Grand Bridge Should Follow Columbus Ohio Example

In the last post I casually mentioned the concept of a retail bridge for Grand Boulevard. It took me a while but I finally found the example that I had referred to. In 2004 a developer added retail to both sides of a Columbus Ohio bridge spanning a major interstate that created a pedestrian barrier.

St. Louis is planning to rebuild the existing Grand bridge by adding a landscaped median as well as wider sidewalks and bike lanes. The intent is to make it more pedestrian friendly so that St. Louis University to the north and their medical center campus to the south are better connected. You can dress up a bridge all you like but it is still hundreds of feet of dead space. No amount of median planting will make it pedestrian friendly.

In Columbus a developer was granted the right to basically construct two new bridges over the interstate highway, each on the side of the existing bridge. By doing so pedestrians and drivers alike don’t really reailze they are on a bridge at all — it simply becomes a city street.

The Grand bridge spans railroad tracks, the existing MetroLink line and the eastbound lanes of I-64 (hwy 40 to locals). The actual width of the tracks and highway is quite short. The rest of the bridge just spans industrial land.

Here is my proposal:

Before all the naysayers try to explain why we cannot be urban let me try to address a few points. The area has already been blighted and is going to be redeveloped. Building new buildings up to the existing bridge is feasible, perhaps more so than the plan to add width and medians to the current structure. Also, we can be urban and what better place to create an urban street than at a location with a MetroLink light rail stop and between two major university campuses.

Related Links:
Biz Journal story on Grand bridge project
Cap at Union Station, Columbus OH

– Steve

ULI To Hold Chouteau Lake Competition

The Urban Land Institute along with some local organizations, including St. Lousi University, are sponsoring a competition for part of the proposed Chouteau Lake/Greenway area. With a submission deadline of February 6th it doesn’t give much time. From the Competition Brief:

The development site is an approximately 100-acre parcel encompassing a block on both sides of Grand Boulevard, bounded by Spring Street at the west and Theresa Street at the east; and spanning the proposed Chouteau Greenway, from Forest Park Boulevard at the north to Chouteau Avenue at the south. The northern and southern boundaries abut the north and south campuses of SLU, and your master plan must suggest ways in which your development would connect to the existing campuses and other neighborhood amenities.

In prior posts I’ve commented on the new SLU research buliding currently under construction to the south of this site — basically that it is an anti-urban tower sitting in the center of a green field. I’ve also written that when the Grand Boulevard bridge is rebuilt it should have street-level retail added to each side to “bridge” the gap of the tracks below.

Click here for the ULI Competition website.

[UPDATED 1/30/06 @ 9AM – I found the 2004 project in Columbus Ohio where retail was placed along both sides of a bridge spanning a major urban interstate. It is called the ‘Cap at Union Station.’ Click here to see the developer’s website on the project (includes many photos and a site plan).

From the ULI:

The Cap at Union Station is a $7.8 million retail development that reconnects downtown Columbus, Ohio, with the burgeoning Short North arts and entertainment district. Opened in October 2004, the project effectively heals part of a 40-year scar that was created by the construction of the city’s Interstate 670 (I-670) inner-belt highway. Composed of three separate bridges—one for through-traffic across the highway, and one on either side for the retail structures—the Cap provides 25,496 square feet (2,369 square meters) of leasable space, transforming the void caused by I-670 into a seamless urban streetscape with nine retail shops and restaurants. While other cities like Seattle and Kansas City have erected convention centers over urban highways, the I-670 Cap is one of the first speculative retail projects built over a highway in the United States.

– Steve

Hearing on Relocating South Grand McDonalds

Nearly a year ago I did a post about McDonalds possibly moving across Grand to the former Sears site.

In this time we’ve seen some activity at the new home development Keystone Place but not enough for my satisfaction. I can’t imagine a new McDonalds helping matters.

As I stated a year ago, I think a new McDonalds should be built as an out parcel on the former National. That entire city block is under-utilized and suffering from too many open parking. Building a corner McDonalds would actually be an improvement.

Here is a map of the intersection of Grand & Chippewa. To the North one block at Winnebego is the former Sears site.

