Gateway Mall Still Unloved, Conservancy Resigned, Advisory Board Kept In Dark

Just a few years ago I was optimistic about the future of the Gateway Mall, the linear park north of Market Street, stretching from Broadway to just past 20th Street. The Gateway Mall Master Plan had been adopted by the city. The Gateway Mall Advisory Board was established to ensure proposed projects met the master plan. A separate, non-profit, group, the Gateway Mall Conservancy, was formed to raise private money to implement the plan.

Peter Fischer, the man behind Citygarden via the Gateway Foundation, headed the Gateway Mall Conservancy and had a seat on the Gateway Mall Advisory Board.  Another member of the Conservancy was Emily Pulitzer. Between Fischer & Pulitzer I thought they’d be able to raise the money needed to continue work on more blocks of the park.

From a press release from Mayor Slay:

March 12, 2010 – Mayor Francis Slay convened the first meeting of the newly formed Gateway Mall Conservancy Board yesterday. The purpose of the Board is to facilitate the planning, design, funding and execution efforts for the entire Gateway Mall, which runs from the Old Courthouse west to past Union Station.

The Gateway Mall Master Plan, formally adopted by the City of St. Louis in July of last year, provides the City with a comprehensive vision for transforming downtown’s central park into an outstanding open space. Building on this long-range vision, the Plan creates an overall framework to guide future individual proposals within the Mall.

“This is an important step in building on the momentum created by the opening of Citygarden last summer,” Slay said. “This Board is made up of individuals who can provide executive, civic, and fundraising energy and leadership. They each have already contributed to our community in so many ways.”

Named to the Gateway Mall Conservancy Board were Peter Fischer, Gateway Foundation; Robert Archibald, Missouri Historical Society; Steve Cousins, Armstrong Teasdale LLP; John Ferring, Plaze, Inc.; David Mesker, retired, A.G. Edwards; Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts; Kitty Ratcliffe, St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission; Henry S. Webber, Washington University; Josephine Weil, Community Volunteer; and Patricia Roland-Hamilton as Executive Director.

Also announced today was the formation of the Gateway Mall Advisory Board, a group of stakeholders responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Gateway Mall Master Plan and providing ongoing community input about the Gateway Mall. Its composition and responsibilities are outlined by City ordinance.

Its role is to oversee and review compliance with the Plan and provide review of proposed modifications to the Plan. Members of the Board constitute a part of the public review process and have the authority to conduct a public review of any proposed expansion, modification, replacement, relocation, adaptive re-use, or removal of existing roads, paths, parking lots, recreation areas or natural areas.

“It’s critical to ensure we adhere to the vision set forth in the Master Plan,” said Gary Bess, the City’s Director of Parks, Recreation & Forestry. “We will look to this group to assist us in doing so.”  (Press Release PDF)

I was among those appointed to the Gateway Mall Advisory Board, rather than just be a critic on the outside I had an appointed seat at the table.

But there were early signs it wouldn’t last. Peter Fischer wouldn’t authorize the funds to renew the domain GatewayMall.org, so the initial website disappeared. Executive Director Tricia Roland-Hamilton’s email address, peroland@gatewaymall.org, ceased working when the domain shut down. She then had to use her personal email account. So much for having a place to let citizens understand what this appointed body was doing.

We rejected one proposal in 2012 and in 2011 gave preliminary approval to changes to Kiener Plaza:

Andy [Trivers] then introduced guests Donald Stastny and Nate Trevethan. Nate, representing Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, presented the vision for Kiener Plaza, as prepared as part of the entire Arch grounds project. Donald and Nate also used models to present the preliminary vision to the Board.

The initial vision calls for removal of the amphitheater, the addition of a Beer Garden and Café, a Pavilion, Playground and Carousel. The schematic design also calls for the continuance of the “Hallway” along the northern edge of Market Street, special lighting, and an event lawn.

This presentation is the initial step in the Project Approval Process for privately funded projects within the Gateway Mall. On a motion by Byron Marshall and seconded by Jack Reis, the Board approved the preliminary prospectus. (Gateway Mall Advisory Board minutes from January 26, 2011)

Because Kiener Plaza was part of the master plan we had to look at proposals for change.  At the time we expected to see more detailed drawings in the future, but we never did. Apparently, as I just recently learned, the ordinance authorizing the tax vote also removed Kiener Plaza from the master plan.

