Access Changes at Loughborough Commons

This is a quick update post from my favorite auto-centric sprawl shopping center in the city, Loughborough Commons. As regular readers know, I’ve been making a big deal about the poor pedestrian access to the center. This update shows you some good and some not so good things at this time.

Above was the view looking north from the front of the Schnuck’s store on November 28, 2006. I thought they were going to provide some sort of access at that time but they did not. Note the customer walking against traffic in the main auto drive.

So I was very glad to see that in the last few days a temporary pedestrian walkway has been created between the main auto entrance and where another building is being construted (I believe for an office supply chain store). Though likely not ADA compliant this is a very nice but long overdue gesture on the part of developer DESCO.

In the back ground near the white van they’ve also started to excavate for more of the sidewalk on the east side of the main auto drive. Eventually these walkways should connect although the stop sign at this internal intersection has been removed for months now. We’ll see how the crossing gets marked and signed. Again, I am very glad to see they are taking steps to provide this access.

Shifting now out to the public street, the sidewalk situation along Loughborough has had ups and downs turing this project.

Above is a view from August 30th, 2006 looking westbound from the bus stop. You can see the sidewalk, the old auto entrance, now blocked, and the new auto entrance. In the background is the big pile-o-dirt where the recessed new strip center is being constructed today. Not exactly great but at least passable for most.

Sadly, for roughly nine months the public sidewalk along Loughborough (just east of the new auto entry) has been left in this condition (above). Missing curb, stagnant water, broken concrete, piece of plywood, etc. The benches for those using the bus were removed last year as well.

Close up view of the conditions, above. Note the changing water marks on the warning barriers. The lights have long stopped flashing.

Pedestrians heading to & from Loughborough Commons have managed to avoid the above mess by taking a short cut which you can see clearly in the grass. This, of course, does not help those using mobility aids such as wheelchairs and mobility scooters.

I recently pointed out these conditions to officials via email. Today crews are working to finish the curb and sidewalk in this area. But just as I think I am making progress something else happens. Ald. Matt Villa, of late, has been receptive to discussions about access and has been very responsive to my requests to push for completion of some of these area. DESCO may have had these things on their schedule for now anyway so it is hard to say if my complaining was effective, I like to think it helped grease the wheel.

The above is along Loughborough east of the main entrance, let’s now switch to west of the main entrance.

Above was the scene on August 30th, 2006. The old store had just closed and the new store opened but pedestrians coming from the west were forced into the street. Yes, I know a construction zone not finished – just hold on before you scroll down and yell at me in the comments!

A month later, on September 30, 2006 a new sidewalk was poured and the big pile of dirt was removed (to where the old store was located, now razed).
Skipping ahead to April 24, 2007 and switching directions in the same area:

Above we can see the sidewalk from September 2006 is still in place and being used — we have a mom and her child heading to the store and another customer just leaving.

However, by June 3, 2007 much of the sidewalk from September 2006 and the remaining old sidewalk had been removed, including the corner ramp at Grand. Here you can see a customer who had just left the Schnuck’s walking in the street. I’m actually glad to see the old sidewalk and corner ramp go away as they were in poor condition and should have been replaced back in September 2006. I don’t know the plan here but hopefully the sidewalk will be back in place soon so that more customers are not forced into an un-friendly street.

Earlier this year the auto drive was also restriped to change some lanes, I’ll spare you the pictures (for now).

Developer paves front yard for condo parking, hearing on the 6th

For years the large building at the corner of Halliday & Grand (map) was a trouble spot in the Tower Grove East neighborhood, the usual drug dealing and such. So it is no surprise that area residents are all glad a developer has converted the building into condos, but not all agree on the parking ‘solution.’ This story of parking has many issues and no obvious solution. St. Louis’ Board of Adjustment will try to make sense of it Wednesday (Meeting starts at 1:30pm, Room 208 City Hall).

The small front yard wasn’t exactly paradise but it got paved anyway. Some neighbors say the developer, on a weekend and without a proper permit, created a concrete parking lot for four cars. These neighbors want to see it removed. Other neighbors say they don’t care for the solution but they must accept it to get an entrance marker for their street, Halliday. More on the entry marker later.

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Alternative Site Plan for Loughborough Commons

Today I was test driving some fun features with Google Maps (custom maps, drawing tools). Using the old image of the area which is now Loughborough Commons I drew one concept I had for streets and land use in the area. As you will see, my idea is quite different than what is being constructed.

