Legal Wrangling Over Century Building and Parking Garage that Mocks the Century Continues

Readers of the St. Louis Business Journal were treated last week to another of their one-sided near press release type articles, this time an update on the latest in the lawsuits between interested parties of the 9th Street Garage (that over lit monstrosity facing the Old Post Office) and two citizens that happen to be friends of mine, Marcia Behrendt & Roger Plackemeier. The latest? Well, the developers (and city and state agencies) are filing a motion to have attorney Matt Ghio named as a defendant as well.

I should back up a bit here and explain how we got to where we are today. In short, Behrendt & Plackemeier both sued a long list of people over the plan to raze the Century Building for the construction of a parking garage. Various lawsuits focused on process, such as approvals, as well as the official downtown plan which indicated no parking garage should face the Old Post Office. Behrendt & Plackemeier were seeking to save the Century Building which was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Once the building demolition was underway, as these citizens could not post bond sufficient to get a restraining order, their suits became moot. However, the developers and others came back and sued them with malicious prosecution. This is basically a legal way of suing if someone sues you with no basis — if they sued you simply to be disruptive. However, in the case of Behrendt & Plackemeier I know that they were seeking to save a historic structure from meeting an untimely mess and to protect their personal property interests. Proving Behrendt and Plackemeier had no foundation for their lawsuits it a tough legal challenge. This brings us current.

Now, the Business Journal is talking about a motion filed by the developers seeking to name Behrendt & Plackemeier’s attorney Matt Ghio as a defendant. They seek to add two counts of “abuse of process” to the claim of malicious prosecution. Although the developers just filed their motion and the judge has not ruled, later in the article writer Christopher Tritto calls them a “trio of defendants.” Uh, maybe it is best to wait for the judge to determine that?

Today the garage is finished and damn if it ain’t boring as, well, a parking garage. Recently I was at a function on the top of the Metropolitan Building and the most visible building downtown was this parking structure. The lighting level are so bright we don’t even need street lights. At least it doesn’t have mag wheels attached to it like the one over on 7th. The Old Post Office Square area is also boring, very little to do. The most visibly active of the tenants in the building is the Pasta House Pronto which seldom has any customers on the times I’ve been there. The razing of the Century and construction of yet another downtown parking garage is Slay’s equal to Schoemehl’s Gateway One decision — controversial at the time and in hindsight a very poor decision.

I personally applaud Behrendt & Plackemeier for their continued fight in this battle. Of course, when you are being sued for a million dollars you kinda have to keep fighting.

Preservation Board to Consider Plans for 2-Block “Urban Garden”

Today at 4pm the city’s Preservation Board, chaired by Slay’s PR man Richard Callow, will consider the plans for the Gateway Foundation’s gift of funding a sculpture park. The rubber stamps are being cleaned and distributed. Issues I have are larger issues for the entire Gateway Mall area.

First, I’m opposed to the removal of off-street [on-street] parking from both Market Street, Chestnut and cross streets such as 8th, 9th and 10th. These spaces provide convenient parking for the space — meters should be set for 90 minutes to 2 hours maximum and actually be enforced. Chalk the tires and ticket those that simply run out of their glass office to feed the meter. If they don’t like it they can use transit or car pool with a co-worker. On-street parking also provides a nice barrier between pedestrians and passing cars. People parking and getting in and our of their vehicles creates urban activity. And finally, these on-street spaces lessen the need for more massive and costly parking garages. I know that if I were to bring my elderly father here we’d need very close parking as he is physically unable to walk too far. On-street scooter/motorcycle parking would be nice as well.

