Washington University Replacing Occupied Buildings, Leaving Vacant Buildings/Land Vacant

ABOVE: Drawing from a February 2010 Student Life article, click image to view

In February Washington University made a big announcement regarding development in the Delmar Loop:

Washington University plans to remake a central part of the Delmar Loop with an $80 million project consisting of stores and apartments for about 550 students.

The project comprises a four- to six-story building of retail space and apartments on Delmar Boulevard at Eastgate Avenue and three new mid-rise apartment buildings on Enright Avenue nearby. Design work will begin soon, and construction could begin in January 2013 with occupancy in August 2014, university officials said. (STLtoday.com)

Numerous existing buildings will be razed to make room for the new buildings. My first reaction was disapproval, razing occupied structures when vacant land and buildings exist just a short distance to the east. But I wanted to wait to blog about the project until I had a chance to see all the buildings that would be razed and to get a feel for the area. First though I want to talk vacant land and buildings.

East of Skinker

The long closed auto service place located at 6045 Delmar is owned by Quadrangle Management, part of Washington University. The building is the only structure on the block surrounded by Delmar Blvd, Des Peres Ave and Rosedale Ave. This MetroLink station has been open nearly 20 years, I’d hoped this site would be redeveloped years ago.

ABOVE: The closed auto service center was built in 1964. It's adjacent to MetroBus & MetroLink stops. Click image to view in Google Maps.

Redevelopment of this site right next to the light rail line and the meeting point for numerous bus lines would be great for the area. The vacant 1928 Wasbash Wabash Station across Des Peres Ave might be renovated and occupied.

ABOVE: Historic Wasbash Wabash Station is owned by Joe Edwards through an LLC. Click image for more information on this station.

Just to the west of the vacant auto service building is a large parcel of land (6105-23 Delmar) that had been proposed for development in 2006.

ABOVE: Sign for unbuilt "Loop Center" project, April 2006.

The unremarkable structures that existed were razed in 2006 2007 — the land has been vacant since. Neither Washington University or Joe Edwards control this land. Still it just strokes me as wasteful for Washington University to razed occupied buildings when they own an vacant and out of character building right next to a major transit hub. But let’s cross over Skinker and check out what they do plan to replace.

West of Skinker

Let’s take a tour of the site starting with two structures facing Delmar that would be razed then working our way counter-clockwise.

ABOVE: These two apartment buildings from 1928 would be replaced

ABOVE: The vacant lot at Delmar & Eastgate would be developed once again. The building across the street isn't part of the development site

ABOVE: This nice occupied building from 1923 would be razed, 609-611 Eastgate Ave

ABOVE: 6236 Enright Ave was built in 1923 and contains 6 apartments

ABOVE: The remainder of the south side Enright is occupied by University Terrace, apartment/townhouse buildings from 1970

ABOVE: University Terrace building at Enright & Westgate Ave

According to this video the University Terrace apartments on Enright were renovated in 2009. Look like nice housing to me.

Not Part of Project

Continuing our walk around the block we’re at Westgate and Delmar, these buildings are not part of the Washington University project.

ABOVE: The out of place building at Delmar & Westgate was built in 1969, the year before the University Terrace buildings behind it.

ABOVE: This building and parking garage across from the Tivoli will remain. The garage was built in 1998.

ABOVE: East of the garage is a 2-story building from 1920 and the first of a series of 3-story apartment buildings with retail on the first floor, also built in 1920.

ABOVE: More 3-story apartment buildings, with the first floor as storefronts. Built in 1920.

ABOVE: The last 1920 apartment building with retail, the Washington University project will raze the building barely visible on the right.

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Disclosure: I have NO relationship with Washington University.

http://www.studlife.com/news/facilities-and-construction/2012/03/08/washington-university-investing-80-million-to-develop-apartment-complex-on-the-loop/

http://www.parkviewgardensvision.org/

Inviting Storefront Design Critical to Revitalizing Old Commercial Districts

Storefront design has a big impact on how we perceive an area. So often formerly inviting storefronts became closed over time as commercial districts went downhill. Lately, in many of these commercial districts, we’ve seen a welcomed return to inviting glass storefronts as the areas become filled with new establishments.

ABOVE: 3108 Morgan Ford Rd in Oct 2010

For many years the space behind my favorite bike shop, A&M Bicycles, was used for storage. Down the street Local Harvest Grocery needed to expand beyond their original space, a perfect match. Except for that awful storefront! No business was going to use the space with that front.

