then the space will sit in limbo under the guise of “taking time to come up with proper plans.” Then, a few years later, they’ll cry about the need for more parking, and will then erect a gigantic brick parking garage.
I’m not purposely being pessimistic and sarcastic; pay attention to similar endeavors in downtown’s past and know this is a learned response.
If it was just the Cardinal’s doing it, I would be worried, but I have great faith in Cordish to develop a great area. They have done great projects in other cities, and I would expect the same here. The renderings that were put out a month ago are very nice. Better than I expected.
I also believe that Ballpark Village will be a success. Cordish does have a record of success. This is the only good to come fom the demolition of Busch.
Here are the latest renderings by our city’s own talented architectural illustator Steve Parker:
http://cordish.com/developments/ballparkvillage.asp
In all fairness to the Cardinals, Stogel and DFC have nothing to do with Ballpark Village. Thus it actually may involve something more than smoke, mirrors and public subsidy. This is a real developer who will have to actually build a marketable development to make a successful project and secure financing. With the Bottle District’s rather pedestrian list of future tenants, Ballpark Village will likely distinguish itself with interesting tenants and a much better location for connecting with the core of downtown.
At least, I hope so. I really, really hope so.
(For the record, I liked Busch Stadium very much even though I would have liked Chinatown even better…)