Updating Non-ADA Compliant Properties

Returning from Oklahoma City last week I booked a room in St. Robert MO (along I-44)

When I arrived the first thing I noticed was the lack of a curb ramp onto the sidewalk from the loading zone between the disabled parking spaces. As soon as I got into my “accessible” room I knew I couldn’t stay — a tub/shower is impossible for me to use.  Two grab bars does not make a tub/shower accessible.

The staff was helpful, they called the Holiday Inn Express next door and got me a room there.

It turns out the Quality Inn was the old Holiday Inn.  It was renovated but that didn’t include ADA requirements such as a roll-in shower or curb ramps. The useful life of the property has been extended through renovation so it will continue for years to be non-compliant.

The Holiday Inn Express, opened in April 2010, was as close to perfect as I could expect.  The ramps, above, are not the recommended design as someone walking past one has to deal with the cross slope.  The better was is to have the sidewalk drop down to create the access point and then rise on the other side.  Better still, just don’t have a curb and use bollards.

The shower in the new Holiday Inn Express was ideal for me.  I wasn’t traveling with my manual or my motorized wheelchair but the lack of a raised curb, a seat and grab bars ensured a safe shower. Half the hotels I’ve stayed in recently that had seats had padded vinyl seats which can be dangerously slippery when soapy & wet.  The Quality Inn should have updated one bathroom to have a roll-in shower.

Closer to home we have the case of the restaurant space at 711 Olive.

When the Downtown Cantina occupied this space the above door was their main door. After they closed a new place, Slay’s on Zaytoon opened after remodeling the space.  In their remodel they made the above accessible entrance a secondary doorway and the other door their main door.

This entrance, as you can see, is not accessible. At the time the person from Slay’s said just come in and they’d unlock the accessible door.  That works if you are with someone but not when alone.  Slay’s wasn’t open long and on November 11, 2009 I sent an email to David Newburger, St. Louis’ Commissioner on the Disabled, about  the situation. Here is part of his response:

From the point of view of the law, the City cannot deny an occupancy permit to new operators of a facility who are not doing significant rehab if that facility has previously had an occupancy permit for the same use. So, as I think you understand, from the City’s point of view and unless the new occupant will need a building permit, this is a matter for moral persuasion rather than legal imperative.

If I can get the owners attention, I will try to impress the new owners. Likewise, it is possible Alderman Young or others in City Hall can have some say in this.

As a last resort, of course, if the owners do not set the situation up to use that accessible entrance, both you and any other person with a disability who might patronize the restaurant can file a discrimination charge with the City’s Civil Rights Enforcement Agency, the Missouri Commission on Human Rights, and/or the US Department of Justice.

When Everest opened in this space they didn’t make any significant changes from the previous tenant.  The main door is not accessible and the accessible door says “use other door.”

Someone issued a permit to renovate the space for Slay’s on the Zaytoon.  Who would that have been that OK’d making the non-accessible doorway the main door?  The City of St. Louis!  The city cannot keep passing the buck when they fail to ensure that spaces that are being remodeled do not end up less accessible than before.

I think I will begin filing complaints with the above agencies  — complaints against the municipal agency that should ensure compliance when issuing permit. For them to knowingly allow a tenant to remodel a space so that it became less accessible is discriminatory action in my view.

– Steve Patterson

The Modern Strip Shopping Center

We all know the strip shopping center: a line of storefronts set behind a massive, usually tree-less, parking lot.  Oklahoma City’s newest shopping area, Classen Curve, is not like any strip center you’ve ever seen before – at least not in St. Louis.

• The architecture of the buildings is crisp & modern.
• It is situated on a odd shaped site adjacent to a residential neighborhood.
• Once inside the boundaries you get a sense of place.

Classen Curve is on clearly on the high end. I had lunch at 105degrees — a vegan/raw restaurant.  If you are unfamiliar with raw food it is a growing niche market. You are not likely to find such a place in your typical strip mall next door to a Subway.  Classen Curve is located near the City of Nichols Hills, Oklahoma City’s equal to out Ladue (old money).

The developer is not your typical real estate developer, but one of the largest US producers of natural gas, Chesapeake Energy. Chesapeake’s corporate campus is a block away. The campus has changed dramatically since I first saw it in 2003.  With over 1,500 employees on campus there is a built-in market for close shopping and restaurants. Between Chesapeake & Classen Curve construction has begun on Oklahoma City’s first Whole Foods.

You can see more on the aerial view in Google Maps.

The attempt was to create a pleasant experience, and to a large degree they succeeded. But despite good intentions they failed to create a good experience for pedestrians.

Like nearly every strip center built in the last 50 years, Classen Curve fails to make a strong pedestrian connection to the public sidewalk along the adjacent road. In getting from one building to the next you have curb ramps in some places, but not others.

