Biondi Razes Public Housing Building for Open Space

Don’t get excited folks, this is old news. Actually, it is more than 15 years old.  I was doing some research on the St. Louis Housing Authority and came across an interesting story that given the recent news about expansion of the law school I thought I’d share.
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch March 15, 1992:

On Thursday, the Cochran Tenant Management Corporation, which [Bertha] Gilkey heads, submitted to the St. Louis Housing Authority a plan to buy one of its buildings that St. Louis University had wanted. The plan does not list a purchase price. Gilkey says she wants to turn University House into a cultural center as part of an education and training program she wants to offer to dysfunctional families at Cochran. University House, at 215 North Spring Avenue, is about three miles from Cochran, a public housing complex just north of downtown. Other parts of the program would operate out of a privately owned apartment complex near Cochran that Gilkey is negotiating to buy. Sources who did not want to be identified believe that Gilkey could be using her right under federal law to buy University House as a bargaining chip with St. Louis University to get its help with her family program. The university could be instrumental in starting an alternative education program for children in public housing, Gilkey said.

At the time Gilkey was trying to purchase the then vacant Neighborhood Gardens apartment complex adjacent to Cochran Gardens, the “privately owned” complex mentioned above. Neighorhood Gardens, architecturally very interesting, was recently renovated. Given how that vacant complex was next to Cochran Gardens it made sense to work togther but I am not so sure her plans for the building on Spring at Laclede would have been logistically feasible. For now I will assume that it would work and that transportation would not be an issue.

From Jerry Berger’s Post-Dispatch column in June 1992, just months after the building dispute started with Gilkey competing with Biondi:

Biondi wants to extend the malls on the Frost Campus by closing off West Pine Boulevard between Vandeventer and Spring and closing off Spring Avenue between Lindell and Laclede. He also envisions an outdoor amphitheater and a significant monument consisting of a bell tower and fountain at the intersection of West Pine and Spring. Removing asphalt on Grand Boulevard to allow the construction of a sculpture park. The university is quietly seeking a 6- to 10-foot sculpture as the park’s anchor. (Are you listening, Laumeier Sculpture Park’s Beej Nierengarten-Smith?) Sources close to Biondi say he is hoping alumni and benefactors of the university will dig deep into their pockets to finance the projects.

Does that say “removing asphalt on Grand Boulevard” for a sculpture park? Yes, yes it does. I can’t even think about that one right now. The main point of the above quote is that Biondi wanted to close off both West Pine and Spring and without control of the University House at the coner of these two streets he’d be out of luck, most likely. Gilkey’s plan, if you recall, would require transporting some people back and forth from the Cochran complex. Closed streets would certainly make transporting individuals more complex.

With no agreement between Biondi and Gilkey, a lawsuit was filed to help SLU & Biondi. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch October 1, 1992:

St. Louis and its housing authority filed suit Wednesday to block a tenant management group from getting a 13-story building the city wants to sell to St. Louis University. The suit seeks to force the Department of Housing and Urban Development to sell the vacant University House, 215 North Spring Avenue, to the university. The suit was filed in federal court. On Monday, HUD tentatively approved selling University House to the Cochran Tenant Management Corp., headed by Bertha Gilkey. That organization runs Cochran Gardens housing complex north of downtown.

Mayor Vincent C. Schoemehl Jr. accused HUD secretary Jack Kemp of making a ”political payoff” to Gilkey, whom Kemp frequently refers to as a model public housing manager. ”This is an irresponsible use of power on the part of Jack Kemp and his millions of minions,” Schoemehl said. The Rev. Lawrence J. Biondi, president of St. Louis University, said he was ”completely frustrated and outraged” by HUD’s decision to prefer Gilkey’s bid. ”We will be left with an abandoned and decaying building in the heart of our campus and our community outreach programs will not all be housed in one convenient location,” Biondi said. Joseph G. Schiff, an assistant HUD secretary in Washington, responded: ”If Vince Schoemehl would spend more time improving the St. Louis Housing Authority and less time on needless partisan bickering and ridiculous lawsuits, the taxpayers of America would be better served.” …St. Louis University has been trying to get the 19-year-old building since the Housing Authority closed it in 1987. Gilkey has proposed a cultural and education center for families in public housing. The building once housed elderly people.

So in October 1992 SLU President Biondi wants to ensure their community outreach programs will all be in one location. The next day the Post-Dispatch reported that, “The university wants the building for offices and community programs.”  Well, that sounds good but in reality Biondi likely figured that if Gilkey got her cultural and education center it would mess up his plans.

