Old Webster Repeats Old Mistakes

Opened a few years ago, the Old Webster development provided parking, retain and office space for downtown Webster Groves. In the big picture I have no complaints. But a closer look reveals some old mistakes I’ve reviewed before. Common mistakes that show an underlying misunderstanding of urbanity.

The entrance is a bit too hard for my taste as a pedestrian. Entrance sidewalks are accessories to the entry drive – almost an afterthought.

A small left over parcel as you enter off of Lockwood is supposed to be an appealing place to sit and relax. You get a great view of the public parking entrace. This is not good open space. Good open space draws people in which this does not. A note to designers – stop placing benches in your left over parcels. Instead, a small news stand or similar small retail space could have created an interesting addition to street life.

At the end of the sidewalk you are just dumped onto a vast sea of concrete where the cars come and go. Not at all friendly. The goods news is you can look at the fountain ahead has you get run over.

If you survive crossing the great divide you actually seen an area with reasonable scale and care in detailing.

Well, not all the detailing is so good. This vent for the garage below is located next to the stop sign post. It is hard to tell from the grade material if a wheelchair can easily navigate without getting stuck. Most likely it can but it would have been nice to provide the vent somewhere where it wouldn’t be squeezed next to a sign post.

But look straight ahead in the picture. Planters in front of a cross walk?

Yes, the logical straight path in this nearly new development is blocked by store signage and planters. The painted crosswalk is lacking curb cuts on both sides of the “street.”

From the opposite side looking back where we had just come from you can see the lack of curb cuts and how much of the sidewalk is blocked. The crosswalk going to the right was seemingly planned as it has a curb cut.

Surely the designers expected people to be able to cross from one side to the other? Walking a few car spaces to the left reveals the original intent.

Here we see the curb cuts that really should have been at the corner. The car is legally parked – a space has been designated in front of the curb cut that provides ADA compliance.

Same is true for the opposite side of the “street” with a parking space blocking the accessible route. The center of the building in the background is lined up with the office building entrance behind me. On paper someone thought it would be wise to connect the two.

Designers, architects, planners, developers, retailers, and elected officials can all fall prey to looking at ideas on paper without realizing in reality the concepts don’t follow basic human nature. So much work has been done on the habits of humans in urban environments a mistake like this should not have made it past a first draft sketch. Clearly after being built someone realize people were crossing at the corner (duh) so it was stripped as such.

– Steve

Grand Center: The Intersection of Art and Life

The Intersection of Art and Life is the latest in a serious of marketing attempts to brand Grand Center as an arts district.

We are the cultural soul of the city.
We are its right brain.
Its once and future kingdom of arts and entertainment.
We open minds and nourish spirits.
We broaden horizons and indulge fantasies.
We are a melting pot of creative juices.
We are the center of all that feeds the mind, body and soul.

We are Grand Center.
At the intersection of Art and Life.

Yeah, yeah, we get it. Artsy. Creating an arts district is not an idea new to St. Louis. In fact, such was the trend in cities all over the US in the 60s. It was 1966 when the Symphony bought Powell hall to serve as their new home. The roots of such thinking comes from a lack of understanding on how cities work.

As people left cities in the 1950s for the new clean suburbs city planners began devising ideas on how to revitalize cities. Unfortunately they nearly destroyed our cities. Streets were widened and highways cut through to make it easier to leave at 5pm for the home in the suburbs. Streets were made one-way for the same reason. Some streets were ripped up to become pedestrian malls. Buildings were razed left and right for parking lots and garages. Entire neighborhoods were leveled for great new housing like Pruitt-Igo.

St. Louis and other cities became neither cities or the new suburbs. They were stuck in this middle ground of being neither. As such, they offered little appeal to city dwellers or suburbanites. In retrospect we now know we should have not tried to mimic the suburbs but instead reinforced what city life was all about. But that didn’t happen.

One of the main aspects of the suburbs is to separate uses. Single family houses are separate from apartments which are separate from shopping areas. Offices too are separated. Given how ugly the new suburbs were it was almost never thought the Symphony should be next to a strip mall. But the logic that created the office park thought a arts district was a good idea. Hence the idea to compartmentalize cultural institutions into one place.

Special districts, by definition, are not diverse neighborhoods. They will not be vibrant from a mix of users and uses. They have a singular purpose.

