Downtown Gets Yet Another Plaza

Today (4/3/09) at 4pm Mayor Slay will officially open The Old Post Office Plaza. This is more open space in a downtown with too much open space but not enough quality urban public space.  And though it may look like it, this plaza is not public.

This 3/4-acre plaza is owned, not by the city, but Downtown Now/The Partnership for Downtown St. Louis.  The plaza is to the North of the Old Post Office, across Locust between 8th & 9th (map).

Don’t confuse this new private plaza with the private plaza one block East, that unused plaza will soon become another parking garage.

The plaza is considered a key piece of the emerging Old Post Office Square, which includes the renovated Old Post Office building across the street at 815 Olive St. and Roberts Brothers Properties’ planned $70 million, 24-story residential tower adjacent to the Roberts-owned Mayfair Hotel at Locust and Eighth streets. (source, August 2007)

The plaza’s designers, BSN Architects of Toronto, describe the project:

The winner of an invited architectural competition, this new public Plaza celebrates the adjacent historic Old Post Office of St. Louis and actively engages the surrounding urban form.  A dramatic three dimensional armature is proposed to provide substantive user amenity and involve the public in the unfolding urban drama of the revitalized downtown. Its morphology incorporates surrounding built features into a dynamic stage for public life inspired by an operatic interpretation of the myth of Daedalus and Icarus.

Yes, some architects actually talk like that.

A year ago the project hit a snag which delayed completion:

In August 2008 construction was well underway:

A couple of days ago it now looked like:

As you can see it is mostly a hard surface plaza.  This, I believe, is appropriate for an urban context.  Except for the fact we already have the Arch grounds, Kiener Plaza, Gateway Mall, Baer Plaza, etc…  We need less open space to help create more urban space.  This block, like all the others, used to be filled with buildings.

When it came time to renovate the Old Post Office a 2nd time, the need for immediately adjacent parking was cited by potential tenants.  So although this site existed to the North of the Old Post Office, we instead raze the marble-clad Century Building which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Some said a garage could not be built on this site.  I say BS.

Hardscape plazas can be interesting.  No doubt Dundas Square (Wikipedia, map) in Toronto was an inspiration:

Dundas Square is a wonderful urban space – very dynamic.  When I visited Toronto in July 2006 my hotel was just a couple of blocks away.  I saw the space on normal days as well as packed for a large annual event.

I haven’t been in the Old Post Office Plaza yet because it has been fenced off as construction was being completed.  I’m looking forward to experiencing the space this afternoon.  I did roll by along the sidewalk on the South edge:

It is shiny & new.  It is more interesting than the old collection of surface parking lots.  But from the outside looking in I could see (not see?) one glaring omission: bike parking.  Holding large events in a vibrant urban area naturally draws crowds on bikes.  Well designed spaces make sure cyclists have a place to secure their bikes.  Such was the case at Dundas Square:

Yet this new $8 million + facility doesn’t have a single bike rack that I could see.  I guess everyone is expected to drive to the plaza to help justify the garage that replaced the historic Century Building?

The ribbon cutting is 4pm today with activities this weekend.

Mayoral Candidates Make Their Case at Debate

Three of the four candidates for St. Louis Mayor participated in a 90 minute debate before a large crowd at the St. Louis Public Library last evening (3/30/09).  I was in the front row for the event, Twittering (@UrbanReviewSTL) the entire time.  The Libertarian candidate didn’t show!

I briefly talked with Mayor Francis Slay, Elston McCowan and Maida Coleman prior to the debate and again immediately following the debate.  I gave all three to tell the voters why we should vote for them on Tuesday April 7, 2009.  This video is under 2 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTjxIDBww0I

The election is a week from today.

A few readers introduced themselves to me at the event. I always enjoy meeting my audience so if you see me somewhere be sure to say hello.

Catching Up, A Potpourri of Topics

You go away for nine days and you miss stuff.  Plus I had some major technical issues for a week. Adjusting to the time changes from the West coast and central time zones has not been easy.

The following is a potpourri of topics:

Ballpark Village softball field and parking lot:

OK, I was back for this exciting news.  Where we thought we were going to have a mixed use village we will instead have a softball field and a surface parking lot.  I understand the economic conditions today but this dragging started years ago.  Current conditions are simply a cover.  It has been said this solution is temporary for the July All-Star game.  My guess is it will still be there a decade from now.

Treasurer’s Office and the Post Office:

Parking revenue contractor ACS forgot to pay the Post Office $53 for a P. O. Box so hundreds of payments got sent to a dead letter office.  Thus, payments people had mailed in were not received.  Not good.

