OKC’s Devon Tower Taller Than St. Louis’ Arch

The tallest building in St. Louis is Metropolitan Square at 593 feet, just under the 630 foot Arch. The Devon Tower under construction in downtown Oklahoma City reaches a height of 850 feet! Wait, what?

Yes, Oklahoma City is getting a massive new tower added to it’s skyline. More like dwarfing the rest of the skyline. Tuesday I posted about how Chesapeake Energy is redeveloping retail shopping adjacent to it’s campus and today the story of another OKC corporate giant, Devon, changing Oklahoma City. Cost estimates are $750 million.

ABOVE: Devon Tower under construction in downtown Oklahoma City, November 2011

The 2nd tallest building in OKC is the 1971 Chase Tower at 500 feet. The 3rd is the 493 foot First National Center built in 1931. Forty year gaps between these buildings, though I doubt in 2051 a building will top the Devon Tower.  I won’t be around anyway…

ABOVE: The Devon Tower looms over the historic 145 foot tall Colcord Hotel (white, right of tower)

Devon’s employees are already downtown, just in various buildings. Consolidating into one facility makes sense but the scale is enormous. I look forward to seeing the completed building and how well it connects to the streets.

Meanwhile in St. Louis we don’t seem to have any companies even considering a new building.  We certainly have plenty of available land.

- 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

Worth the Wait

In the more than 21 years I’ve lived in St. Louis I’ve made many trips back to Oklahoma City to visit family & friends. Each of those times I visited a number of places to see the positive changes taking place. I also drove by my favorite building over and over hoping to see change.

ABOVE: Long-vacant 4-family in August 2009

When I arrived earlier this month my brother had a news story waiting for me:

A Crown Heights property that languished for years — and was referred to by neighbors as the “Moldy Manor” — stands as a reminder that even in a historic preservation district there can always be a black sheep. But it’s not as if the Art Deco fourplex on the southwest corner of Olie Avenue and N.W. 37th Street was an ugly duckling; it was quite the opposite in its day, although it sat rotting for decades. (full story)

Finally, the long time owner (since 1963!) finally sold to a person who will renovate the building! Many had tried to buy the property over the years but the owner was difficult, asking far to much for the property and not maintaing it.

ABOVE: Aerial image shows large hole in garage roof (left) and hole developing in main roof. Click to view in Google Maps

The 4-car garage matched the 4-family’s design.

ABOVE: Matching deco garage with additional living space, August 2009

Sadly the city had  to condemn and raze the garage structure, likely prompting the owner to finally sell.

ABOVE: Work has started to renovate the 4-family, November 2011

I’m looking forward to my next trip to Oklahoma City and seeing the completed renovation. I’ll need to time my trip so that I can go into one of the finished apartments.

The Crown Heights neighborhood is a beautiful historic area of single family homes with only a handful of multi-family properties. However, they recognized this particular 4-family was better a vacant eyesore than a vacant lot. Neighborhoods don’t get stronger by razing buildings.

- Steve Patterson

A Decade Ago

ABOVE: People just outside Ground Zero, October 30, 2001

A decade ago I was excited about an upcoming 19-day vacation with a friend. Our itinerary would begin in Washington D.C., with a drive through the Pennsylvania countryside to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water, on to NYC for a few days and then back to D.C. before flying home. Our flights, car rental and hotel were all booked. We would fly into Dulles Airport on October 19, 2001.

For both os us it would be our first trip to Manhattan, iconic buildings like the Empire State and World Trade Center were on our must-see list.  Then it happened.

ABOVE: The Pennsylvania countryside as seen from the property surrounding Frank Lloyd Wright's Kentuck Knob, October 25, 2001

The morning of September 11, 2001 I was driving to a client’s house in St. Louis County when I heard the report on the radio of the first plane hitting the first tower. When I arrived they had their television on, we watched the reports…and the second plane hitting the second tower. Like the rest of the world, we were stunned. It seemed unreal, so unimaginable.  Death & destruction like we’d never seen before.