The other thing I’d like to see are numerous bike racks. Not one rack that holds 20 bikes off in some hidden corner but the perimeter dotted with simple inverted-U racks. This would give cyclists safe and secure places to lock up their bikes so they can then enjoy walking around the various planned paths of the new sculpture garden without having to leave their bike unattended or push it around. I’d like to see 2 of these racks, each capable of holding two bikes, per side. Two blocks means eight sides so a total of 16 racks that can hold 32 bikes. Really this should be the standard throughout downtown. On either side of 9th, between the two garden blocks, you could probably have only one per side for a total of 14 racks and 28 spaces. Given the budget in the millions paying for and installing 14 racks might cost all of $5,000-$7,000 total. Given the extent and budget of this project good bicycle parking should not be overlooked.
I’m disappointed the block between 10th and 11th, containing “Twain” by Richard Serra, isn’t included in this project. It will remain, for now, disconnected from the surroundings. It will continue to serve as an unofficial dog park.

I have noticed a food vendor that sets up his shop on the corner of 10th & Chestnut to sell BBQ to AT&T employees and any others in the area (jurors?). Most likely he will get the boot which is unfortunate. He picks a spot in the shade of the existing trees so even if AT&T were agreeable to having him on their side of the street it might be too unbearable. Hopefully he can use a corner of the block containing twain or be allowed to use a tiny bit of the real estate on the north edge of the urban garden. Like bike racks, I want to see food & beverage vendors all over downtown (hopefully with some selling vegetarian hot dogs).

Another thing I’d like to see all over downtown are rickshaws — old fashioned bike taxis (aka pedicabs). Even if subsidized through say the Downtown Partnership this would be a great way to ferry people throughout downtown — from Union Station, to Washington Ave, to the Old Post Office Square, to Ballpark Village, to the Convention Center to the riverfront — there are a lot of places and often the distances are farther than people are willing to walk. One of my favorite memories of New York City is taking a bike taxi. The Partnership could purchase the pedicabs and lease them at nearly nothing to those that want the work or exercise. Advertising could be sold to offset the purchase and maintenance of the pedicabs. Let the drivers set their own fee and collect the tips — and not require a business license. This might even prove a good vocation for the homeless or near homeless. Furthermore, a downtown loft dweller might just enjoy a saturday shift as a pedicab driver as a way to contribute to the city and meet new people. A portion of the street around the urban garden could provide space for people to catch a pedicab, auto taxi or a horse drawn carriage.

With the Danforth Foundation calling for local control of the riverfront area, the new open space north of the Old Post Office and the linear Gateway Mall I still don’t think we have the population or the surrounding urban fabric to make all these spaces useful. Even after this urban garden opens in 2009 the surrounding buildings will continue to be the dreadful anonymous boxes they are today.

Six Years and Counting

Like the “where were you when Kennedy was shot” question from an earlier generation, we all know what we were doing as we watched on live television the unfolding of events on 9/11/2001. There I was in the living room of a client I had just met, watching that second plane hit the other tower of the World Trade Center. Any doubt about the first plane being lost in the fog was gone. I think what I remember most was the courage of those in the fourth plane, knowingly facing their own deaths, thinking of others on the ground — preventing the deaths of so many more.

In the weeks prior a friend and I had booked an exciting 17-day trip to the east coast — Washington DC, Pennsylvania and New York. Our flight to DC was October 19th. I had been to DC before but this time was obviously different — the Pentagon had a huge hole in the side. Still, people were out and about in the various neighborhoods. The Washington Monument, as you might suspect, was closed to visitors. We had planned a road trip from DC to New York via Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water in rural Pennsylvania and thus had booked a rental car. Getting off the city bus at National Airport was weird — the place was a ghost town as flights were still not being permitted in or out. My first time in New York was surreal. Hotels and restaurants were eager to kick start the local economy so tourists were welcomed. As you approached “ground zero” as it was becoming known, the smell hit you. Neighbors in nearby Battery Park were hosing out the filters on their ventilation systems. The skyline I had seen my entire life in pictures was different, the Statue of Liberty was closed. We walked through the upper east side on the day a person died of anthrax poisoning on the upper east side. Stores had signs indicating they sold the anti-anthrax drug.