ABOVE: Work underway in January 2011

ABOVE: New storefront is inviting, improves district, April 2011

All up and down Morgan Ford Rd old closed storefronts like this one have been replaced by mostly glass storefronts. The visual impact on the commercial district is amazing, no longer does the street feel rundown.

Reactivating 7th Street

The short stretch of 7th Street from Washington Ave north to Convention Plaza (formerly Delmar) has been a dead zone for years. That’s changing thanks to the old Dillard’s building being occupied by a hotel, apartments and soon several street-level uses facing Washington Ave.

ABOVE: Looking north on 7th Street from Washington Ave,side of America's Center convention center (left), Edward Jones Dome (center, background), former Dillard's Dept Store (right)

Both the Embassy Suites Hotel and Laurel Apartments face 7th Street, creating daily activity not seen in decades. The hotel’s 212 guest suites and the 205 apartments can potentially put a lot of feet on the sidewalks in the area, but only if their are places to walk to.

ABOVE: Looking south on 7th Street toward Washington Ave

Parking isn’t allowed on 7th which then looks too wide and empty. However, people are parking on the street at times and the hotel valet is using part of the space. But once you remove the parked cars the excessively wide street looks abandoned.

ABOVE: Without parked cars the street is clearly too wide

In terms of active facades the east side of the street is good with the hotel and apartment entrances & visible lobbies.  The west side of 7th is totally dead though.

ABOVE: Steps to nowhere, the entrance to the MetroRide store faces Washington Ave, not 7th

ABOVE: View of 7th Street from inside the MetroRide store (click image for website)

ABOVE: Marketing windows, but no active doorways, exist along the east side of 7th Street to create activity and the perception of safety.

ABOVE: View of side of convention center from across 7th Street

The architects did a good job breaking up this facade and trying to make it look hospitable but it’s nothing more than a gussied up blank wall, lipstick on a pig.

Are we just stuck with one side of 7th Street remaining dead forever? I don’t think so.

ABOVE: The space along 7th is back space and employee hallway

We need the Convention & Visitors Commission to look at activating the 7th Street facade of America’s Center. From a retail perspective the MetroRide store is a total dud occupying what should be a very active corner between the convention center and a MetroLink station.

- Steve Patterson

St. Louis Needs CEOs Creating Walkable Shopping Around Their Corporate Campuses

Over the last 6-8 years I’ve watched the corporate campus of Chesapeake Energy Corporation in Oklahoma City grow and grow and grow. But I wouldn’t use the old phrase “sprawling campus” because the site has developed quite dense and walkable.  Most of you in St. Louis have likely never heard of Chesapeake so here is a summary from Wikipedia:

Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) is the second largest producer of natural gas in the United States, a top 15 producer of U.S. liquids and the most active driller of new wells, according to an August 2011 investor presentation. It recorded 2Q 2011 natural gas production of an average of approximately 3.049 billion cubic feet (86,300,000 m3) of natural gas equivalent, a 9 percent year-over-year increase. The 2010 full year was Chesapeake’s 21st consecutive year of sequential production growth.

The company had a few buildings in an older office park when I first visited an employee. Recently those original buildings were razed.

ABOVE: Construction equipment has is a fixture of Chesapeake's campus

From such humble beginnings, the company’s Oklahoma City footprint has multiplied an astonishing 450 times. The Chesapeake campus now measures 2.7 million square feet. Employees work in 24 buildings, and there’s another half million square feet of office space under construction. (source)

They even have a page to talk up their campus:

Chesapeake’s 72,000-square-foot Fitness Center is located on campus, and plays host to a wide range of recreation programs, group exercise classes, cardio machines, weight room, basketball courts, racquetball courts, swimming pool, fitness assessments and preventative health screenings. Our adjoining athletic field hosts a variety of outdoor events during and after work, including coed flag football, soccer, kickball, team Frisbee, softball and personal training, and includes a quarter-mile track.

Also on campus are three restaurants, The Wildcat, Fuel and Elements, which offer a wide variety of healthy choices for breakfast and lunch. From a fresh salad bar, to made-to-order deli line and grill, employees have a variety of healthy alternatives to choose from.

The impressive fitness center was one of the first new buildings constructed as expansion began. Even though they have three restaurants for employees on campus they have developed shopping across Western Ave to the west. I posted about ClassenCurve last year.