ABOVE: A person cleans dust out of HVAC equipment on the lower west side.

For a while it looked like we would cancel our vacation, but then it became clear these areas needed tourists dollars. We went, and had a great time. Returning to D.C. after New York the Pentagon, still damaged, at least had most of the debris  removed.

ABOVE: A sign in an upper east side pharmacy says they have Cipro in stock

Remember the Post 9/11 anthrax scare? A person on NYC’s upper east side died of anthrax poisoning the day we were walking through the area. We visited a friend on the upper west side, a week earlier he could see hazmat crews in the offices of ABC just across the alley cleaning after an anthrax scare.  It was a surreal vacation.

The families of all who died that day, and of first responders who are ill, it was more than surreal. I can’t begin to imagine what they felt then, or now.

On Sundays I introduce a new poll for the week:

The number of Americans who say the government should do whatever it takes to protect its citizens against terrorism —even if it means violating civil liberties — has dropped almost in half since the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. (Source)

This seems like a good topic, the poll is in the right sidebar.  Those on mobile devices will need to switch to the full site to vote in the poll.

- Steve Patterson

Thirty Years Since the Hyatt Regency Crown Center Walkway Collapse

ABOVE: Hyatt Regency Kansas City as seen from the Crown Center Skywalk

Tomorrow evening marks the 30th anniversary of the walkway collapse at the Hyatt Regency Crown Ceenter in Kansas City:

The Hyatt Regency hotel walkway collapse was a collapse of a walkway that occurred on July 17, 1981, in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, killing 114 people and injuring 216 others during a tea dance. At the time, it was the deadliest structural collapse in U.S. history.

On July 17, 1981, approximately 1,600 people gathered in the atrium to participate in and watch a dance competition. Dozens stood on the walkways. At 7:05 PM, the second-level walkway held approximately 40 people with more on the third and an additional 16 to 20 on the fourth level who watched the activities of crowd in the lobby below. The fourth floor bridge was suspended directly over the second floor bridge, with the third floor walkway offset several meters from the others. Construction difficulties resulted in a subtle but flawed design change that doubled the load on the connection between the fourth floor walkway support beams and the tie rods carrying the weight of both walkways. This new design was barely adequate to support the dead load weight of the structure itself, much less the added weight of the spectators. The connection failed and the fourth floor walkway collapsed onto the second floor and both walkways then fell to the lobby floor below, resulting in 111 immediate deaths and 216 injuries. Three additional victims died after being evacuated to hospitals making the total number of deaths 114 people. (Wikipedia)

A “subtle” design change resulted in the deaths of many people.

ABOVE: Hyatt Regency Crown Center Lobby, December 2010

I started architecture school just four years after this accident occurred.  This tragedy, and others, were discussed over and over, especially in structures courses. More from Wikipedia:

Investigators, including David Tonneman (a respected engineering critic), concluded that the basic problem was a lack of proper communication between Jack D. Gillum and Associates, Christopher Willoughby (a University of Michigan engineering student at the time), and Havens Steel. In particular, the drawings prepared by Jack D. Gillum and Associates were only preliminary sketches but were interpreted by Havens as finalized drawings. Jack D. Gillum and Associates failed to review the initial design thoroughly, and accepted Havens’ proposed plan without performing basic calculations that would have revealed its serious intrinsic flaws — in particular, the doubling of the load on the fourth-floor beams.

The engineers employed by Jack D. Gillum and Associates who had approved the final drawings were convicted by the Missouri Board of Architects, Professional Engineers, and Land Surveyors of gross negligence, misconduct and unprofessional conduct in the practice of engineering; they all lost their engineering licenses in the states of Missouri and Texas and their membership with ASCE. While Jack D. Gillum and Associates itself was discharged of criminal negligence, it lost its license to be an engineering firm.

This Hyatt Regency was, and is, owned by a subsidiary of Hallmark.

