AIA St. Louis Sets Dates For Upcoming Charrette

AIA St. Louis members have been working for the last couple of months on planning a design charrette (good definition) to exam the area along Market Street from the Arch to 20th — aka “the Gateway Mall.”

Monday night the planning group tentatively set the weekend of Friday, September 16th through Sunday September 18th as the charrette weekend. The registration deadline will be Friday August 19th. Invitations to participate will be mailed and posted online sometime next month. Community participation in the process will be encouraged.

Most of the remaining details are still in the draft stage and are not yet ready to be announced. I’m excited about the possibilities for examining these public green spaces and their environs. It has been a pleasure sitting in with the AIA members on the planning meetings for this charrette.

I’ve got my own views on these many blocks and I’ve shared a few on some previous posts. I’m going to hold my recommendations until the actual charrette (well, maybe…)

– Steve

Mokwa and Joyce to Converse with the Community on June 15th

St. Louis Police Chief Joseph Mokwa and St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce will be at an event billed as a “conversation with the community” on June 15th, 2005 at 7pm. From the meeeting notice:

Wow, that is a lot for one meeting. I hope it is not like most where someone in the audience makes a series of incoherent statements during the question period rather than ask a question. I also hope that Mokwa and Joyce can get beyond political sound bite answers.

The event is sponsored by and located at the Saint Louis Altenheim assisted and long term care living facility on the Missouri river bluffs. Their address is 5408 South Broadway, 63111 (map). They are easily accessible by bike although I don’t know about bike parking. The #40 Broadway bus would drop you off right in front of the building (PDF schedule & route map).

– Steve

Mokwa and Joyce to Converse with the Community on June 15th

St. Louis Police Chief Joseph Mokwa and St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce will be at an event billed as a “conversation with the community” on June 15th, 2005 at 7pm. From the meeeting notice:

Wow, that is a lot for one meeting. I hope it is not like most where someone in the audience makes a series of incoherent statements during the question period rather than ask a question. I also hope that Mokwa and Joyce can get beyond political sound bite answers.

The event is sponsored by and located at the Saint Louis Altenheim assisted and long term care living facility on the Missouri river bluffs. Their address is 5408 South Broadway, 63111 (map). They are easily accessible by bike although I don’t know about bike parking. The #40 Broadway bus would drop you off right in front of the building (PDF schedule & route map).

– Steve

Predictable and Anti-Urban Loughborough Commons Has Begun

Demolition work has begun on the site of the new “Loughborough Commons” at Loughborough & I-55 in South St. Louis (map). It will continue to Loughborough and Grand but it is the all mighty highway that sprawl developments cater to. I talked about this development before in a post from January 25th.

Before the sprawl apologists comment that we need development and progress let me say that I agree. We cannot simply say nothing is ever going to change. Cities change, I accept that. It is the type of change I have issues with. To call this development or any of its kind “progressive” is highly laughable.

This development is the least progressive way to redo this site!

What we are getting in the name of progress is a couple of big boxes which ignore the neighborhood and cater to the highway crowd. How is this progress? This is what suburban sprawl is all about. We’ve seen this same thing being built in every American city over the last 50 years. Making the City of St. Louis look more like Fenton or St. Peters is destructive in the long term.

St. Louis’ best assets are our architecture and street grid!

… Continue Reading

More Progressives in St. Louis

Today a new website was launched to promote “grassroots politics in the gateway city.” Appropriately it is named ProgressiveSTL.com.

From the introductory post:

I’ve met Dylan and I am impressed by his ideas and energy. If only high-speed internet and blogs existed when I was 26. Dylan’s second post talks about city schools.

If you are a progressive person I suggest you keep an eye on Dylan’s blog. If you are part of the old school establishment I suggest you keep an eye on Dylan’s blog.

– Steve