ABOVE: ClassenCurve just opening in September 2010

Last month a new Whole Foods opened at The Triangle at ClassenCurve. Chesapeake is located on the edge of Nichols Hills (map), a small but very affluent suburb of Oklahoma City, their version of our Ladue. Tulsa has had a Wild Oats/Whole Foods for years, located in a space vacated by a former chain grocery. There have been several times I would stop at the Whole Foods in Tulsa to pick up items to eat at my parents house in Oklahoma City.

ABOVE: OKC's newly opened Whole Foods

Now I can stop at the huge new Whole Foods store in OKC when I’m visiting family.  The thousands of workers on Chesapeake’s campus can walk across the street to get a salad, food from the hot bar or pick up a few groceries. Whole Foods is in Oklahoma City now because of Chesapeake.

ABOVE: Bike racks are right out front, easy to use and actually used by cyclists

The campus-adjacent shopping isn’t just intend for Chesapeake’s employees, all can enjoy — assuming they can afford the types of shops locating in the retail spaces. By my standards the retail developments are barely walkable but compared to most of OKC they are a pedestrian paradise.

ABOVE: Public sidewalk along Classen in the campus looking west toward the retail

The architecture of the retail is a complete contrast to the campus. The campus has Georgian red brick structures while the retail is dark, modern and sleek.They compliment without copying. The retail doesn’t have any of the materials, look or logo of Chesapeake.

I can’t think of any Fortune 500 company in St. Louis that has done what Chesapeake has done. A-B? Nope. A.G. Edwards (now Wells Fargo)? Nada. What about institutions with deep pockets like Saint Louis University? Yeah right!

Chesapeake’s campus, like most corporate & institutional campuses, has lush lawns, water features, plantings and lots of parking. It’s edges separate the public from private but it does so in a friendly way. Architect Rand Elliott:

“We’re really fortunate,” Elliott stated “to have a number of CEO’s in this community, including Aubrey certainly, who believe that architecture is a powerful statement, and an important one for our community and for their businesses, as well.”

I was fortunate to have been paired with Rand Elliott on a project in middle schools during my freshman year at the University of Oklahoma College of Architecture. We need CEOs that will create walkable campus-adjacent space in the St. Louis region.

- Steve Patterson

Poll: Where Do You Shop For Groceries?

Recently I was in the Target on Hampton and saw they had finally added a fresh food section. I often wondered why a fresh food section wasn’t included when this store opened in 2005.

ABOVE: New fresh food section in the Hampton Target

They had to steal square footage from other areas to get the space to expand their grocery offerings. So I began wondering where all of you shop for groceries. Do you go to big supermarkets like Schnuck’s or Dierberg’s? Whole Foods? Vincent’s? Walgreen’s?

ABOVE: Soulard Farmers' Market (click for website)

The poll this week asks the question and provides many answers. The poll is in the right sidebar.

- Steve Patterson

Ordering Food at a Walk-Up Window…in Ladue?

Recently I was in Frontenac and decided to stop for lunch on my way back downtown. I was already on Clayton Road so I decided to visit Red L Pizza owned by my friend John Rice.  Rice previously operated Colorado’s on Laclede & Restaurant Space on The Hill. Red L Pizza is located in the wealthy suburb of Ladue.

ABOVE: Red L Pizza in Ladue (click for website)

The above isn’t the entrance to the dinning room — this is it. You order at a window.

ABOVE: Customers ordering food at Red L's window

Rice explained:

“We have no food, nor do we prepare any food in our ordering booth. The window is merely an vehicle for controlling our food delivery to the automobiles or the patio. 95 % of our orders come via the telephone.”

I sat on the patio to wait for my food and sure enough a guy came around the corner from the kitchen to deliver my order to me.

ABOVE: Seating is limited to a few outdoor tables, most call in for pick up to take home

My visit was on a picture perfect day so as soon as I was done there were other customers ready for my table. Now that the weather has changed I suspect you won’t have any trouble finding a seat.

I’d like to see this model used more often. It’s not a full restaurant but it’s more than a food truck. It livens up this corner of this strip shopping center in Ladue (map).

- Steve Patterson

Readers Unsure About the Future of Retailing at St. Louis Union Station

Last week readers weren’t optimistic about the future of retailing at Union Station:

Q: Does retailing at Union Station have a future?