A conditional use hearing on the McDonalds will be held on February 16, 2005 in Room 208 of City Hall, 8:30am. The former Sears site is 3708 S. Grand.

– Steve

A Critical Look at St. Louis’ Martin Luther King Drive

Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr. day and I’ve spent a good bit of time this weekend looking at the St. Louis street bearing his name. Sunday I took a nice ride on my scooter the full length of MLK in both directions. Yesterday, I went back in the car to get a few more pictures. I learned something new — last year I kept saying “Boulevard” but turns out to be a “Drive” instead. Either way it is about six miles of depressing ruins with the occasion signs of hope.

From the St. Louis Library Street Index:

MARTIN LUTHER KING DRIVE (E-W). (Official designation is DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING DRIVE.) Following the route of the early trail from St. Louis to St. Charles, this street was officially named St. Charles Rock Road in 1865 and renamed Easton Avenue in 1881 to honor Rufus Easton, an early St. Louis postmaster [1805]. It received its present name following the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968. King won a Nobel Prize in 1964 for his work to gain full civil rights for black Americans.

Easton Avenue, and part of Franklin Avenue, were renamed in 1972. At the time this once busy major shopping street would have been mostly intact although showing signs of neglect and decline:

“Between 1950 and 1970 the Ville’s population declined by nearly 40%. With such a drop due to “Black Flight”, the Ville businesses struggled.” [source]

It is important to note the city was heavily overcrowded at its peak. This should not be confused with density. Overcrowding had to do with the number of people per unit while density is the population per square mile. We had great density to support mass transit and local stores but an insufficient number of units per square mile. Taller buildings, such as the multi-story walk ups common in New York would have given us enough units to avoid being overcrowded.
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Conrad is Best Team to Redevelop Richmond Height’s Hadley Township

This post will cover a lot of ground including mass transit, pedestrian connections, politics, historic preservation, suburban sprawl and of course; eminent domain. But I’ve given away the conclusion in the headline. Of the proposals presented at last night’s meeting in Richmond Heights on redeveloping a part of that suburb known as Hadley Township, the Conrad team was by far the best.

THF, which I despise, actually had a much better proposal than I would have anticipated. The architecture firm of Heine-Croghan, which had a proposal as a developer, showed a lack of experience doing urban planning. Mills Properties, that had submitted a fourth proposal, was not at the meeting because apparently their approach wasn’t comprehensive enough to be compared to the others. Translated that means it didn’t take enough people’s homes to be considered by Richmond Heights.

From the literature I picked up at the meeting it seems that a fifth proposal, not on Richmond Heights’ website, was received. It was from QuikTrip, the Walgreen’s of gas stations. Maybe they wanted to do the world’s largest gas station comprising all 57 acres? Just imagine the number of pumps? People with Hummers might have to fill up again once they got to the other side of the QuikTrip.

Before I get into looking at the proposals for the area I want to talk about the area and how it got to this point. To the North is the highway that is about to get rebuilt. To the East a stable neighborhood. To the South the THF Realty monstrosity known as Maplewood Commons and to the West, across Hanley, the most f*cked up collection of strip malls, big boxes and offices that are sadly all relatively new. Among them is a new MetroLink light rail station that will be opening late this year.

The area in question was, at one time, a very stable and middle class African-American neighborhood. But because of the prime location speculators have been buying up properties for years. One was the aforementioned Mills Properties. The City of Richmond Heights has also acquired a number of properties within the area. The Richmond Heights Public Works department is located within the redevelopment area as are some other offices for the municipality. In short, the area suffers from being too well located to remain a nice middle class neighborhood.

In other similar areas, say Olivette just North of the tony suburb of Ladue, middle class houses were bought and razed for larger homes. But this didn’t happen here. I’m not sure if the speculators knew the land would be worth more if they could turn it into more strip malls or if it was because of the racial makeup of the neighborhood that they thought they couldn’t sell new in-fill houses to the white masses. Either way it has put these people’s neighborhood in the middle of a real estate game where they are simply the pawns. Yet as more and more speculators have bought property in the area it makes it harder and harder to sell your place to a new owner-occupant. The self-fulfiling downward spiral begins with the remaining home owners left realizing they will be forced to leave their family homes.


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