Hallmark was the driving force behind the Crown Center redevelopment:

Before the First World War, Downtown Kansas City was heavily populated and bustling. The area today home to Crown Center was an extension of the Union Hill historic neighborhood. Gradually, however, the center of population for the metro area moved south, and by the Second World War the area today comprising Crown Center had become dilapidated. Although Hallmark had maintained its headquarters at 26th Street and Grand Avenue since 1922, the headquarters itself and nearby Union Station comprised the only non-slum in the area. Instead, what there was were old warehouses, used car lots, and vacant buildings.

In 1966, Donald J. Hall, Sr. became President and CEO of Hallmark Cards, taking over from his father, Joyce Hall. Joyce Hall had long wished to develop the area around the corporate headquarters, and with his new leadership Donald Hall quickly made it known that he wished to renew the area entirely. Hallmark quietly began acquiring all the property surrounding its headquarters, and consulted with urban planning experts about the possibility of creating an experimental “city within a city” on the property. The City of Kansas City formally approved the plans for Crown Center (named after the Hallmark corporate symbol) by the end of 1967. (Wikipedia)

Crown Center wasn’t Urban Renewal.  Instead it was an early example of an http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_Cities_Program

To city planners, Crown Center is a mixed-use redevelopment, one of the earliest in the nation, on an 85-acre site adjacent to the international headquarters of Hallmark Cards, Inc. It has been a catalyst for change in the city’s urban core, replacing blight with quality working, living and entertainment facilities to breathe life back into the city.

Victor Gruen & Associates of Los Angeles developed the project’s original master plan, which was then modified and implemented by Edward Larrabee Barnes of New York. Crown Center was announced to the public in January 1967, and ground broke on September 16, 1968, for the first phase of the project – an underground parking facility, five-building office complex and landscaped central square. (PDF of Crown Center History)

Victor Gruen is the father of the shopping mall with the open-air Northland Center (1954), enclosed Southdale Mall (1956) and pedestrianization of a street with the Kalamazoo Mall (1959).  I’m not a fan of Gruen’s centralized designs.

I’m also not  a fan of Crown Center. I am a fan of making sure those who must be diligent to protect the safety of the public are checked and double checked.

- Steve Patterson

Tornado Brings Opportunity To Make Joplin More Pedestrian-Friendly

ABOVE: Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce passing out treats in the rotunda at the Missouri Capital on April 13th

As we all know, the City of Joplin was hit hard by an EF-5 tornado on May 22, 2011, making this the deadliest year on record. I know the historic & walkable downtown barely escaped the destruction. Much of Joplin, like most US cities, was a big ugly mess of auto-centric sprawl before the tornado.

ABOVE: View of Fazoli's from my car in the hotel parking lot. September 2010

I stayed a night in Joplin in September last year and posted about having to drive to the restaurant next door to the hotel to have dinner. This area wasn’t damaged so making it walkable will have to wait but the areas where every building was leveled is a perfect opportunity to make slight improvements as they rebuild.

Wikipedia has the most detailed account of the path of destruction I’ve found:

The tornado initially touched down just east of the Kansas state boundary near the end of 32nd Street (37.056958°N 94.588423°W) between 5:35 and 5:41 p.m. CDT (2235 and 2241 UTC) and tracked just north of due east. Surveys remain incomplete there so it is possible it may have started in Kansas and crossed the state line into Missouri.

Damage became very widespread and catastrophic as it entered residential subdivisions in southwest Joplin. In addition, St. John’s Regional Medical Center (37.060554°N 94.530938°W) in the same area was heavily damaged with many windows and the exterior walls damaged and the upper floors destroyed. Several fatalities were reported there. Virtually every house in that area near McClelland Boulevard and 26th Street was flattened, and some were blown away in the area as well. Trees sustained severe debarking, a nursing home and a church school in southwest Joplin were also flattened and several other schools were heavily damaged. Damage in this area was rated as a low-end EF4.