Jane Jacob’s wisdom from The Death and Life of Great American Cities still rings true over 40 years later. I’m not suggesting we make any arts group or museum move. I am suggesting we drop the urban renewal era district idea in favor of building a great neighborhood. The renovated Coronado and Moolah are two steps in the right direction – they add life to the city morning, noon and night.

The best urban areas in St. Louis; The Loop, Euclid in the West End, South Grand and Washington Avenue, are all based on diverse uses. They are not false singular districts. It is time for city & civic leaders to realize the fallacy of special districts.

We need to be focusing on building diverse neighborhoods.

– Steve

Cherokee Street Needs to Lose the “Antique Row” Designation

It seems everyone knows “Antique Row” is on Cherokee street between Lemp and Jefferson. This is good and bad. Mostly bad.

The business owners along Cherokee Street have done a great job marketing themselves as the place to buy antiques. Suburbanites that seem to know little about the city know how to find their way to Cherokee when they want to go antiquing. You will find the street packed with antique shoppers on Saturdays. The rest of the week is another story.

The above quote is from Jane Jacobs’ classic book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, as she describes one of four indispensable conditions “to generate exuberant diversity in a city’s streets and districts.” Cherokee relies on a single primary use – antique shoppers. With the exception of Saturdays I find the street to be dead.

The last time I was in one of the shops was nearly a year ago when a friend visited from Seattle. I have two houses full of stuff so the last thing I need to do is go antiquing. The street offers me little else. It doesn’t serve the daily needs of adjacent residents.

By contrast the blocks of Cherokee West of Jefferson are increasingly vibrant. Throughout the day and night you’ll see activity. On Thanksgiving Day I was able to purchase a wonderful pumpkin empanada at a Mexican bakery. Many customers on the street are pedestrians from adjacent blocks. Most businesses appeal to the lower incomes of residents with check cashing places, furniture rental and thrift stores. Despite these issues, the street feels genuine and I often will drive or bike down the street when I am in the area.

Back East of Jefferson we are seeing more and more vacant shops where antique dealers used to be. With the “success” of the street came higher building prices and increased rent which made it more difficult for antique dealers to survive. Other businesses such as bookstores and cafes face similar challenges as they rely heavily on the antique shoppers for their business.

Cherokee Street needs to lose the “Antique Row” designation in order to survive. The street needs a coffee house with wi-fi to attract people morning, noon and night the way Hartford Coffee does in the Tower Grove area. The street needs the diversity of uses found on the Loop. A small market. A place to buy CDs. A newstand. The simple grab a slice of pizza type place as well as a cloth napkins restaurant.

I don’t want to run off the antique dealers. I simply want to give people more reasons to visit the street. One new reason will be the opening of the Shangri-La Diner at 2201 Cherokee on Sunday April 10th. At this point I think it will only be for brunch but hopefully Patrice will extend hours during the week. [Note, for the past month or so Shangri-La has been operating out of the old Triple Expresso location at Lemp & Arsenal. Click here for more info on the brunch.]

At Cherokee and Lemp is O’Malley’s Irish Pub which seems to be doing a good job of creating some fun night life with food, drink and live music. The menu looks interesting but offers little for me as a vegetarian. Oh well, maybe I’ll stop in for a beer some night.

Ideally we will see the Eastern blocks of Cherokee diversify and offer more to the city resident not looking for antiques as well as reasons for the tourist/suburbanite to linger longer while antique shopping. I’d also like to see East and West begin to mix. Hopefully the blocks West of Jefferson can become less poverty-centric while continuing to serve the needs of the population.

Architecturally both sides of Jefferson are great. The scale is intimate and welcoming. East of Jefferson the buildings are much older with great wood and cast iron storefronts. West of Jefferson you get wonderful terra cotta detailing on larger buildings. The Casaloma Ballroom already provides a music/entertainment venue for the area.

Cherokee Street, East and West of Jefferson, has immense potential. Diversity is the key to sustaining the streets and ultimately the adjacent residential blocks. Clinging to an antique row designation at this point will do more harm than good.

– Steve

Eat My Voltage

Today I spotted a bumper sticker, “Eat My Voltage” on the back of a Toyota Prius Hybrid. Cute sticker. Not so cute car unless you are into awkward proportions.

