The hallway — that wide sidewalk along the north side of Market St — is what will eventually tie the blocks of the Gateway Mall together.
ABOVE: "Hallway" in Citygarden as seen from the block with Richard Serra's Twain
Unfortunately as well designed as Citygarden is, when built they didn’t plan to connect the hallway element to the blocks to the east and west. The crossing at 9th Street meets the design criteria of the master plan but at 8th and a 10th it was somehow forgotten. Hopefully we will get all the blocks from Broadway (5th) and 20th. Right now we have only the two between 8th and 10th. Going forward we will need to make sure as each block is done that we plan ahead for the next adjacent block.
The St. Louis Centre skybridge across Washington Ave.,  more than a block from the entrance to the convention center, will be gone in a few weeks. For so long officials have focused on the bridge as a eyesore:
Kitty Ratcliffe, president of the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission, has long advocated for the removal of the skybridge, which is located a block away from the entrance to the city’s convention facility, America’s Center.
“The bridge over Washington Avenue makes people think our city is dirty, that it is unsafe and that we don’t really care about our city,” she said. “This is going to change that dramatically. It’s going to make a very different impression.”
Yet visible from the convention center is an atrocity that is never mentioned — the 1975 parking garage for U.S. Bank:
ABOVE: 1975 parking garage at 8th & Washington Ave
Hmm, what does this garage say about our city? When built it was then then Mercantile Bank and the convention center was two years from opening and when it did it stopped a block to the north. In the mid-1990s the Cervantes Center was renamed and expanded a block to the south and given a prominent entrance aligned with 8th Street.
When visitors leave the convention center they see two buildings across the street — the ugly U.S. Bank garage and the Renaissance Grand hotel.
The hotel is obviously fine but the garage is so out of place. It needs to go away and be replaced with a structure of similar massing but with say doors and windows.
ABOVE: St. Louis Centre bridge over Washington Ave connecting to the former Dillard's (right)
At 5:10pm Today a wrecking ball will take a swing at the 4-story pedestrian bridge over Washington Ave. The bridge, and it’s twin across Locust St, were certainly a mistake but the real mistake was the construction of an indoor mall downtown. The grand scheme to revitalize downtown by razing an entire city block between two large department stores to make a massive 3-block indoor shopping mecca was so amazingly flawed. The large blank walls of the pedestrian bridges distract from an entire city block razed and the land assembled into a monolithic mall.
“St. Louis Centre, built in 1985 for $95 million, was once the largest enclosed urban shopping center in the country with 120 stores and a food court with 20 restaurants. The mall has deteriorated in recent years and now only a handful of stores remain.” [St. Louis Business Journal 2007]
“In April 1981, [Mayor] Schoemehl hit the office running. He continued the work begun by his predecessor, Jim Conway, on the St. Louis Centre shopping mall downtown and pushed to completion the long-discussed St. Louis Union Station renovation.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch 11/1/1992]
Some would say the city was just responding to the market, that retailers wanted to be in indoor malls so we had to build an indoor mall to attract those retailers. I don’t believe in chasing every trend in suburbia (malls, houses with front garages, etc) to attract that market. I believe in working toward the best urban public streets and spaces as possible and people will follow and the retailers will follow the people.
ABOVE: St. Louis Centre bridge over Locust connecting to Macy's (right)
Older urban centers can’t — and shouldn’t — try to compete with new suburban areas on their terms — large parking lots, huge setbacks, etc. No, the urban core needs to provide an urban experience. Suburbia can build all the New Urbanist developments on greenfield sites or even retrofit a “downtown” into an once auto-centric suburb but they can never offer what an older core has to offer. The core tossing aside what makes it unique to capture a suburban audience is just foolish.
But St. Louis and nearly every other city in America did just that — ignored existing urbanism to chase the suburbanite. So we can take comfort knowing we were not alone — other cities were just as stupid as we were.
U.S. Bank is sponsoring a big street party tonight as the wrecking ball hits the bridge. The event is timed for live coverage on the local TV news. The bridge will take 3 weeks to remove so don’t expect to see down Washington Ave Saturday morning.
ABOVE: West side of St. Louis Centre bridge over Washington Ave
But what about the rest of the shuttered mall? Retail will finally face the direction it always should have — the sidewalk.
“When considering the future of vacant and underused space downtown, it is important to consider what I believe to be certain realities. Among these are the following: …. (2) Given the presence of world-class shopping at St. Louis Centre and Union Station, we cannot hope to fill all of the ground floor space downtown with retail shops.”
– Richard Ward in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch March 30, 1989
How times have changed! The spaces are not full and it will be many years before they are full but building the “largest enclosed urban shopping center in the country” set us back at least a decade if not more.
The upper levels of the mall will be occupied as well — by parked cars, not people. 750 cars I believe! These spaces will help keep some firms located downtown but we really must get a handle on our supply and demand of parking. To me our allowance of parking spaces is excessive except where it is really needed — on the street in front of sidewalk-level storefronts and restaurants. Those going to work for 8 hours shouldn’t park on the street just as those just hanging out downtown should be able to park on the street near their destination. Arriving at a street with zero on-street says “good luck parking” whereas arriving at a street with on-street parking spaces — even if full — says “this is a popular area.”
ABOVE: Parking garage across 6th Street from St. Louis CentreABOVE: former street-level retail space in use for more parking!
I’m glad we are finally at this point but we still have a long way to go to undo the many mistakes made over the last few decades. The “Bridge Bash” will be held on Washington Ave (7th-9th Streets) from 4pm to 7pm tonight.
As we build new buildings it is important to construct them so they are accessible to everyone. Unfortunately, many still design buildings to be reached only by automobile.
I recently noticed a fairly new Montgomery Bank on Laclede Station Rd at Watson Rd. It is certainly an attractive building with nice massing.
The problem is the building ignores the public sidewalk along Laclede Station Rd. The location is surrounded by existing homes and apartments. People do walk in the area. Sidewalks are provided for pedestrian use but some businesses, such as Montgomery Bank, design only for motorists.
If you are able-bodied you can step over the curbs and grass to reach the front door of the bank. However, if you use a wheelchair or mobility scooter you must “drive” far into the site to get to a point where you can get out of the way of cars and head toward a door. If I had the power I’d make this bank redo their site to provide an ADA-compliant access route. Good pedestrian access is the first step needed to get people to walk. I don’t expect us to go back and retrofit decades of sites and buildings. I do expect businesses to do a better job when building today.
This past Saturday I participated in the first of four planned “Open Streets” events in St. Louis. I went from my loft at 16th & Locust to Forest Park. Most doing the route were on bikes. Some were jogging while others were walking, some pushing strollers. I did the 10-mile round trip in my power wheelchair.
ABOVE: St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay (left) talks to participants at Olive & Lindell.
I had a good time, took 140 pictures and saw many people I know but I have mixed feelings about the event.
The Good:
Hundreds, if not more, participated in the event.
People got out and biked in the city, exploring areas they might not have seen otherwise.
People were active and physical.
I met and talked to strangers.
The Bad:
Reinforces the false notion that you can’t bike safely on urban streets with cars.
The city is off the hook for the poor condition of the sidewalks and a lack of accessibility.
Much of the route has very little traffic most weekends anyway.
Cars got through in too many places so it wasn’t truly car-free.
At Sarah & Lindell the traffic signal remained on it despite the fact cars had only one option. The signal should have been placed on a all red flash.
In the past such events led to the creation of pedestrian malls where cars are banned 24/7 and people usually stayed away as well.
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