As the tornado tracked eastward, it intensified even more as it crossed Main Street between 20th and 26th Streets. Virtually every business along that stretch was heavily damaged or destroyed and several institutional buildings were destroyed. It tracked just south of downtown, narrowly missing it. More houses were flattened or blown away and trees continued to be debarked. Two large apartment buildings were destroyed, as well as Franklin Technology Center and Joplin High School. Fortunately, no one was in the high school at the time. It approached Range Line Road, the main commercial strip in the eastern part of Joplin, near 20th Street. Damage in this area was rated as a high-end EF4.

The tornado peaked in intensity as it crossed Range Line Road. In that corridor between about 13th and 32nd Streets (37.05528°N 94.478452°W), the damage continued to be very intense and the tornado was at its widest at this point, being nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) wide. Some of the many destroyed buildings include a Cummins warehouse, Walmart Supercenter #59, a Home Depot store, and numerous restaurants, all of which were flattened. Heavy objects, including concrete bumpers and large trucks, were tossed a significant distance, as far as 1/8 mile (200 m) away from the parking lots along Range Line. Numerous other commercial and industrial buildings, as well as more houses, were destroyed with some flattened or blown away as the tornado tracked through southeast Joplin. Many fatalities occurred in this area. Damage in this area was rated as an EF5.

The Red Lobster I’ve been to at 32nd & Range Line is still there, although much of that area was heavily hit.  It has been estimated that anywhere from 10-25% of Joplin’s structures were leveled or damaged.  Joplin now has an opportunity to rebuild in a more connected manner, to take walkability as seriously drivability.

Here are my suggestions for Joplin as they begin:

1. Speed up implementation of ideas from your Long Range Transportation Plan, with particular attention to bicycle & pedestrian & public transit planning.
2. Make sure every public street has a sidewalk on both sides. Do quick corridor plans for the commercial streets where damaged occurred, look for simple changes to rebuild the buildings
3. Require a private sidewalk from the front door of each business to each public sidewalk, this will help create a connected sidewalk network just as roads connect places for cars. Roads provide door to door connectivity, so should the sidewalk network.
4. Eliminate minimum parking requirements for businesses. This will allow businesses to spend less money on parking lots and to possibly locate their buildings closer to the public sidewalk.
5. Build to the sidewalk.  Many destroyed buildings were built up to the sidewalk and should be rebuilt that way. Neighboring buildings that had been allowed to push back from the sidewalk should be rebuilt up to the sidewalk.

My heart goes out to everyone in Joplin.

- Steve Patterson

National Train Day Saturday May 7th, 40 Years of Amtrak

Saturday May 7th is National Train Day:

This year, Amtrak celebrates four decades of providing the nation with vital intercity and high-speed passenger rail service. After 40 years dedicated to serving communities across the country, Amtrak is proud of its role in America’s history, but even more excited about what’s to come. Here, you can learn what’s coming down the tracks, from the future of high-speed rail service to Amtrak’s energy-saving initiatives. And, of course, you can also take a look back at train travel through the years.

I love rail travel, it gets you into city centers. Sometimes it gets you back home.

ABOVE: view of our train from the bus in Hermann MO

Last month I took the train to Jefferson City to visit legislators at the Missouri capital. It was a good day until the train broke down in Hermann MO. After a couple of hours two motor coaches showed up to drive us into Kirkwood & St. Louis.  We arrived about 4 hours after we were supposed to arrive.

ABOVE: driver Hank after he dropped me off on Locust, my building is in the background

I sent an email to Mid-American Coaches praising their driver Hank for taking me to my street after dropping off the others.We arrived after local bus & MetroLink service ended and didn’t want to “walk” home alone in my power chair.

Despite the delay returning from Jefferson City last month I’m taking the train to Kansas City today. Hopefully the trip today and the return Sunday will be problem free.

- Steve Patterson

Travel By Train Good For Urban Centers

ABOVE: Watching Toni Braxton on my iPad in coach

Recently I took a weekend trip to Kansas City.  I’d driven there many times and I’ve flown there once.  But have you been to the Kansas City airport? It is located more than 20 miles north of downtown Kansas City and the bus ride takes more than an hour!  For this trip I took Amtrak.