For people trying to be environmentally friendly with their auto purchase the choices are basically a very high fuel mileage car, a electric-gas hybrid or a diesel. The cars with very fuel mileage tend to be really small and spartan. Hybrids are offered from Asian and American manufacturers. So far the American versions are more efficient versions of gas hogging SUVs. Many non-hybrid vehicles get better mileage than American hybrids.

Europeans are developing high-tech diesels. In the US we only get diesels from Volkswagen and Mercedes. Jeep is introducing a diesel Liberty. On the other side of the pond you’ll find diesels from Jaguar, BMW and American vehicles such as the Jeep Cherokee.

I tend to prefer European designed cars as evidenced by my current Audi A4 and my prior VW Golf, two Saabs and three Volvos. All except one have been manual transmissions. Three have been turbocharged. Most have also had factory sunroofs. The Audi has their legendary Quattro all-wheel drive system which I really like.

If you’ve got fifty grand to spend on a new car I recommend the new Mercedes E320 CDI sedan. I know of no other vehicle that can offer over 200hp, 0-60 time of 6.6 seconds and 37mpg on the highway. Hopefully Mercedes will offer a wagon version of this diesel so I can buy a used one in 8 years or so.

Volkswagon offers the biggest selection of diesels with your choice of the Golf, Jetta (sedan & wagon), New Beetle, and Passat (sedan & wagon). My next car purchase will likely be a 2006 VW Golf TDI. This is due to the new diesel that will be available in summer 2006.

This will bring our diesel fuel in line with the type available in Europe and will significantly reduce emissions. This low sulfur diesel will also permit diesel trucks & buses sold after 2007 to be equipped with emissions equipment. The more cars in the area that are diesel the more likely we are to see a biodiesel station.

Biodiesel is the name of a clean burning alternative fuel, produced from domestic, renewable resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.

Biodiesel isn’t some liberal West coast movement. The center of activity is in, of all places, Jefferson City. Yes, the Missouri capital city is where the biodiesel trade organization, the National Biodiesel Board is located. Currently most biodiesel is sold in rural areas for use in farm equipment. The most well known biodiesel is singe/songwriter Willie Nelson:

Most biodiesel currently available is a blend, typically 10% or 20% biodiesel which is referred to as B10 (or B1) and B20 (or B2), respectively. 100% biodiesel is available at a few places. The Biodiesel Board’s website includes a map of biodiesel retailers. In Missouri the rural farm towns have easy access to blends and if you are in Columbia or Jefferson City you’ve got a regular station to fill up. If you have a diesel boat at the Lake of the Ozarks you can fill up with biodiesel at the marina at the Lodge of Four Seasons. Hopefully some enterprising station owner in the St. Louis area will begin offering biodiesel.

So here is the fun part. Typically conservative farmers are leading the charge to replace our dependence on foreign oil. Go figure. Nelson, a legend in the conservative circles of country music, endorsed Dennis Kucinich for President in 2004. Maybe there is hope in the red states.

– Steve

Steve Patterson’s Favorite Urban Books

The following are some of my favorite books on urban issues. They are presented alphabetically by Author.

– Steve

Green Urbanism: Learning from European Cities
Author: Timothy Beatley

Great ideas that we need to take into consideration

How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built
Author: Stewart Brand

A great look at how buildings change over the years

Cash, Tokens, and Transfers: A History of Urban Mass Transit in North America
Author: Brian J. Cudahy

A must read book on mass transit

Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream
Authors: Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck

A great look at sprawl and what can be done about it

The Rise of the Creative Class and how it’s transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life
Author: Richard Florida.

Controversial book looks at changes in classes and how new social classes are changing cities

The Living City: How Urban Residents are Revitalizing America’s Neighborhoods and Downtown Shopping Districts by Thinking Small in a Big Way
Author: Roberta Brandes Gratz

Inspiring book about the importance of the little guy and doing a building at a time

The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Author: Jane Jacobs

A classic. If only planners had paid attention to her 40 years ago

The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape
Author: James Howard Kunstler

Kunstler’s first work on cities. A must read.

City Comforts
Author: David Sucher

Packed with those little “comforts” that make a city great.

City: Rediscovering the Center
Author: William H. Whyte

Whyte’s research into uses of public spaces is legendary.