1. The surrounding blocks need infill with housing with local shoppers 37 [30.58%]
2. A few places will do well, but the rest of the retail space needs to be reallocated to other uses 26 [21.49%]
3. No! 20 [16.53%]
4. Sure, just needs better marketing 11 [9.09%]
5. Retailing under the shed needs to be opened to 18th Street 6 [4.96%]
6. unsure/no opinion 6 [4.96%]
7. Other: 15 [12.4%]

I was glad to see my favorite answer get the most votes.  The surroundings  are depressing, Union Station representatives say they aren’t a mall — they are a destination. Yes, when someone is in town that hasn’t seen the Grand Hall I take them to see it. That happens once every five years. In between I might go to an event or meet someone but otherwise I have no reason to visit.

ABOVE: Looking east on Eugenia St toward Union Station (click to view in Google Maps)

ABOVE: Only part of a planned highway loop around downtown was built, a huge waste of land to the west of Union Station.

The numerous dead spaces around Union Station must be filled in with offices and residential. Eliminate the on/off ramps at 22nd Street (add WB exits at Jefferson) and build a new neighborhood.

ABOVE: The east side of the old train shed along 18th St is a dead zone.

For a number of years now mall owners have been opening up walls and starting to face some retail spaces outward. Union Station must reevaluate the lack of connectedness to both 18th & 20th streets.

The other answers provided by readers were numerous:

1. It is isolated from the east, west, north and south. Wide roads are moats.
2. Tourists want a place 2 shop DT, but dont like US stores- need better retailers
3. needs free parking – then marketing
4. It could be an enclosed antique mall.
5. it would if trains stop there again!
6. Put in open market where paid parking exists!
7. reduce and concentrate retail to ground level, coordinated int. facelift & mktg
8. Reality is that if it has stores and life it will be snuffed out by thugs.
9. needs free parking and better marketing
10. Amtrack should of been positioned there, problem solved.
11. It’s isolated, needs free parking and needs specialty shopping such as outlets
12. Turn it into an IKEA.
13. Both items 1 & 2
14. Union Stations around the country have failed also – it is not just St Louis.
15. Needs something new!

Note the software presents poll answers in random order to each person so I have no idea what answers the person at #13 liked. For #12 the site is way too small for an Ikea even if you razed all the structures. Ikea stores are far from the urban core for a reason — they are auto-centric big boxes.

Hopefully buyers will come along and update the train shed and the city will work to fill in the surroundings.

- Steve Patterson

Poll: Does Retailing Have a Future at St. Louis Union Station?

When St. Louis Union Station reopened in 1985 the festival marketplace retail concept was all the rage.

ABOVE: An empty retail space in the former midway at Union Station

But early optimism about retail at St. Louis Union Station faded as national chains gave way to smaller and smaller retailers, now many of those have left as well:

Visitors to St. Louis Union Station can still get a caricature drawn of their likeness, buy various Arch-themed tchotchkes and get a free sample of fudge and a song to go along with it.

But two longtime fixtures in the historic landmark — Houlihan’s and Key West Cafe — recently left the station. And the Bud Shop, which peddles an assortment of Budweiser-related mugs and memorabilia, is on its way out, too.

[snip]

The departures add to the uncertainty about the future of the venue — most notably the question of who will own it. The current owner, Union Station Holdings LLC, is seeking to sell the property. Bids are due Nov. 10.

“There’s no question it has fallen on harder times,” said St. Louis-based consultant Richard Ward with Zimmer Real Estate Services. “I think it’s in for some serious change, but I don’t know what the change might be.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Union Station’s retail has been continuously falling on “hard times” the entire twenty-one years I’ve been in St. Louis! I missed the first five years, likely the best years.

ABOVE: The food court and retail spaces under the train shed have a decidedly mall feel, but Union Station representatives say it's not a mall.

I have to wonder the future of such retail venues. The Marriott Hotel is doing well though — expanding into the midway space. The Grand Hall is a stunning space.

ABOVE: Window detail inside the Grand Hall at Union Station

I’ve made Union Station the poll topic this week, see right sidebar.

- Steve Patterson

THF Big Box vs. Planned Creve Coeur Downtown

This story caught my eye back in July:

THF Realty, a major developer of Walmarts and other big-box stores, is sniffing around the Orchard Lakes subdivision just north of Creve Coeur and near busy Olive Boulevard and Interstate 270.

A company representative met with subdivision trustees on June 3 to discuss a potential buyout of the entire subdivision, according to a subsequent letter from the trustees to subdivision homeowners. (STLToday)

Not surprising since vacant highway-adjacent parcels no longer exist. The subdivision of 256 single family homes is adjacent to I-270, extending more than half the distance from Olive to Page.