The train trip was longer than if I had driven my car (6 hours vs 4 hours 15 min), but the convenience was worth it.  First, I could read, stay current on email, watch music videos, take pictures and arrive at my destination refreshed.  Apparently, I’m not alone:

In the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, Amtrak served more than 28.7 million riders, an increase of 5.7% from 2009, according to a company statement. Ticket revenue grew 9%, to $1.7 billion. Ridership on the Acela, Amtrak’s higher-speed train, was up 6.6%. Manieri says the ability to stay connected by phone and Internet while traveling is just one reason she prefers the train over flying or driving.

“You can make phone calls, and you don’t have to turn your laptop on and off,” says Manieri, adding she also avoids the airport’s long security lines and the highway’s congestion.

Amtrak has benefited from the “remarkable lifestyle shift” caused by smartphones, laptops and iPads that let travelers work and communicate almost everywhere, says Joseph Schwieterman, a transportation professor at DePaul University in Chicago. “It’s kind of a have-iPhone-will-travel kind of thing.”

Young adults especially view trains and intercity buses as extensions of the public transportation system, he says. They can hop on without ever disconnecting from the rest of the world, he says. (Amtrak chugs along nicely to record ridership)

My last train trip was to Chicago, nearly a decade earlier.  That trip was a disaster, arriving about 6-7 hours late. But this trip was punctual to the minute.  By taking my train I was able to have my power wheelchair with me, saving the hassle of parking and of my limited walking distance.

ABOVE: Manual lifts are placed where needed to get wheelchairs into a train car

ABOVE: The coach car to Kansas City was clean & comfortable

ABOVE: One outlet per seat for coach & business class

ABOVE: Business class on the return trip had much more room, leather seats and softer lighting

Future trips will be by planes, trains & automobiles. Once Amtrak service in Missouri & Illinois gets wi-fi like trains on the east coast I think we will see more and more opting for train travel.  More people traveling from urban center to urban center will only help those  cities, without hurting the suburban edge.  Next week I will look at Kansas City’s BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) line.

- Steve Patterson

Downtown Grocery Stores: St. Louis vs. Kansas City

ABOVE: Cosentino's Market, downtown Kansas City, MO

On a recent visit to Kansas City I visited the downtown Cosentino’s Market in the Power & Light District.   I was impressed., I left thinking the store had to be twice as big as St. Louis’ downtown market, Culinaria.   It is bigger, but only 22% (27,000sf vs 33,000sf).

Both stores are operated by local family chains.

ABOVE: Culinaria - A Schnucks Market, downtown St. Louis MO

The older & larger chain is the St. Louis-based Schnucks:

“Associates of Schnuck Markets Inc., have been serving customers a unique combination of quality food, variety and value for nearly seven decades. Founded in north St. Louis in 1939, the family-owned grocery company has grown to include more than 100 stores in seven states: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Tennessee and Mississippi.”

But the Cosentino chain is only a quarter the size of Schnucks:

The Cosentino family opened their first market in 1948, located on Blue Ridge Boulevard in Kansas City. Since that time the local family owned grocer has aspired to provide excellent customer service in an exceptionally clean environment. It was with immense pride that Cosentino’s Market grew from a dream into a reality. The first Cosentino’s Market was opened in Brookside in 2004 followed by the location in the Kansas City Power & Light District in 2009. “We were so honored to be chosen as part of this historical project and to have the chance to develop such an innovative store.” John Cosentino says of the Downtown project.

Cosentino’s Food Stores currently operates 25 stores in the Kansas City area. The first generation is proud to watch the third generation of Cosentino’s Family members now taking part in the day to day operations and management of the company.

So the newer, smaller chain built a larger downtown market.

