Convention Plaza, A 60 Foot Wide Street to Nowhere
Before delving into the street known as Convention Plaza I need to give you some background…
Grand Opening festivities for St. Louis’ new Cervantes Convention Center, named after former mayor Alphonso J. Cervantes, were held in July 1977. The original facility, costing $34 million, was much smaller than the one we have today. Eight and Martin Luther King Drive were closed to create a contiguous four block area bounded by Cole on the north, 7th on the east, 9th on west and Delmar on the south. Delmar between Broadway and 14th Street was renamed Convention Plaza to reflect its new role as the entry to the Cervantes Convention Center.
Six years later the city was ready to consider an expansion of the facility and in July 1989 ground was broken on the expansion to the south. This expansion required the closing of two blocks of Convention Plaza and Lucas Avenue. In May 1993 the south expansion was complete the complex was renamed America’s Center. The expanded facility now fronted on Washington Avenue as we see it today. Combined with the Edward Jones Dome (formerly TWA dome) the entire complex now occupies 12 city blocks.
For nearly 17 years now Convention Plaza, the once busy street in front of the convention center, has been a road to nowhere. For all these years the street heads east toward the blank side of America’s Center.
The photo at right shows Convention Plaza between 9th & 11th Streets. The vertical street in the center is 10th Street while the big object on the far right is the convention center.
Convention Plaza is wide —- 60 feet from curb to curb. It includes four driving lanes plus a center turn lane. No parking is permitted on the street. This is a lot of potential volume for a street that doesn’t do much or go anywhere to speak of.
10th Street is one-way heading south and 11th is one-way heading north. 9th is one-way northbound from Convention Plaza north and two-way south of Convention Plaza. Here is a Google Map of the area.
None of the buildings adjacent to the street have entrances facing Convention Plaza. To the west the old Globe-Democrat building has loading docks and parking garage entrances. All in all this three block section looks pretty dismal.
By contrast 10th Street (one-way southbound) is a mere 30 feet wide curb to curb between the two big surface parking lots. Here the street has one row of on-street parking and two travel lanes. 10th Street’s two travel lane receive traffic from I-70 into downtown while Convention Plaza gets the occasional car by comparison.
Oddly this area, part of the 7th Ward,
wasn’t included in the recent Downtown Access, Circulation and Traffic Study. An area left behind.
Ideally I’d like to see new construction on the blocks where we now have all the unsightly surface parking. This could create new uses for Convention Plaza.
In the meantime the city should be allowing parking on this unnecessarily wide street. We are losing money by not having parking meters in this area. We are not getting all the revenue we should plus it makes an area two short blocks from our emerging Washington Avenue look desolate.
And while we are at it we should the name of these five blocks (9th to 14th) back to Delmar.
– Steve
I guess the thinking in the 1980’s was different than today. When Denver built their “new” convention center in the ’80’s, they took out California Street, much like St. Louis did here. When they recently doubled the size of the Colorado Convention Center, they built over Stout Street (actually relocated both the traffic lanes and the light rail line and maintained a through street + constructed a new light rail station inside the expanded convention center to replace two on-street stops). My guess is if this were being done here today, things would be done differently.
The real challenge here isn’t the lack of on-street parking, it’s the lack of a public face on the west (and north) side of the convention center. Adding on-street parking may generate a little bit more revenue and give people a few more cheap (compared to private lots) places to park, but it won’t revitalize the area. What’s really needed is “real”, inviting public access into the west side of the center. Then there will be a reason for the hotels, restaurants, strip clubs(?) and parking garages to be built along Convention Center Drive to serve the needs of conventioneers . . .
[REPLY – I’m not familiar with the Denver example. I know in KC they built their convention center over the highway. Same is true in Seattle.
Agreed on the blank face of the west side of the convention center and lack of other activities. My request for on-street parking most certainly would not revitalize the area. It would, as you say, provide relatively cheap parking. For evening events after 7pm it would be good free parking.
Having people coming and going from their cars would create an activity in an area otherwise lacking anything. This would make the area safer and increase its perception as a valid part of downtown.
Metered on-street parking for three blocks is a no brainer. It takes almost no effort or cost. It would be a good first step that might lead to the owners of those vacant blocks to consider putting up new buildings. – SLP]
Nice post, Steve.
Recall also that the office buildings in this area were built as part of the Convention Plaza West redevelopment. By the early 1980s, the former urban fabric of this area, along with the historic street names Delmar and Frankling, had been totally obliterated.
Through traffic in this area now uses Cole Street, a wide barrier deliberately placed to discourage pedestrians from entering downtown from the north.
Meanwhile, the office buildings have outlived their usefulness to the banking industry, and have instead been acquired by government and non-profit interests like St Louis Public Schools and the United Way. Apparently, these institutions are run by people who like the idea of being in a pseudo-suburban isolated office park setting. Until just a few years ago, both were housed in remuddled historic buildings on Locust and Olive, respectively.
Who would use on-street parking if it was in place on this stretch of Convention Plaza? There are no real street-level activity centers. If something was built on the parking lots, maybe. But that won’t happen unless development really spills over from Washington.
Basically, this district was deliberately isolated from neighborhoods to the north by the widening of Cole; and inadvertantly isolated from the rest of downtown by the widening of Convention Plaza and the demolition of buildings along the south side of Convention.
[REPLY – Yes, those office buildings are dreadful and the street grid was trashed.
Who would use the on-street parking? Well, I would and so would others visiting nearby businesses like Mosaic and KitchenK. On First Friday’s it can be tough to find a place to park yet we’ve got this massive street sitting vacant. – SLP]
I walk through this area every day on my way to and from work. I have to say that I dread it. On the way to work, crossing Cole — a ridiculously overwide street itself — takes me from reasonably pleasant Columbus Square to the worst part of downtown. I hate the walk down 10th Street through the hideous buildings and vacant land, and often dream of the sorts of businesses I’d love to see along the way to work (newsstand, diner, bookstore, etc.). There is enough room around some of the buildings to build slipcover additions that could add street-level retail and provide more energetic facades.
On the way home from work in winter, that area is dark and lonely. I walk as fast as I can — who would see anything going down there? It’s a dead zone.
Convention Plaza/Delmar never has more than a handful of cars. While crossing Cole can be an ordeal, when I get to equally-wide Convention Plaza I almost always can walk right across no matter what signal shows.
I would also use metered parking along Convention Plaza. While it will take a lot of investment to create a nice urban environment in this part of downtown, if people were parking there at night on their way to places on Washington, that would help make the area safer.
Even in my lifetime, at least one good building stood on the stretch of Convention Plaza that Steve describes: a cool five-story art-deco office building at 915 Convention Plaza that was wrecked in 1994. (More information:
http://www.buildingmuseum.org/recovery/project_delmar_915.asp)
That building was a bright spot in this desolate area. I have no idea who tore it down, but I suspect it may have something to do with the city’s desire at the time to “reserve” the two blocks of parking for future convention center expansion. Does anyone know if that dumb plan still exists?
[REPLY – Thanks for the comments & link. What a stunning building. I find it interesting that the two cars in front of the building are parked on the public sidewalk.
I had no idea those two blocks were part of a potential convention expansion plan. Given the convention business these days I can’t see that happening. Although I can hear the “leaders” now — “we need to expand the convention center once again to be able to attract larger conventions.” We’ve been paying for that logic for some time now. – SLP]