Code Compliance Isn’t The Same As Best Practices

Last week on Tuesday July 17th the 197-unit apartment building at 3949 Lindell was destroyed by fire.

The Lindell Apartments at 3949 Lindell caught fire around 7 p.m. and quickly went to five-alarms.

Around 100 people were inside the building at the time. Everyone was evacuated safely. The 197 unit building housed around 250 people who are now homeless. (KSDK)

Less than an hour after firefighters arrived on the scene of a blaze at a Central West End apartment building Tuesday night, they were forced to evacuate as the top floor of the four-story structure began to collapse.

The flames spread so fast through the attic that firefighters thought something must be wrong with the building. (stltoday.com — see photo gallery)

The building was previously destroyed by arson in June 2007 during construction, but this time it was occupied.

Had a fire started in a kitchen, for example, the sprinkler system would have likely put it out.  But the fire is said to have started in an attic space though, above the units and the sprinkler system.  Apparently the building code allows the use of a drywall wall to be used as a firestop within the attic to slow the spread of the fire. But a wood framed wall with drywall can’t hold a fire for long. Between apartments it’s good enough to contain a fire until the sprinklers come on. But in an open attic space with so much wood a big fire can get going and pretty much blast through a drywall firestop.

So while the building may well have been code-compliant, it wasn’t built with best practices. Such a large building, especially one of wood frame construction, should have had masonry walls to completely section off the building into parts.  A fire may have destroyed or heavily damaged a section of the building but the rest would have been unharmed. Such a wall exists between the parking garage and the building, likely required to keep a car fire from spreading from the garage to the building.

I’ve been photographing this building for years, but I never once visited inside. Here are images from 2007 & 2008:

It’s important to note the property owner was not the original developer, from January 6, 2012:

Education Realty Trust, a Memphis-based developer, owner and manager of college housing, has purchased an apartment complex near Saint Louis University for nearly $28.5 million.

The four-story complex at 3949 Lindell Blvd. was bought with cash on hand, the company said. Education Realty Trust recently began doing business as EdR as part of a rebranding effort.

City of St. Louis records show the apartment building’s former owner as GB St. Louis 1 Temp LLC, a Dallas-based affiliate of Frank Howard’s Gulfstream Capital Partners. (St. Louis Business Journal)

The following images are from Thursday July 19, 2012:

The existing frame construction will be razed with only the parking garage remaining. When apartments are built here again it needs to have several masonry firestops from the ground to above the roof. Ideally AAA and CVS will get together with EdR to include the west half of the AAA site into the new construction as well as a CVS pharmacy and renovation of the AAA for a restaurant space.

No doubt that wired smoke alarms helped in alerting all the residents so no human life was loft. But understand that building codes are the very minimum that must be met to obtain an occupancy permit.

— Steve Patterson

Poll: Which Term Best Describes The St Louis Region Attitude Toward Urban Planning

The St. Louis region as multiple counties and hundreds of cities in two states. I want to know how you’d describe the region’s attitude toward urban planning. Progressive? Staid?

I don’t want to narrow the question or give specifics, I want to know how you feel. I’ll share my thoughts on Wednesday August 1, 2012 when I post the poll results. I used the graphic from the City’s 2005 Strategic Land Use Plan but think regionally.

Please vote in the poll in the right sidebar and share your thoughts below.

— Steve Patterson

Chippewa Sidewalk Still Not Passable Nearly Six Months Later

Since I sold my car in April I’ve made two shopping trips to Target on the #11 (Chippewa) MetroBus. In June I spotted sidewalk construction between the bus stop and Hampton, the driver let me off on the west side of Hampton so I wouldn’t be stuck.

In July it looked like the sidewalk was fixed, but it wasn’t.

This was due to a water main break:

The break happened on Tuesday morning in the Northhampton neighborhood. A thin layer of water is covering roadways near the intersection and there is a fear that the water will freeze causing a slick and potentially dangerous situation. (KMOV)

Freeze? Yes, the water main break happened on January 24, 2012! Did someone forget about the sidewalk?

— Steve Patterson

Poll: Why Do You Think The Pruitt-Igoe Site Has Remained Vacant For 40 Years?

The first implosion of a high rise at Pruitt-Igoe took place on March 16, 1972. The final building was demolished on four months later on July 15, 1972 — forty years ago today.

After months of preparation, the first building was demolished with an implosion at 3 p.m., on March 16, 1972. The second one went down April 22, 1972. After more implosions on July 15, the first stage of demolition was over. As the government scrapped rehabilitation plans, the rest of the Pruitt–Igoe blocks were imploded during the following three years; and the site was finally cleared in 1976 with the demolition of the last block. (Wikipedia)

Four years to clear the site after the last building was demolished!

Pruitt-Igoe’s 33 buildings were only occupied for 18 years (1954-1972)  with the last few of that in such poor condition a rent strike was held by residents in 1969. A school was built on part of the site in the early 1990s but otherwise the site remains vacant and overgrown.

The poll this week wants to know why you think the site has remained vacant for four decades. The poll is in  the upper right sidebar.

— Steve Patterson

Lambert Field Dedicated 1930

Lambert Field, now Lambert International Airport, was dedicated on this day in 1930. At the time it was way out in the countryside.

Nearly 20 years later the impact

Within a decade air transport has become a major consideration in the planning of the urban areas. The volume of traffic, passenger, freight and express, will increase manifold during the next twenty years.

It is reasonable to assume that the developments in air transportation during the next few decades will parallel that of automobile transportation, which really started about three decades ago. St. Louis must be prepared to accept and make the most of conditions that will arise. Provision of the several types of airfields required must be on a metropolitan basis. The recently prepared Metropolitan Airport Plan proposes thirty-five airfields. (1947 Comprehensive Plan)

Thirty-five?  Because the city is so small only three of the thirty-five would be located within the city limits: two minor fields “for non-scheduled traffic, commercial uses and for training” and one private airport for, logically, private aircraft. See a diagram of all 35 airports here.

A lot has changed since 1930 and 1947. I’m traveling now by not by air, by train.

— Steve Patterson