Suburban Office Park Buildings Don’t Belong Downtown

The building on the NW corner of 10th & Convention Plaza (formerly Delmar) is better suited for a suburban office park.

The mirrored glass, generic design, parking out front (39 spaces) was commonplace in 1987, the year the building was built.  Located one block north of Washington Ave., this building is a good example of how wrong we went in downtown St. Louis.

When built the convention center, one block east, was just 10 years old.  Convention Plaza led to the entrance at the time, the entry was pushed out to Washington Ave in the early 1990s.

This building, once considered the future, is now part of one horrible suburban pocket adjacent to the good part of downtown.  This building will be 25 years old next year but I can’t see the owners planning a new skin or something to infill the large corner parking lot.  Without a strong effort to fix past mistakes, this section of downtown will remain dead.

– Steve Patterson

Signs of Hope Along St. Louis’ Dr. Martin Luther King Drive

This is my seventh year writing on Dr. Martin Luther King Day.  Every year, except 2008 I have looked at the St. Louis road named Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, in 2008 I looked at the issue of race.

Here are links to each of the prior posts:

• 2005
• 2006
• 2007 (1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5, 5/5)
• 2008
• 2009
• 2010 (1/3, 2/3, 3/3)

Today we will start at Tucker (12th) and work our way West.

The two buildings above are part of the Dick Gregory Place project.  This building is the NE corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. and Marcus Ave.

The back of the above building. located just west of Union, is nearly gone.  I don’t expect to see this building next year, but I’ve thought that the last couple of years.

From Multi-Family Housing News this past October:

Construction has started on the Arlington Grove residential redevelopment project in north St. Louis. When complete it will include 112 mixed-income rental units in garden apartments, townhouse and semi-detached housing, along with a new mixed-use building and rehabilitation of the historic Arlington Elementary School. All together, the redevelopment will total 162,000 square feet of residential space and 5,000 square feet of commercial space.

The school renovation will include 21 apartments. The rest of the Arlington Grove’s residential space will be 91 new-construction townhomes and garden apartments. All of the units are designed to meet mandatory Enterprise Green Communities (EGC) criteria as required by the Capital Fund Recovery Competition (CFRC) grant, a stimulus-related grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that helped pay for the $41 million development. (full story)

Foundation work on the new construction on the placement looks good from an urban perspective. I will report more on this later this year as well as on Martin Luther King Day 2012.

I say it every year but it is going to take a major transportation infrastructure project (modern streetcar or even a BRT line) to make MLK Dr a desirable enough street to bring back the middle class.

Peace!

– Steve Patterson

PR: ‘Let Freedom Ring’ on Monday

The following is a press release:

—

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Christ Church Cathedral is hosting “Let Freedom Ring” — a daylong reading of his writings and speeches on Monday, January 17, 2010.
For the second consecutive year, the Nave of the Cathedral (13th and Locust, across from the Central Library) will be open from 9 am through 5 pm for the reading, which will be accompanied by a visual display of pictures of the civil rights leader. The public is invited both to come and listen and also to take part in the reading. There is no admission charge.
Leaders have been assigned for half-hour reading shifts, but anyone in attendance is invited to be part of the reading as well by coming to the lectern and indicating they wish to take over for a time. Whenever they wish to stop, someone will be ready to take their place.
“Like scripture, Dr. King’s words don’t just have meaning for the generation in which they were written, but new meaning for every generation,” says the Very Rev. Mike Kinman, provost of Christ Church Cathedral. “We’re hoping people will come and let these words just wash over them and also participate in reading them. Whether people come for 10 minutes, an hour or all day we want to provide chance for everyone to hear these words, let them re-enter our consciousness and continue to form us today.”
“Dr. King embodied the deepest tradition of our faith being a balance of reflection and action. There are many wonderful opportunities for action in our communities. We are providing an opportunity for reflection to inform our actions not just on this one day but every day.”
“We had a steady stream of people who came last year. A few stayed most of the day. Some came for an hour or two. Some just for a few minutes. Many of them talked about how moving it was not just to hear Dr. King’s words but to have the chance to speak them as well.”
This is the second year Christ Church Cathedral has offered this observance. You can hear the story local NPR affiliate KWMU did on it last year at http://tindeck.com/listen/xjtv.
Please address all questions and requests to the Very Rev. Mike Kinman at mkinman@gmail.com or 314.348.6453.
#30#

Changes Coming To Macy’s In The Railway Exchange

Macy’s currently occupies the first six floors of the 21-story Railway Exchange Building.

The department store plans to consolidate into the lower three floors.  Macy’s contains two restaurants, Papa Fabares on the 2nd floor and The St. Louis Room on the 6th, but you need to know about them because you won’t find any information on their website:

The store is still listed as “St. Louis Centre” for the former mall to the north being rebuilt as a parking garage with street-level retail.

Papa Fabares takes you back in time and the French Onion Soup is the signature item.  I don’t see this restaurant going anywhere when Macy’s consolidates.

The 6th Floor St. Louis Room, however, will be a casualty since this floor will no longer be a part of Macy’s.

I’m unsure what will happen to the pedestrian walkway over Olive to the parking garage.  Most months when I go to a regular lunch meeting at the St. Louis Room I just use my wheelchair to travel the 10 blocks to the store, but a few times I will drive my car and then the pedestrian bridge is handy in bad weather.

The pedestrian bridge connects at the 4th floor of the Railway Exchange Building, one above Macy’s after consolidation.  It is butt ugly and should go but the sidewalk level disabled entrance faces 6th Street, not Olive.   Removing the bridge might present some ADA access issues.  I’m torn, the urbanist in me says the bridge needs to go but the disabled me says it is handy.

– Steve Patterson

Car Blocked Hydrant On 9th At Olive

Recently I posted about an illegally parked city vehicle (City Employee Parks City Vehicle Next To Fire Hydrant) but many of you felt it was a non-issue.  The car wasn’t that close to the hydrant and the curb wasn’t painted yellow.  The other night I saw a clear example.

No question this car is blocking the fire hydrant. But no, the red Mazda RX8 isn’t a city-owned vehicle.  This illegally parked car belongs to an on-duty police officer!

Yes, I called the police non-emergency number to report the vehicle. I also reported this to Charles Bryson, Director of Public Safety. I doubt the officer got a ticket.

– Steve Patterson