ABOVE: Blue box indicates Orchard Lakes, click to view map in Google Maps

THF Realty wants to make sure all those motorists driving on I-270 can see the generic big box development they are planning.

ABOVE: View of I-270 from Orchard Lakes subdivision

I knew where the subdivision was located but had never driven any of it’s streets, so last month I drove each street in the subdivision.

ABOVE: Orchard Lakes entrance sign

I grew up in a subdivision of similar vintage as Orchard Lakes. From a check of St. Louis County records these houses were built between 1961-66.   There is nothing particularly unique about the homes or the subdivision itself. With a few exceptions, all the homes looked well maintained. Many have newer windows and roofs.

The ranch houses of Orchard Lakes are typical of others from the period in the St. Louis region.

Few sidewalks exist in this subdivision, it’s not at all urban. Not rural either, decidedly suburban. There is no orchard, probably never was.

ABOVE: The only "lake" at Orchard Lakes is a decent pond at best.

There are lots of very nice mature trees though.

ABOVE: Leaving Orchard Lakes to the south the sign reads: Creve Coeur welcomes you.

Orchard Lakes is in unincorporated St. Louis County – barely. Creve Coeur has annexed commercial property along Olive Blvd but they didn’t want the adjacent residential areas. For a while now Creve Coeur has been planning to remake Olive & Ballas into their downtown.

In April 2002, the City of Creve Coeur adopted the Comprehensive Plan. Together, with the Pedestrian Plan and Design Guidelines, these plans set a standard for protecting community assets and strength- ening community character. Among the numerous recommendations made in the Comprehensive Plan are several for the Central Business District. Specifically, the Comprehensive Plan recommends the creation of a downtown (or town center) in the vicinity of the Olive-New Ballas intersection. (Plan PDF)

Orchard Lakes is just north of their proposed downtown/central business district:

The strong real estate market in Creve Coeur is anticipated to continue to be a basis for strengthening residential areas while at the same time stimulating major reinvestment in aging or underutilized commercial areas.

Clearly Creve Coeur’s planners didn’t envision the surrounding residential getting replaced by high traffic big box. To a degree this is what Creve Coeur gets for incorporating only the commercial areas along Olive, but not the adjacent residential to the north. Will be interesting to see if either gets built.

- Steve Patterson

Poll: Name the future commercial district along Grand at the Old White Water Tower

My post last Monday was about the commercial district along Grand Ave around the Old White Water Tower (Grand Ave Water Tower Commercial Area Had Such Potential, Still Does). Although all the original buildings on the circle have been razed, I still see potential for the area.

ABOVE: The Old White Water Tower, looking south on 20th Street

Every good commercial district needs an identity (See The Loop, Grand South Grand, Cherokee, etc) so I figured why not see what we could collectively come up with for the stretch of East Grand Ave centered at the Old White Water Tower at North 20th Street.

ABOVE: Commercial buildings around North Grand Water Tower, winter 1990

The area is entirely in the College Hill neighborhood:

The name College Hill was given to this area because it was the location of the St. Louis University College Farm. This area, bounded generally by Warne (O’Fallon Park, I-70, Grand Blvd. and West Florrisant was acquired by the University for garden and recreation purposes in 1836, it was subdivided in the early 1870′s. The Bissell Mansion, the Old Water Tower at 20th Street and East Grand Avenue, and the Red Water Tower at Bissell Street and Blair Avenue are mainstays in this old Northside neighborhood and are testimony of a rich historical heritage. The housing of this neighborhood dates back between 1880 and 1920. Town and four family flats predominate the neighborhood, with a mixture of single family brick dwellings. The houses have large yards and are ideal for landscaping. The homes located near the crest of the hillside bluff enjoy a view of the river and its valleys. Nearly half of the housing dwellings are owner-occupied. Historically the area’s commercial center has been concentrated along East Grand around the Old Water Tower with a strip along West Florissant.

The neighborhood map looks like this:

The poll this week asks you to name the commercial district. I’ve provided the following answers:

• 20 Grand
• Bissell Point
• College Hill
• Grand College Hill
• Grand Water Tower District
• Old White
• The Column
• The Corinthian
• unsure/no opinion
• Doesn’t matter, will never become a commercial district again

You can also provide your own answer if you don’t like any of those provided.

- Steve Patterson