The architect was Elliott & Associates Architects.  I met Rand Elliott in the Fall of 1985 as a freshman in the architecture program at the University of Oklahoma.  I was assigned him on a student + professional project in a 6th grade class. Elliott’s professional portfolio is outstanding which is why the poor walkability/accessibility of Classen Curve is so disappointing.

Care was given to make the back of the buildings attractive, dumpsters are cleverly concealed in steel structures that hold the tenant names.

While I have issues with the poor walkability/accessibility I’m very pleased with the effort to use the small/odd site and to rethink what a strip mall should be like.  I just wish people knew how to make new construction walkable & accessible.

– Steve Patterson

Driving Next Door For Dinner

Friday September 3rd I stayed the night in Joplin MO. Next door to the hotel was a Fazoli’s (map).

The distance from the hotel to the restaurant is not far, even for me. It was a nice day and a walk after 4+ hours of driving would have been nice.  But walking through auto drives, over numerous curbs and through grass was not an obstacle course I wanted to deal with when I was tired.

You know I get that everyone visiting this highway adjacent section of Joplin will be arriving by car as I did.  That doesn’t mean that once there we should be forced to use our car to visit adjacent businesses.

Since I was getting in my car to go to dinner I thought I’d go someplace nicer, it would cost more but I was on vacation.  I crossed I-44 to the North and arrived at the Olive Garden. I prefer local places, but I didn’t want to take the time to look.  I walked in the door of the Olive Garden where I was greeted with a question I hadn’t heard in a long time; “Do you have a smoking preference?” I was suddenly reminded I live in a backwards state. I politely informed them I wanted a nice meal which, by my definition, doesn’t include smoke. I turned around and left.  I drove back to the area where my hotel was but I pulled into the Fazoli’s next door.

A couple of points about the above picture.  First, us disabled folks don’t always get the best parking spots.  There was an empty spot next to the white car, right in front of the door.  Where I parked wasn’t the closest space, but it was the best for me. The loading zone allows me to open my driver’s door fully to make exit & entry possible.  Second the lack of a curb reduces the chances of a fall. So while us disabled folks may get parking nearest the entrance, we often do not.  The SUV, above, is also parked in a disabled spot. Had both spaces been empty I still would have taken the farther spot because of the access on the driver’s side. If the other space had been the only one free I would have backed into the space.  OK, back to the lack of walkability of this area.

To have the walk next to the Fazoli’s run south to the property line to meet a walk from the hotel would have been easy to do if someone had given it any thought.  More importantly if Joplin had required the developer of this area to plan for walkability between parcels.

After I finished my dinner I noticed a couple walking to Fazoli’s.  You might look at this and say my idea of a walkable sidewalk to connect the two establishments is unnecessary.  But a test of good walkability is if a parent can push a baby stroller or a person can wheel in a wheelchair.  Neither is possible here.

What about guests at the hotel on the left? Or employees & clients of the Social Security Administration in the lower left corner?

The days of many square miles of cities being connected by a fine grid of roads, sidewalks and transit are long gone.  People will arrive here by car but they should have the option to walk within the immediate vicinity if they want.  We should be designing pockets of areas that are walkable within their area.

– Steve Patterson

Modern Infill In Older Neighborhoods

For the poll this week I hope to gauge the opinion of the readers on the subject of the design of infill in older areas.

Should infill be so well detailed that you can’t tell which building is from 1910 vs 2010? Or should infill be just whatever is being built in new edge communities at the time? Should high-design modern infill be given some wiggle room?

– Steve Patterson

Poet Eugene Field Was Born 160 Years Ago, At Start Of Dred Scott Case

Eugene Field’s father filed the lawsuit to win freedom for slave Dred Scott.  Soon after (1850) his wife gave birth to a son, Eugene.  He was born at the family home at 634 South Broadway, now the Eugene Field House & Toy Museum.  Eugene Field went on to write children’s poetry in his short 45-year life.

The house has a lush green garden to the north and south (above) surrounded by a brick wall.  Roswell Martin Field was an attorney so it is fitting they would live well.  But looking at the house today gives you a false picture of South Broadway in 1850. But before I go back let’s start with the present conditions.

Of course the highways and ramps didn’t exist, nor did the acres of surface parking.  But neither did the lush walled garden you see today!

I don’t know the exact conditions in 1908 but I’d guess not much different.  City records indicate the house was built in 1845 – five years before Eugene Field was born. Very likely the area was all new at the time.  By the time the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map was created in 1908 the house was 63 years old  — equal to a house built in 1947 relative to today.

By 1958 all the other houses in the area had been replaced by industry and I-55 was built to the east.

By 1971 the industrial buildings were gone and highway 40 was now in place.

So much has changed in St. Louis over the decades it is important to peel back the layers to see how the city has evolved  — devolved

– Steve Patterson