The building I most want to see renovated

The City of St. Louis has hundreds, if not thousands, of beautiful urban buildings I’d like to see renovated.  Significant buildings like the Arcade/Wright downtown, among them.  But the one building I think I’d put at or near the top of my list is a 2-story building at the East end of Fountain Park (map):

In researching this story I found a few posts from friends.  Matt Mourning observed on July 6, 2008, “The pleasant building seems to literally embrace the oblong Fountain Park that is its neighbor.” So true, the building was built before zoning existed yet it manages to do a spectacular job.  As cities write form-based codes they look at buildings like the above to see if it could be built under a new zoning code.  Our 1947-era zoning would not allow this fine building to be built today.  We need to do two things about that.  1) save this example of how to have a building relate to the sidewalk and adjacent area and 2) change our zoning to allow/encourage modern versions.

Matt’s post led me to Toby Weiss’ post from February 4, 2007 where she wrote:

It was built in 1897, with store fronts at ground level and apartments above. The building curves to match the geometry of the neighborhood, and the cylindrical turrets are like lyrical bookends. I immediately imagined decades of people lounging in these spaces, gazing out over the park, and it felt magical.

Magical indeed.  Whenever I’m in the vicinity of Fountain Park I take a spin past this building.  Toby linked to Robert Powers’ photo site, Built St. Louis. I scrolled down to the comments on Toby’s post and the first one was from me.  I had posted a link to a post I had done on this building in February 2005.  At the time I wrote:

The building curves to follow the street pattern. This is a lost art — most people just build square buildings these days. The composition of this building is one of the finest I’ve ever seen — anywhere. Seattle has nothing like it. Vancouver has great buildings downtown but their residential neighborhoods are a bit dull architecturally. Same for San Francisco, D.C., and most others. Scale, proportion, materials. All come together in a way that most newer buildings just don’t. This building just belongs – feeling perfectly at home with the adjacent houses. Rarely is a commercial building such a fit in a residential area.

Obviously I can see past the current condition. Hopefully you can too. The surrounding residences are being rehabbed and if someone is smart they’ll snap up this building and do a coffee house/deli/cafe/market on the ground floor. The sidewalk facing Fountain Park is just begging for outdoor dining. The old upstairs apartments would make great condos.

Only after we see past old racial lines and boards on windows will we fully realize the potential of our city. Good urbanity is colorblind.

I had a wide angle lens back then:

Two comments after mine on Toby’s blog was from yet another friend, Lisa Selligman. She wrote in February 2007:

The mixed-use castle on the corner, embracing the square with its turrets and archways, remained derelict, and I dreamed of buying it, restoring it, opening a coffee shop on the ground floor, with tables on the sidewalk filled with chattering customers. My studio on the second floor overlooked a renewed park with the fountain splashing in the distance.

As has been noted by others the building is actually two buildings joined by a brick wall.

The north structure is fine in its own right but the combination of the two it was make this corner of the city such a gem.

I am positively captivated by this building.

With several storefronts the options are many.  A coffee shop on the ground floor at the corner seems ideal.  Cafe tables and umbrellas out front.  Something modeled on Hartford Coffee or the original Kaldi’s.The reasons for this building to never be renovated are numerous: low adjacent values, perception of neighborhood by outsiders, current economy, etc.  I want the harder list — the ways in which this project can once again be occupied and be a part of a vibrant Fountain Park neighborhood.

– Steve Patterson

A Vintage Parking Garage

Downtown St. Louis has many parking garages, too many in fact.  Most are as bland as you’d expect a parking garage to be.

The curving exit ramp of the Macy’s garage at 6th & Pine (map link) is anything but bland.

One of the two Kiener Plaza garages are visible from the exit ramp of the Macy’s garage, above.

It is hard to sustain a vibrant downtown with so much real estate used for car storage.  We built garages to accommodate everyone coming downtown but in the process created a downtown less attractive to visitors.

I just hope nobody gets the idea to list one on the National Register of Historic Places.  Wait, the city likes to raze historic buildings so perhaps we should get all of them on the register.  That may be the only way to reduce their numbers.

– Steve Patterson

My Time in Old North St. Louis

In the Spring of 1991, at age 24, I moved to a 3-room flat on Sullivan Street.  It was quite a change from my first St. Louis apartment on Lindell.

My place was the one with the green shutters over the front door/transom (right edge). The four unit building didn’t have indoor plumbing when first built — my tiny bathroom had been built into a corner of the middle room.  The only sink was in the kitchen.  My rent in 1991 was $50/month, a fraction of the $330/month of the studio on Linedell.

In those days I’d talk with many neighbors after arson fires.  These fires were numerous too.  I’d go out later to check out another building lost to fire.

There were so many I don’t recall where they all were.  I’m not sure about the one above.  Hopefully someone can identify this building location from the contextual image below:

The myriad of issues that have faced this neighborhood has always fascinated me.  Population decline, loss of the middle class, highway construction, the Model Cities program, and the 14th Street Pedestrian Mall:

Through all the negatives there were many brights spots: great neighbors, Marx Hardware and, of course, Crown Candy Kitchen:

I haven’t lived in Old North St. Louis in over 15 years but it occupies a special place in my heart.  Much has changed from the three years I was a resident.  More of the old building fabric has been lost but more has been renovated and more built new.  Very soon the North 14th Street Mall will again become just North 14th Street again — the first time in over 30 years.

My Capstone (thesis) for my Masters degree in urban planning will be titled The Pedestrian Mall as a Revitalization Strategy.  The North 14th Street Pedestrian Mall, that I first saw 19 years ago, will serve as the primary case study in my research.

– Steve Patterson

Plaintiffs Delay Century Case Again

After demolition of the historic Century Building began in the Fall of 2004, the lawsuits by two downtown residents seeking to prevent the demolition became a moot point.  On April 19, 2005 the State of Missouri and the City of St. Louis, through entities, joined with the developer of the Ninth Street Parking Garage and filed a Malicious Prosecution claim against Marcia Behrendt & Roger Plackemeier. The plaintiffs are seeking $1,000,000.

After numerous delays the trial was scheduled to finally get underway tomorrow ( 9/14/2009) at 9am.  But last Friday, at the request of the Plaintiffs, the case was again delayed.  The parties have a new date of 10/26/2009 — that date is just to determine the future trial date.  Most likely we are looking at 2010 for the trial.   When your motivation is to discourage public participation it makes sense to drag these things out.

I should disclose that I personally know both Marcia Behrendt & Roger Plackemeier.  Marcia was the person that found me after my stroke on 2/1/2008.  So I’m not an impartial observer in this issue.  To file such a claim and then delay for years is just wrong.

MISSOURI DEVELOPMENT FINANCE BOARD VS BEHRENDT, Case #22052-01373, can be viewed at http://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet.  The poll this week asks your view on the city & state suing these two for the last four + years.   Right or wrong?

– Steve Patterson

Stop the Dust

Many fought hard to keep the 1960s San Luis Apartments at Lindell and N. Taylor (map link).  The battle, however, was lost and the demolition crews have been busy razing the structure.  Little remained on Thursday:

Above: we can see the spray of water as the building was being wrecked.  The water spray didn’t appear to be effective in other directions.  Driving through the area you could see dust everywhere.

Neighbors (presumably) expressed their view on the alley side of the old garage being razed.

The dust will end once the building is fully razed.  And just think, they won’t need any help from construction noise since the St. Louis Archdiocese is paving the prominent corner to store cars.

– Steve Patterson