ABOVE: Cosentino's Market, downtown Kansas City, MO

The Cosentino’s didn’t receive any direct subsidies.  However, it is part of the Power & Light District, which was financed in part through the state MODESA program.  Culinaria, on the other hand, got plenty of incentives.  First the parking garage it is located in is owned by  the Missouri Development Finance Board.  The structure was developed by DESCO, the Schnucks’ development company.  But they also got specific help:

Schnucks will pay $3.42 million necessary for tenant improvements, inventory and other opening expenses at the downtown location, at Ninth and Olive streets, according to state finance board documents. The remaining money will come from a combination of state, federal and city subsidies. (St. Louis Business Journal)

ABOVE: Culinaria - A Schnucks Market, downtown St. Louis MO

To my knowledge no criteria was put in place to have Schnucks repay the taxpayers if the store exceeded a certain threshold.

- Steve Patterson

Updating Non-ADA Compliant Properties

Returning from Oklahoma City last week I booked a room in St. Robert MO (along I-44)

ABOVE: Quality Inn, St. Robert MO

When I arrived the first thing I noticed was the lack of a curb ramp onto the sidewalk from the loading zone between the disabled parking spaces. As soon as I got into my “accessible” room I knew I couldn’t stay — a tub/shower is impossible for me to use.  Two grab bars does not make a tub/shower accessible.

The staff was helpful, they called the Holiday Inn Express next door and got me a room there.

ABOVE: Holiday Inn Express St. Robert MO

It turns out the Quality Inn was the old Holiday Inn.  It was renovated but that didn’t include ADA requirements such as a roll-in shower or curb ramps. The useful life of the property has been extended through renovation so it will continue for years to be non-compliant.

The Holiday Inn Express, opened in April 2010, was as close to perfect as I could expect.  The ramps, above, are not the recommended design as someone walking past one has to deal with the cross slope.  The better was is to have the sidewalk drop down to create the access point and then rise on the other side.  Better still, just don’t have a curb and use bollards.

ABOVE: the roll-in shower at the Holiday Inn Express was ideal

The shower in the new Holiday Inn Express was ideal for me.  I wasn’t traveling with my manual or my motorized wheelchair but the lack of a raised curb, a seat and grab bars ensured a safe shower. Half the hotels I’ve stayed in recently that had seats had padded vinyl seats which can be dangerously slippery when soapy & wet.  The Quality Inn should have updated one bathroom to have a roll-in shower.

Closer to home we have the case of the restaurant space at 711 Olive.

When the Downtown Cantina occupied this space the above door was their main door. After they closed a new place, Slay’s on Zaytoon opened after remodeling the space.  In their remodel they made the above accessible entrance a secondary doorway and the other door their main door.

This entrance, as you can see, is not accessible. At the time the person from Slay’s said just come in and they’d unlock the accessible door.  That works if you are with someone but not when alone.  Slay’s wasn’t open long and on November 11, 2009 I sent an email to David Newburger, St. Louis’ Commissioner on the Disabled, about  the situation. Here is part of his response:

From the point of view of the law, the City cannot deny an occupancy permit to new operators of a facility who are not doing significant rehab if that facility has previously had an occupancy permit for the same use. So, as I think you understand, from the City’s point of view and unless the new occupant will need a building permit, this is a matter for moral persuasion rather than legal imperative.

If I can get the owners attention, I will try to impress the new owners. Likewise, it is possible Alderman Young or others in City Hall can have some say in this.

As a last resort, of course, if the owners do not set the situation up to use that accessible entrance, both you and any other person with a disability who might patronize the restaurant can file a discrimination charge with the City’s Civil Rights Enforcement Agency, the Missouri Commission on Human Rights, and/or the US Department of Justice.

When Everest opened in this space they didn’t make any significant changes from the previous tenant.  The main door is not accessible and the accessible door says “use other door.”

Someone issued a permit to renovate the space for Slay’s on the Zaytoon.  Who would that have been that OK’d making the non-accessible doorway the main door?  The City of St. Louis!  The city cannot keep passing the buck when they fail to ensure that spaces that are being remodeled do not end up less accessible than before.

I think I will begin filing complaints with the above agencies  — complaints against the municipal agency that should ensure compliance when issuing permit. For them to knowingly allow a tenant to remodel a space so that it became less accessible is discriminatory action in my view.

- Steve Patterson