New Washington Avenue East streetscape falls short of expectations

Firms are paid big money to design & build new streetscapes. Unfortunately, logic doesn’t always seem to be important. Just check out the image to the right.

The facing benches have a great view of the trash can!

I have no idea if the exact placement of these items were on the part of the design firm or the general contractor but someone fucked up. It is my understanding the trash cans are being relocated. But, were they designed this way and properly installed by the contractor? Will the city end up agreeing to a change order and additional costs? Who knows?

Local firm, CDG Engineers, was responsible for the design of the $2.5 million improvements for Phase Two. While site improvements are listed on their web site most of their work seems to involve major industry. But, for the most part I think they’ve done a good job.

Arnold firm Kozeny-Wagner was the general contractor on Phase Two as well as the previous improvements of Phase One on Washington Avenue from Tucker (12th) to 18th.

For more information on the Phase One improvements on Washington Avenue check out this summary on Saint Louis Front Page. For very detailed information including plans, cross sections and design guidelines click here.



Back to Phase Two…

The stainless steel object between the bench and trash can is a bike rack which can hold two bikes. While I prefer a basic inverted-U rack, these should be OK. I’m happy to see bike racks included since they were not on the new Delmar streetscape.

The basic idea is to run your u-lock or chain through the loop and then through your wheel & frame. Unlike the inverted-u racks used on Phase I of Washington Ave, these provide no support to keep the bike from falling over in the wind.

Given the location of the racks, you’d need to have your rear wheel toward the curb and the front wheel toward the walking area – not a big deal. But, it looks as though front wheels will be protruding into the walking space – a big deal. This is probably a compromise so the racks would be installed in the concrete portion of the sidewalk rather than the brick paver portion.

Furthermore, the racks are too close to the benches in nearly every case. If both sides of the rack are being used (and hopefully they will be) and your bike is closest to the bench you are going to have a hard time getting in their to unlock your bike, place your panniers on your bike and get going. In some cases the racks are not only close to the benches but also to the street trees. Again, someone fucked up.

I’m not sure who, if anyone, reviews these plans for functionality. It is probably like when I was in architecture school – people are usually so impressed with pretty drawings they don’t see the mistakes until they are built (if then). Beautiful drawings do wonders for concealing flawed thinking. Desire for newness also outweighs critical analysis.

Downtown Now’s Tom Reeves was quoted in a St. Louis Business Journal story about the improvements:

Sorry Tom, despite the attractive benches, street trees and brick pavers this area will not be as pedestrian-friendly as hoped.

Why you ask?

Lack of on-street parking.

Someone made the foolish decision to not have parking on Washington Avenue East of Tucker. This decision is going to have a negative impact on the friendliness of the street by having four lanes of fast moving traffic going by you.

The street will seem dead – parked cars have an amazing ability to indicate that something is going on. Can you imagine sitting on one of those benches near the curb line knowing cars, SUVs & buses are going to be whizzing by just a few feet away? Not me!

As a result, these blocks will not be as successful as the blocks to the West. Just imagine the Loop without on-street parking and four lanes of traffic. Yes, you could get through during rush hour much easier but that shouldn’t be the goal. Think of Euclid without street parking – it would be boring and lifeless.

Expecting to have a successful urban retail street without on-street parking is simply naive. Sure, Chicago’s Michigan Avenue doesn’t have on-street parking but it is an exception rather than the rule. This is so basic a principle it makes me continue to wonder if anyone at City Hall or Downtown Now get what urban life is all about.

This is likely the fault of city traffic engineers or perhaps Downtown Now. Could just be a lack of thought – these blocks didn’t have on-street parking before the improvements. Maybe it was just assumed the parking & traffic lanes would be the same? However it came to be, it is unfortunate. Traffic moving faster is always contrary to pedestrian-friendly.

The good news is this is reversible. Re-stripe the street and install some parking meters and the life of the street will improve dramatically. Plus, this reduces the need for ugly parking lots and garages. But, I’m not optimistic the city will wake up and realize the folly of this mistake.

On-street parking should be immediately added to Washington Avenue from Tucker all the way East to Eads Bridge – in front of every building including the Convention Center and the Convention Hotel. If it were up to me we’d have on-street parking on every street in the region.

One thing I do like about these new improvements is the simplicity of the design. To my eye, the Phase One improvements between Tucker & 18th are too contrived and overdone. Heavily patterned street & sidewalk pavers, street lights that look much better than the light they provide and gimmicks like a zipper motif in the street are simply not necessary. But, despite the excessive aesthetics in Phase One they got the basics of pedestrian-friendly right. Phase Two has the more restrained aesthetics I prefer but they missed the necessary elements to make it pedestrian-friendly.

– Steve