Gee, was anything else going on in October 1992? Say, a presidential re-election campaign for Bush Sr. against some Governor of Arkansas? Could Kemp have been trying to help Bush get the black vote in St. Louis by siding with Gilkey? As we all know, Clinton made Bush a one-term President which meant Jack Kemp was out as HUD Secretary.
Besides the Presidential election of 1992 the mayor would elect its first African-American Mayor, Freeman Bosley, Jr., in March 1993. Geez, a new HUD Secretary under Clinton and a new mayor, would this help Gilkey? Nope! From the July 21, 1993 Post-Dispatch:

Bertha Gilkey, who failed in her bid to buy the 13-story, vacant University House, said Tuesday that she would sue the St. Louis Housing Authority and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in federal court to reverse the transfer of the building to the university.

Well, we could see that coming. I’m not sure if she sued or not but SLU got the building.  Back to the July 21, 1993 article:

The building, with 201 apartments that had been for elderly public housing residents, is on the west side of Spring Avenue just south of Lindell Boulevard. The university is turning that block, the block to the south of it and Pine Street between Spring and Vandeventer Avenue into a pedestrian mall. Victor De La Cruz, executive director of the St. Louis Housing Authority, said Tuesday that the agency had complied with federal procedures in the matter. “Our position does not change,” he said. The transfer was completed Friday, said the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, university president. He said he did not expect Gilkey’s plans to delay the mall’s completion. He said the university would raze the dilapidated building in four to six weeks.

What!?! Raze the building? Back in October SLU President Fr. Biondi wanted to ensure all their community outreach programs would be in a single convenient location! I guess Biondi conveniently found another location for the programs once the University House building was transferred to him — I mean to SLU.

The July 21, 1993 article continues on Biondi’s plans:

The university started working on the mall in May, closing Spring Avenue between Laclede Avenue and Lindell. The area will be transformed into a “contemplative park” that will include a lighted walking space, a 50-foot clock tower, a 10-tier amphitheater with waterfall, a fountain and sculptures. Biondi said that eventually, the university would complete its plan to define the school’s boundaries by closing West Pine Boulevard at Vandeventer Avenue.

A “contemplative park?”  Oh please, with all those ‘neked’ bronze statues around campus who can contemplate anything the Jesuits would approve.  Biondi got his street closings, clock tower, waterfall & fountain in addition to the sculptures.   I was not and am not a fan of the street closings but I get the “campus” logic.  What I don’t get is the razing of a building only 20 years old, most likely with a fine structure.
The Post-Dispatch has an editorial supporting SLU in the August 2, 19993 edition:

The St. Louis Housing Authority has given St. Louis University control of University House, a vacant public housing building on Spring Avenue near Lindell Boulevard. The university intends to demolish the structure and turn the block into a pedestrian mall. It might seem unconscionable to raze the building when this community has a waiting list of people needing decent housing. But the transfer can be justified in that it offers long-term benefits to public housing tenants.

As part of the transfer, the university promises to set up an $840,000 endowment for scholarships to be awarded over the next century to students who live in public housing. It also promises to help public housing managers develop and expand their business skills, and it will encourage public housing residents to make use of counseling and education clinics offered by the university. Though this transfer holds promise, it shouldn’t be regarded as a precedent.

There certainly should be concern over the fact that public housing is being demolished without being replaced.  Ordinarily, the federal government would require the construction of an equal number of public housing units to replace the 201 that will be lost when the 13-story University House is demolished. However, the federal government made an exception in this case. 

I intend to find out the current status of these scholorships and the rest of SLU’s promises.

The 201 units of public housing lost when the building was razed in 1993 is a bit dramatic, they were really lost six years earlier in 1987 when the St. Louis Housing Authority shuttered the building.  But that takes me back to one sentence from the Post-Dispatch from October 1, 1992; “St. Louis University has been trying to get the 19-year-old building since the Housing Authority closed it in 1987.”  What are the chances that Biondi helped make sure the housing authority, with members appointed by Mayor Schoemehl, decide the fate of the then 14-year old building housing elderly residents?  I think closing the University House was part of a long-term plan for Biondi.  When did he become President?  Oh yes, 1987 — the same year the Housing Authority closed the University House public housing building.  Schoemehl is now the head of Grand Center, Inc. which works closely with Fr. Biondi.

Returning to 2007 we have the current issue of SLU razing an old mansion for the law school expansion (see my post).  Architect Paul Hohmann has done some more research this latest issue, for his report see Vanishing STL.