Here’s an email message I received from Parks director Gary Bess after I began asking questions:

As most media outlets have reported, Kiener has been included in the City Arch River Project   This point has also been included in public meetings regarding the project   When the ordinance was passed authorizing the CAR project/tax, Kiener was dropped from the Gateway Mall Plan and included in CAR  We were informed in February that in light of the above change the Conservancy was transferring all previous design work to CityArchRiver further indicating that the Conservancy  believed it has done all it could do to move the Kiener project forward and felt others could help in moving the the implementation of the master plan West of Tucker forward and resigned

Assumed you knew about Kiener’s inclusion in the CAR project based upon media and public meeting  The Conservancy is a private not for profit and chose not to publicly announce their resignations  i respect this decision    The City will look for new options on private funding for the Mall project West of Tucker.  The good news of course is projects East of Tucker are complete and/or funded.

I’m disappointed and angry — mostly at myself for thinking somehow this would be different than previous plans. I’m angry at Peter Fisher for turning down a skate park west of Tucker because it wasn’t dignified enough for his sensibilities. We could’ve had a great skate park in operation by now, but we don’t!!  I kept my mouth shut because I had a seat at the table, I was trying hard to be a good player, working within the system.

I informed the other members of the Gateway Mall Advisory Board (expired & current) of this news via email Sunday evening.

— Steve Patterson

New Walgreens Opens Inside a Historic Bank, Rather Than Raze It

Competition is heating up as retailers try to add locations in an effort to avoid stagnant sales growth. Having saturated suburban markets with their standard formula, they’ve been trying to do the same as they move into the urban core. Cities, more dense and often filled with vacant historic buildings, present new challenges to big retailers with one-size-fits-all formulas.

More than a dozen years ago a small group of citizens, myself among them, helped block Walgreens from razing the South Side National Bank (SSNB) at Grand & Gravois. “Put a Walgreens in the old bank”, we said to Walgreens officials. Unwilling to listen, they built a typical store across Gravois, but not on the corner.

The Lawrence Group bought the SSNB, putting residential condos in the tower. Much of the retail space, including the magnificent lobby, remains vacant today.

A few years after attempting to raze the SSNB, Walgreens tried to raze the Gold Dome in Oklahoma City, located at NW 23rd & Classen.

Walgreens was again met with citizen opposition:

Efforts to save the Gold Dome included picketing and marches, but in September 2001, a couple extended the efforts by writing a song. Also, an Oklahoma based company, Sonic Drive-In restaurants, offered up a billboard, located across the street from the Gold Dome, to the Citizens for the Golden Dome group. On the billboard was written “Stop the demolition of our historic landmark,” as well as the phone numbers for Bank One and Walgreens. (Wikipedia)

Today the Gold Dome is a central part of the neighborhood, now heavily inhabited by Chinese and other Asian nationalities, housing numerous businesses. Across one street is a typical CVS and across the other is a typical Walgreens, on the site of a former Beverly’s “Chicken in the Rough” restaurant.

In both cases a historic structure was saved, but the neighborhood was degraded by a standard suburban box(s). Both St. Louis & Oklahoma City didn’t care about anything besides the historic structure, or they were afraid to require something other than the standard prototype.

Fast forward a decade and we can look to a new Walgreens in Chicago that shows the retailer is willing to rethink their store design rather than forcing their standard box into a neighborhood. On a recent trip to Chicago this Walgreens was our first stop.

In the 45 minutes we were on site I took 70 pictures, my boyfriend quickly understood why a Walgreens was the first place I wanted to visit on our first trip to Chicago together:

The uber-fancy flagship is part of a plan by Walgreens–now the nation’s largest drugstore–to cater to a higher tax bracket while giving its more than 100-year-old brand a dose of modern edge.

Walgreens has recently launched several “upscale” stores, including a multi-level flagship in downtown Chicago and a massive concept store on L.A.’s Sunset Blvd.

According to Crain’s Chicago Business, the opening of the latest flagship, nestled between the Windy City’s trendy Wicker Park/Bucktown neighborhoods, will be followed by roughly 10 more upscale stores stores in locations ranging from Hawaii to the Empire State Building in New York. (Huffington Post)

Now you might be thinking sure, in Chicago…developers are so much more enlightened in Chicago. Not so:

Many many years ago what is the Nobel Bank Building located at 1601 N. Milwaukee Avenue was, in fact, a bank. And more recently the building was the home of Midwest Bank; a full-service library quiet bank filled with friendly staff.

Several years ago, the building was bought by an investor with plans to add retail to that corner. His plans, however, were also contingent upon adding a massive parking garage right at the corner of North/Damen/Milwaukee. You can only imagine what that would have done to the traffic and congestion already filling the area. The end result would have been gridlock. Alderman Waguespak, thankfully, would not approve of the garage. So the investor abandoned the project.

The building sat vacant bordering on foreclosure. (source)

Developers, even those in Chicago, think massive parking garages are necessary in dense urban neighborhoods served by transit. True, even this Walgreens has an off-street parking lot.

