6th Street Facade of One Financial Building is Retail Ready

In November I suggested that Stifel missed an opportunity for good urbanism by putting a sculpture at Broadway & Washington corner of their building, One Financial, rather than corner a corner retail space. Here’s how the corner looks now:

I finished that post with “They can still create an active corner on the west side, at 6th — facing MetroLink.” I still wish something more active was on the front corner, but the 6th Street side is made for retail.

I’m very aware there’s already lots of vacant retail space available, but this large space in One Financial has great visibility at a corner busy with locals and visitors: location, location, location! Retailers looking for the right space are going to hire a commercial broker to search listings to find the right location, it it’s not listed they’re not going to consider it.

I’d much rather see a “retail space for lease” sign than closed office blinds. Stifel needs to relocate anyone in this space to another floor in the building and get this space on the market.

— Steve Patterson

Temporary ADA Ramp At Park Pacific, Final Wood Ramp Planned

In August I posted about An Infuriatingly Avoidable Accessibility Issue while trying to visit Art Saint Louis + Mississippi Mud, shared tenants at the Park Place building. Here are a couple of photos from that post:

I’ve been checking to see any change and finally the other day something was different: a temporary ramp. I snapped the following photo and continued.

I was told by a tenant employee the building’s owner, The Lawrence Group, is “curing wood” to be used for their final solution.  It’ll need to extend three times as far out to be ADA-compliant, the sides will also need to be sloped. This is necessary because the architects at The Lawrence Group forgot it was necessary to make this tenant space accessible as part of the $70 million dollar renovation of the building that opened in 2011.

Once I spot the next wood ramp in place I’ll check the slopes, take pics, and post again.

— Steve Patterson

2005 Locust Street: Photographic Inventor Miles Ainscough Seed Died A Century Ago

Just a few blocks west of my loft, a St. Louisan died 100 years ago. I enjoy these things because they send me on a chase looking for information and places to photograph.

Here’s what caught my attention back in February:

Manufacturer of the first x-ray plates Miles Ainscough Seed

Born February 24, 1843

Died December 14, 1913 [Note: Seed’s memorial on Find-A-Grave says he died ten days earlier, on December 4, 1013.]

Residence: The M.A. Seed Dry Plate Company worked from the building at 2005 Locust

Born in Preston, England, Miles Ainscough Seed came to St. Louis in 1865 to search out better scientific opportunities, and he began working in a photographic gallery. He worked in his spare time simplifying and the process for producing photographic negatives. He formed the M.A. Seed Dry Plate Company in St. Louis in 1882, and began to manufacture his new photographic dry plates and film. Among other innovations such a positive celluloid films and lantern slides, Seed produced the first dry plate sensitive enough to be used for x-rays and astronomical images. His company was extremely lucrative, and in 1902 he sold it to the Eastman Kodak Company of Rochester, New York. (STL250 on Facebook)

Ok, so maybe he died 100 years and 10 days ago. I did find some research on him but it uses Find-A-Grave as a reference on the date of death.  I’ll need to look up the death certificate to know for sure.

I did find information on the Miles A. Seed Carriage House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places around 1986:

The carriage house dates to the ownership of the property by Miles A. Seed, who acquired it in 1887 and retained ownership until 1910. Born in England in 1842, Seed began a career as a portrait photographer in St. Louis after the Civil War. By the early 1870s he began manufacturing photographic supplies, and in 1883 he incorporated the Miles A. Seed Dry Plate Company specifically to be located in the village of Woodland. Woodland was a train stop that gave its name to a diffuse community later to become the City of Jennings. It was an attractive location for the fabrication of photographic plates because of its clean air and pure water. The success of Seed Dry Plate caused the whole community to prosper. In its field the company rivaled George Eastman of Rochester, New York, and by 1902 the threat of ruinous competition with him led Seed Dry Plate to sell out. In 1913 operations were moved to Rochester, but by then Miles Seed had moved on to new endeavors in Westchester County, New York. (PDF)

Sadly the Queen Anne carriage house was razed sometime between 1986 and 2002.

— Steve Patterson

The Central Library Reopened One Year Ago

One  year ago our central library reopened after receiving a much-needed renovation:

The library closed almost three years ago for a $70-million renovation. The results of that work are now open to the public, and the 190,000-square-foot building is the most gorgeous — and usable — library I have ever seen.

The 1912 Beaux Arts building, which takes a full city block, was originally designed by Cass Gilbert, who also designed the U.S. Supreme Court. Andrew Carnegie provided the seed money — part of his campaign to build 1,600 libraries in America — and taxpayers provided the rest. (Washington Post)

The results were impressive, readers thought the library renovation was a good investment.

I haven’t spent as much time in the library as I thought I would, but I’m still impressed by the exterior lighting as I pass by it several nights per week. I need to see if anyone is operating the cafe inside, that would get me in the door more often. My fiancee is an avid reader, he’s used the library far more than I have.  In June I posted how the Central Library after hours book return is for motorists, not pedestrians.

What has been your experience over the last year?

— Steve Patterson

9th Street Crosswalk Now Visible, Shouldn’t Get Blocked Again

Not every crosswalk point in the city is marked with paint. Ninth Street at St. Charles St was such an example, a well-used point that was unmarked. Hotel guests cross here to reach the parking garage.  But unmarked crossing points can inadvertently get blocked by motorists.

The lane where the Golf is parked is has been marked as no parking for a long time, not sure why. On the morning of December 4th I met with traffic commissioner Steve Runde to discuss allowing parking on 9th, mentioning a crosswalk designation would be nice.  The following morning it was already done!

Should the crosswalk get blocked now it’ll be easier to get parking enforcement to issue a ticket. Once the parking meters get installed on 9th I’ll do another post.

Thanks to Steve Runde for listening and responding!

— Steve Patterson