The first thing to notice is that I have retained nearly every home that was located at the corner of the site along Grand & Loughborough. I’ve then cut public streets through the site to create numerous other smaller parcels. The main artery would be extending Loughborough Drive through the site to create a 5-block long commercial district (shown in blue). Buildings facing this street would be “mixed use” with retail/resturant on the ground floor and office or residential above (shown in purple). Residential housing of various forms would face Grand, shown in red. The two big orange boxes would be a Schnuck’s & Lowe’s with the gray box in the middle representing surface parking. Side streets from the adjacent neighborhood would be brought through the site — connecting the commercial district to the existing housing stock.
Mixed-Use (purple):

Lining both sides of a new Loughborough Drive, as well as facing Loughborough, these mixed use buildings would be a minimum of 2 stories high but up to 5 stories. The street-level would be designed for retail/restaurant tenants such as St. Louis Bread Co, Great Clips, Qdoba, Starbucks, and Office Max. Upper floors could contain office space or residential units. Retail parking would be on-street diagonal parking along Loughborough Drive. Shoppers would be encouraged to park once and check out multiple stores via foot.

The main street of Loughborough Drive would be just that — a main street. Think a cross between an old shopping district (Delmar in The Loop), a pedestrian friendly “lifestyle center” (the Boulevard on Brentwood) and a New Urbanist town center (New Town at St. Charles). This was one of the few sites large enough in the city to have developed such a mixed-use model connecting to an existing and stable neighborhood.
Big Box (orange):

This concepts accepts the necessity of big box retailing for the masses. It also accepts most big box shoppers will arive by car, so surface parking is provided between the two stores. The big box stores would not face the main shopping street (Loughborough Drive) but would instead face each other. Both would have excellent visibility from I-55. Blow & Roswell would be used to access the surface parking for the big box stores.

Two options existed for the Schnuck’s here. One is for Schnuck’s to have built on the south location I show above while the existing store remained open. Once the new store was open the old one could have been razed for the new Lowe’s. An alternative would have been to add on to the existing Schnuck’s and basically create a new entrance facing Blow St. The bulk of the existing structure could have been reused, reducing the amount of debris heading to a land fill.

Those shopping on the main street would have easy access to the big box stores, and vice versa, without having to move their cars.
Residential (red):

Housing would be located on this section of Grand, facing existing single-family detached homes. This housing would have a rear alley (shown in yellow) with rear loaded garages. Ideally the residential mix would have varied from condo buildings with shared underground parking to townhouses with individual garages. Garages at the alley might also have had granny flats for small & affordable housing. Low to moderate income and senior housing could easily be mixed in with market rate housing both in the residential section facing Grand as well as above the retail in the mixed-use areas.

For the most part I have “bent” the side streets like Robert & French as they cross Loughborough Drive. This allows the new mixed-use buildings to become more in the line of sight as well as to block views of the highway. However, making these streets perpendicular to Loughborough Drive helps create square corners which are cheaper in new construction than odd angles.

This is only one version of an alternative street grid for the site. Perhap when it has failed in 20 years we can take another stab at the site and get it right.

Travel Log: Lawrence KS (2/2)

Last month I had a brief road trip through Kansas with my friend Rich, a Seattle architect. Rich was doing roof inspections for a large property managment firm with properties in small rural towns. On the last day of our journey we visited Lawrence KS (see post 1/2). We had finished Rich’s work in Topeka that morning and we met up with a couple for lunch.

In our younger days meeting friends for lunch was just that — college friends hanging out. One of Rich’s best friends from high school in Oklahoma lives with her husband in Lawrence, both alumni of the University of Kansas. In fact, both now teach at KU. See, we get older and our old friends become respectable. Rich’s friend from high school graduated the same year as me, 1985. I met Bonnie years ago when she was a planner for the city of Liberty Missouri. These days Bonnie Johnson has a Ph.D. and is park of KU’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Once Rich & Bonnie stopped talking about who they saw at their respective 20-year reunions we talked about planning issues, including those in Lawrence. Bonnie is a former member of the Lawrence Planning Commission.

In my prior post on Lawrence I looked at the main drag — Mass (short for Massachusets St. Ave). This post will look at a few other areas.

In the next block east of Mass some interesting things are happening. For starters, a parking lot is overtaken each Saturday morning for a Farmers’ Market. We arrived after noon on a Saturday which is a shame as I would have liked to have seen the staging for the market as well as the volume of customers.

Attached to some parking meters are retrofit bike racks. These make it easier to secure a bike’s frame to a solid object. My only question is how much of an obstacle might this pose to someone trying to use the meters. Perhaps this is a good low-cost solution for getting more bike parking?

Above is a good example of how a curb “bulb” can help shorten street crossings and to create ends for parking lanes. ADA ramps are able to be more in line with the direction of travel and not pointed out into the middle of the intersection from the corner of the sidewalk. This view is looking north from 7th & New Hampshire St. (google map). Up ahead is a failed downtown outlet mall converted to a riverside hotel.

Yes, downtown Lawrence KS has a Borders bookstore while St. Louis does not. Here the city required the corner building, at left, to be saved. A new building was built next to it and the combined buildings make up with store with the main entrance to the right, facing a small parking lot.

From the other way we can see how the parking lot is behind a stone wall. Pedestrians can easily get to the entrance without having to walk through a parking lot. Still, I would have liked to have seen the corner building have some activity — sure it was ‘saved’ but the corner remains rather lifeless. Also in the above image we can see bike parking provided along the public sidewalk (very visible where a thief is less likely to try to steal it). Also here is another use of a “bulb” but in this case it is detached from the curb so that water can still flow downhill to the drain system.