I visited New York again in the Fall of 2005. By then the debate about the future of the 16+ acre WTC site was in full swing. It should become a memorial park, it should be rebuilt as it was, and we shouldn’t build targets anymore were among the numerous viewpoints. Others advocated for much needed housing rather than simply replacing vast quantities of office space. Still others sought to return to the long abandoned street grid.

When Minoru Yamasaki was selected to design the World Trade Center his Pruitt-Igoe public housing, designed a decade earlier, was already troubled. When the ribbon was cut for the WTC in 1973 St. Louis had already begun to implode Yamasaki’s insensitive work here. In the 50s and 60s there was little opposition to such large scale projects save for Jane Jacobs. Today the debate over the 16+ acre site in lower Manhattan continues. Such a massive site in NYC is a rarity.

Back in St. Louis 16 acres is nothing to us. The Schnuck’s City Plaza development at Natural Bridge & Union is 20 acres, the Southtown Plaza strip center (former Famous-Barr site) is 11 acres. The old arena site, now called The Highlands, is 26 acres. The remaining Pruitt-Igoe site is roughly 33 acres. At 30 acres, Loughborough Commons, the Schnuck’s/Lowe’s albatross, is nearly twice as big as the WTC site. Yes — Loughborough Commons is 87% larger than the World Trade Center site! Wow, they are debating how many blocks and streets as well as how much office, retail and housing they can squeeze onto their 16 acres while here just getting the ability for an ADA-compliant sidewalk clearly takes more than action by the Board of Aldermen.

Thousands lost their lives six years ago and many more were strongly impacted by the loss of family, friends, co-workers, neighbors and simply a smile from a passing stranger no longer with us on the subway. Decisions made about the future of the WTC site, as well as development sites here in St. Louis and throughout the world, will too have an impact on people’s lives, although in a different way. We must ask ourselves why we are not creating places beyond just the short-term — a place to buy a cordless drill or get a latte at a drive-thru window. Architecture cannot made us better persons but our environment can and does impact how we all engage each other in our daily lives. We must do better. If not, we are simply funding a self-inflicted form of long-term terrorism.

Larry Rice’s New Life Evangelistic Center Opens Renewable Energy Center in 25th Ward

For nearly a year now the old Held Florist & Greenhouse in the 47xx block of Tennessee Ave has been getting a make over. Broken greenhouse glass fixed, a good cleaning, paint and such. A woman named Susan Jansen had purchased the property in late 2006 and everyone was finally glad to see things happening. In July, the property was sold to the New Life Evangelistic Center operated by Rev. Larry Rice. NLEC is most well known as the controversial homeless shelter located on Locust between 14th & 15th.

On Saturday the 25th Rice held a grand opening for his new Missouri Renewable Energy Center located at the property. But, by this time his holdings had expanded. If you recall from June, the 1894 frame farm house was being threatened with demolition but the Preservation Board put the kibosh on that (see prior post). On August 7th the NLEC, represented by Larry Rice, purchased the old Held home and the adjacent land. The brick 2-family with the green roof in the background above was formerly my home which I sold in January 2006 (can you say good timing?) to an owner occupant.

I’m still not sure what to make of all this but I do know that a number of people have contacted me expressing their concern about his presence in the neighborhood. When I told one concerned person about the change of ownership, their reaction was simply, “Oh shit!”

Bus Tour of Dilapitated McKee-owned Properties Ignored Other Issues

This past Thursday morning I attended, as did many others, the press conference and bus tour relating to 500+ properties owned by Paul McKee through various companies in his control. For those of you living under a rock for the last year, McKee had quietly bought hundreds of properties mostly in the city’s 5th ward through companies with names like “Blairmont Associates, LLC” and “Dodier Investors LLC” (see list). Blair and Dodier are both street names in the area. In the last Missouri State legislative session McKee’s attorney Steve Stone wrote a tax credit bill worth $100 million for anyone that assembled large acres of land in distressed areas. All sounds good so far, right?

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