Chicago knows to not let auto-centric developers gut their neighborhoods, thereby achieving a balance among users. We’ve had decades of gutting our neighborhoods for parking, we must now reverse course.

Kudos to Walgreens on this store!

— Steve Patterson

Poll: Thoughts on Culinaria (Downtown Schnucks grocery)

Culinaria, the downtown Schnucks grocery store, opened 4 years ago today. Schnucks management originally had very low expectations, but the location has consistently done a very good volume of business, according to managers anyway.

During the last 4 years the store has changed very little, except for trying to squeeze more product by adding displays here and there. They just completed the first major revamp of the store, closing an aisle to add more shelving.

Over the last four years the store has been inproving the foods offered since opening day. I recall early on the only flour they had was bleached white flour, I had to visit Straub’s to get decent flour for something I wanted to bake. After I complained they added unbleached & wheat flour from Gold Medal, but now they also have several varieties of flour from King Arthur. Just took too long for a store with the tag line “bring out the foodie in you” to get ingredients this foodie uses.

I don’t know about you but I don’t look for produce & gourmet cheese at Best Buy, nor do I buy televisions at the grocery store. Culinaria has also sold charcoal, mini grills, & lighter fluid — likely aimed at downtown residents. The thing is, we can’t use charcoal grills! We can use propane grills, but no charcoal.

Eventually I think they’ll figure out how to sell groceries in a compact downtown setting, maybe in another 4 years. Anyway, the poll this week wants to know how you feel about the store. The poll is in the right sidebar, mobile users need to select the desktop layout.

— Steve Patterson

Lecture and New Book on The Architecture of Maritz & Young

Authors Kevin Amsler and L. John Schott will give a lecture on the architecture of Maritz & Young next week, here are  the details:

When: Wednesday, August 14 2013 at 7:00 pm
Where: Missouri History Museum, AT&T Foundation Multipurpose Room (lower level)
How Much: Free

This lecture coincides with the release of their book The Architecture of Maritz & Young: Exceptional Historic Homes of St. Louis

The Missouri History Museum Press is pleased to announce the publication of it latest book, The Architecture of Maritz & Young: Exceptional Historic Homes of St. Louis. No single architecture firm has shaped the style of St. Louis more than Maritz & Young. Anyone who has driven along Lindell Boulevard across from Forest Park or strolled the sidewalk on Forsyth by Washington University has seen the residential architecture of two men named Raymond Maritz and William Ridgely Young. The homes include the French Renaissance splendor ofhotel owner Morris Corn’s Lindell mansion and the Spanish-influenced Forsyth home of William Lewin.

From the beginning of the 20th century, Raymond E. Maritz and W. Ridgely Young built more than 100 homes in the most affluent neighborhoods of St. Louis County, counting among their clientele a Who’s Who of the city’s most prominent citizens. The Architecture of Maritz & Young is the most complete collection of their work, featuring more than 200 photographs, architectural drawings, and original floor plans of homes built in a variety of styles, from Spanish Eclectic toTudor Revival. Alongside these historic images, Kevin Amsler and L. John Schott have provided descriptions of each residence detailing the original owners. Lovingly compiled from a multitude of historical sources and rare books, this is the definitive history of the domestic architecture that still defines St. Louis.

I’ve only had time to browse the book, but it is packed with great vintage images and detailed text. The book is on sale now, copies will be available for purchase at the lecture as well. The authors will sign copies following the lecture.

— Steve Patterson

New Downtown Elementary School Open House Saturday August 10th 10AM-Noon

For a couple of years now a small group of parents have been working to open a new charter school: Lafayette Preparatory Academy:

We start with the conviction that every child, at-risk or otherwise, has the right to a high-quality education. We follow it with the vision that if we provide the families living in the Urban Core and surrounding neighborhoods of St. Louis that education, it will not only benefit them individually, but contribute to what is increasingly becoming the revitalization of downtown St. Louis.

Subscribe to the upcoming Newsletters or join the conversation and stay up-to-date on Facebook and Twitter. 

I first met with organizers in the Fall of 2011, offering some help with social media. At that time they described a their desire to stay in St. Louis, but also make sure their young kids get a quality education.

This first year (2013-2014) the school offers kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. Their original plan was to add a grade level each year through high school graduation. The school is opening in leased space in the office wing attached to Christ Church Cathedral. The community is invited to an open house tomorrow morning:

Come one, come all … LPA is ready to open and wants to share with you all of the hard work put in by the many volunteers and families committed to bringing an excellent elementary school to support the growth in Downtown St. Louis. We invite you to come see what all the hype is about. At the Open House, you will see the changes made in our facility and learn more about our college prep program. (source) 

The open house is 10am-noon Saturday August 10th at 1210 Locust (entrance off alley on east side).

— Steve Patterson