Graffiti downtown:

The vacant building across the street from my loft got tagged with graffiti on three floors.

This was a project started by the now defunct Pyramid Construction.

Madoff:

Organizer of the biggest scam on Wall Street is finally in jail.  Yesterday his accountant was arrested on charges of fraud for rubber stamped audits.  Many more folks had to have been part of the ponzi scheme.

Natasha Richardson:

Actress Natasha Richardson died as a result of a head injury from a ski accident.  Richardson had bleeding between her brain and skull.  13 months ago I had a stint to drain bloody fluid from my brain after my stroke.  We can’t walk around wearing helmets  but after deaths like this we may want to consider it.  Certainly when bicycling, riding a scooter or other such activity please be sure to wear a helmet.  Story on CNN.

Economy:

Newspapers ceasing print.  More layoffs.  Bankruptcies abound.  AIG pays bonuses.  Earmarks are demonized while bigger budget items go undebated.

Software & Hardware:

On my second day of my vacation my blog encountered major issues.  The problem was hard to pinpoint.  All is well now.  In a weird way I’m sorta glad I couldn’t post new posts.  It gave me more freedom to enjoy my vacation.  At least until the last day.  I took over 1,100 photos and I backed them all up to Flickr as soon as I pulled them off my camera.  Good thing too because the hard drive on my Mac notebook (12″ G4) gave out.  I have some good video clips I hope to recover.

Lucas Park in 2009

Last Fall many of us downtown began working on cleaning up Lucas Park. Through the winter the work continued in the form of planning improvements to be accomplished this year.

The city has already removed four unhealthy trees from the park.  Replacements are planned.  Sixth ward Alderman Kacie Starr Triplett has submitted a request for the upcoming budget for improvements.  But much work will still be done through sweat equity.

To facilitate getting the word out about meetings and work days I’ve created Lucas Park Announcements, a Google Groups announcement list. Anyone can join the list but only a few can send out notices so the number of emails will be minimal.  If you’d like to stay informed about upcoming work days, meetings or other events related to Lucas Park visit groups.google.com/group/lucasparkannounce.  There you can sign up to receive emails or subscribe to the group’s RSS feed.

As I’m still having some server issues when commenting the comments are closed on this post until the issues are fully resolved.

‘Project HERO’ Gets Cold Reception

The former Days Inn motel at Tucker & Washington Ave underwent a $14 million dollar renovation recently and it emerged as the Washington Ave Apartments with 94 units.

St. Patrick’s Center, a provider of services to the homeless, is working with the city and Veteran’s Affairs to rent 45 of the units to homeless vets.

Many downtown residents are upset they were not included in the planing before it went forward. More than 20 formerly homeless vets have been residents in the building since June 2008.

It is true many of the homeless vets have addiction issues. But would we prefer they be sleeping in our parks and doorways?

A participant must:

• Be an honorably discharged veteran. Men only.
• Undergo weekly drug testing.
• Pay 30 percent of income toward rent and utilities.
• Not possess alcohol on premises.
• Not have violent crime or sex offense convictions.
• Do daily morning check-ins in person or by phone with a staff member of St. Patrick Center.
• Not have overnight guests unless it is the tenant’s minor child.
• Leave his Project HERO apartment after a maximum of two years.

About the building:

• Key card access 24 hours a day to track who is coming and going.
• Security cameras in hallways and common areas.
• No loitering outside the building. A courtyard not visible from the street is available for tenants. The building also has a community room and free use of laundry facilities.
• Apartments come with kitchens. There are no communal meals.
• A St. Patrick Center employee lives in the building.
• Frequent and random visits by a case manager, which includes a check for alcohol and drugs and proper upkeep of apartments.

I personally welcome this as a means of providing housing to those in need who are trying to rebuild their lives. I do agree it should have been handled more openly. The risk, of course, is that if it had been more open it might have gotten squashed.

I’m glad to see the building being occupied. The tiny apartments were not leasing too well so these men may be the perfect tenants. These units can be a good first step to getting these men back on their feet and part of society.

The important thing is not not stigmatize the building or corner. To a degree these is no different than when a black family would move to a formerly all white street. People jumped up and down and talked about a drop in property values. The drop in values came as a result of the panicked selling cheap so they could flee mixing with someone outside their comfort zone.

I’m going to take a wait and see approach. I already like seeing ligts on in the building at night and increased foot traffic in the area. To me this will be 45 more working residents adding to the mix downtown. It will be more users of transit. The potential positives outweigh the potential negatives. So guys, I’m glad to have you as a neighbor! Welcome to downtown.