Great buildings have been built in the worst of economic times
Last week AIA St. Louis noted Radio City Music Hall opened this week during the Great Depression (Dec. 27, 1932). Like our current situation with the stalled Ballpark Village project, plans for the site were stalled due to the economic conditions.
When the stock market crashed in 1929, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. held a $91 million, 24-year lease on a piece of midtown Manhattan property properly known as “the speakeasy belt.” Plans to gentrify the neighborhood by building a new Metropolitan Opera House on the site were dashed by the failing economy and the business outlook was dim. Nevertheless, Rockefeller made a bold decision that would leave a lasting impact on the city’s architectural and cultural landscape. He decided to build an entire complex of buildings on the property-buildings so superior that they would attract commercial tenants even in a depressed city flooded with vacant rental space. The project would express the highest ideals of architecture and design and stand as a symbol of optimism and hope. (Source: Radio City Music Hall)
Rockefeller saw the need to react and devised a new development strategy.
Photo by Steve Patterson, November 2001
St. Louis is lacking leaders with the courage to change direction in the face of adversity.  We need people to build lasting quality. If the St. Louis Cardinals had political & financial pressure on them the Ballpark Village site would be platted for others to begin developing it piece by piece.
Photo by Steve Patterson, November 2001
I’ve seen one show inside Radio City, the interior is stunning.
I simply don’t buy the argument Ballpark Village isn’t happening because of the 2009 economy. The massive project was announced in the Fall of 2006.
12/1/2008: The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy. (source; CNN Money)
The Cardinals & Cordish had a year before the downturn started to get the project off the ground. It didn’t happen because the entertainment district concept is not a sound investment. The economy is an excuse to cover for a failed development concept.
- Steve Patterson