Adjacent to the Border’s parking lot is a new loft building, next to another new loft building. Or is it?

OK, this is not the four buildings that it appears to be — this is one fairly new building. The intention is to give the impression of multiple buildings rather than one potentially overbearing building. As such facade treatments go, I think they did an excellent job with the materials and details. The main entrane to the residential units is through the narrow section that is 3-stories. The ground floor is reserved for retail — each having their own entrance. With the exception of the bank at the far end, all the spaces were empty.

The main residential entrance is under the canopy. For me, the green grass just doens’t communicate commerce. The area is attractive and the grass is flawlessly maintained but this just doesn’t feel like a good place for retail activity.

The far south corner with the bank also disappoints from a downtown perspective. I like the sign being on the corner but the entrance is a bit up the sidewalk — not on the corner where it belongs. Corners used to mean something architecturally.

Across the street and down the block we headed back to our rental vehicle. Note the worn grass next to the sidewalk in the above picture. This brick wall marginally narrows the width of the sidewalk but enough so that a clear path is worn in the grass. The sidewalk is comfortable for two to walk side by side until you get to this point — it appears many will walk in the grass/dirt before giving up their position next to another.

We headed out to see some of the new sprawl on the western edge of Lawrence. The above subdivision is one of the newest. Here we see the post office. The sidewalk cuts between the houses so that people can walk to get their mail. Of course, note the lack of sidewalks along the actual street! Bonnie noted Lawrence has since changed their code, they now require sidewalks. From this view we can see this house’s 3 garage doors but not the front door for humans.

After we dropped off Bonnie back at her home we headed out of town, back northbound on Mass. But we are further south than the main downtown, this is near 23rd. We can see a recently constructed Family Video store next to an older strip mall. Lots of new sidewalks but not a one taking the pedestrian from the public sidewalk to the front door of the store.

Above is the older strip center that the Family Video was attached to. A grocery store in on the far end with the green mansard roof. As you can see, the older area was much harsher than the new — completely lacking in any grass or trees. The St. Louis region has many such strip centers just ready to be improved. In the background is one of the taller buildings in the area.

Although I couldn’t really tell, my guess was senior housing. The greenery here certainly helps soften the solid concrete forms of the building. I’m sure the original renderings were lovely with many people milling about in the pseudo park setting. On this lovely day, the area was empty. Maybe all the residents were north in the main area of downtown with the rest the other direction at the new Family Video.

Lawrence has much of the same sprawl as other cities, the new area with all the big boxes like Target and Wal-Mart. We saw a site out on the edge of town where Wal-Mart is fighting to build a second location. Over the years Lawrence has managed to keep a lot of sprawl at bay but things are changing — more and more voters live on the edge in sprawl. Their voting patterns could change the shape of Lawrence in the future and have a negative impact on downtown.

Planning Commissioners Journal Hits the Road

The national publication, the Planning Commissioners Journal, is hitting the road — literally. Editor Wayne Senville is taking a scenic drive across America via U.S. Route 50. The best part is, he is blogging daily about the trip. From the press release:

Do planners face the same issues in Maryland as they do in Colorado, in Ohio as in Kansas? That’s part of what Wayne Senville, editor of the national Planning Commissioners Journal will be finding out during a six-week cross-country trip along U.S. Route 50.

Between the Memorial Day weekend and July 10th, Senville will be meeting with planners and planning commissioners in more than two dozen communities in the 12 states (and the District of Columbia) that Route 50 crosses.

According to Senville: “In conversations I’ve had with planners in setting up this trip, I know I’ll be reporting on many critical issues facing cities and towns, from the revitalization of downtowns and urban riverfronts to dealing with the effects of explosive growth. I’ll also be covering a diverse range of concerns: tourism and its impacts; inner-city economics; neighborhood efforts to make it easier for residents to ‘age in place;’ how to promote citizen involvement in local planning; and much more.” And, adds Senville, “of course, I’ll also be talking with planners about the challenges they face in dealing with roads and highways.”

In less than two weeks Senville will be in St. Louis. One of those that Senville will be talking with is yours truly. Back to the press release:

One of most innovative aspects of this trip — indeed as far as we know the first time it’s being done to report on coast-to-coast planning issues — is that Senville will be posting daily online reports on what he’s hearing. Through a combination of text, photos, video, and audio clips, visitors to the Route 50 blog site: www.Rte50.com will be able to follow Senville as he works his way West. Visitors to the blog are encouraged to leave comments on any of the postings.

The Route 50 blog is already started with visits to a couple of towns in Maryland after leaving Burlington Vt. I think readers here will find it interesting, I know I certainly enjoy reading about planning issues facing cities, townships and counties. We are more alike than we are different.

I have an idea about things I want to communicate with Senville (both good & bad) but I want to hear what you think is important for the Planning Commissioners Journal to understand about St. Louis.