Pros & Cons of Saving the 1960s Flying Saucer at Grand & Forest Park

Uh oh, the modern preservationists are gearing up to try to save another interesting, but highly anti-pedestrian, building.  Yes, the fight is on the save a gas station turned drive-thru taco stand at 212 S. Grand.  With a few exceptions, commercial modernism translates to brutal and outright hostile to pedestrians but lovingly embracing all in single occupant vehicles.

Developer Rick Yackey plans to demolish the distinctive flying-saucer-shaped Del Taco at N. Grand and Forest Park Parkway, near St. Louis University, and replace it with new retail buildings, a city development official said Tuesday.

The St. Louis Land Clearance Redevelopment Authority approved a blighting and redevelopment plan for the building, which was built to be a Phillips 66 gas station. The plan, said LCRA staffer Dale Ruthsatz, is to knock down the Del Taco replace it with a more pedestrian-oriented retail building of 3,500 to 7,000 square feet. (STLtoday.com)

The Del Taco at the SE corner of Grand & Forest Park, is not one of the few exceptions.

You can see from the above photo that razing of buildings in the Mill Creek Valley began at Grand Ave & Forest Park by 1958. Grand Ave had the #70 streetcar starting in 1895 so the length from North to South was very active and designed for pedestrians.  It was the modernists that actively destroyed the pedestrian-friendly city to usher in the auto-friendly city. Why do people want to save that which destroyed the city?

Granted, I love many modern buildings.  Their simple forms, the absence of applied decoration, the use of materials other than red brick, all make forms often pleasing to my eye.  My favorite architect is Bruce Goff (1904-1982), but thankfully the bulk of his work was on private residences. Like his contemporaries, his (unbuilt) commercial projects were an assault on the pedestrian: non-active walls, large setbacks, etc.

When I read  developer Rick Yackey wants to construct “a more pedestrian-oriented retail building” I thought of several things:

1. More pedestrian-friendly anything is needed around the Saint Louis University campus. You’d think the university has only been around 5 years judging by the adjacent activity level.
2. It doesn’t take much to be more pedestrian-friendly than the existing Del Taco.
3. The developer had the opportunity to make the adjacent Council Plaza building more pedestrian-friendly during a recent renovation project but instead the situation is worse, something I didn’t think was possible.

Based on the developer’s record with Council Plaza I have little confidence any replacement would be pedestrian-friendly. Before removing a highly unique building I’d like to see controls in place to ensure the 9 acre site becomes pedestrian-friendly.  Saying a project will be pedestrian-friendly and actually delivering a pedestrian-friendly completed project are

I like the Del Taco building, it makes me smile when I’m in my car driving by or even at the drive-thru window but the entire nine acre Council Plaza site makes me furious as a pedestrian.  It should be noted that the unfriendly site planning that exists can change without altering the historic composition of buildings. We can improve the walkability and accessibility while leaving the buildings intact.

I won’t lose any sleep if the Del Taco is razed but I will be mad as hell if some generic anti-pedestrian strip mall is built in it’s place. We do have a unique collection of five buildings that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

But hey the developer needs retail space, that’s important too, right? But if the demand is so great why is every retail space in the renovated Plaza Council building vacant?

I can picture the Del Taco structure gone, replaced with a high-design modernist structure to compliment the other buildings. But I don’t think that’s what we’ll get.  Instead I picture a generic strip mall not connected to the public sidewalk on Grand or to other buildings on the site. The loss of such a great building can only be offset with a great building. Show me the designs, with proof it will be pedestrian-friendly, and I’m willing to listen. Until then not a chance!

If I were developing this site I’d use the Del Taco building as a draw. Renovate the building and accenting it with great lighting, new pedestrian-friendly site design connecting to a new structure to the east on the existing surface parking lot. I can see the building not as a fast food joint but as a pub with a focus on great outdoor patio seating. This could become THE corner where SLU students hang out.

Most developers would kill to have such a widely known building to attract customers to their development!  Certainly the 24 hour drive-thru is nice after you leave the bar but let’s face it, the use of the building can easily change.  Thousands on Facebook want to save the building, although some want to also save the fast food chain currently operating within the building. An online petition has been started as well to save the building.

Razing this building makes zero sense no matter how you try to look at it, believe me I tried!  Board Bill 188 (redevelopment bill) has been assigned to the Housing, Urban Development & Zoning committee. I’m sure all 12 committee members would love to hear from citizens via email, fax, text, twitter or phone prior to the hearing at 10am Wednesday morning.

– Steve Patterson

Poll: Should Scrap Metal Dealers Be Required To Mail Checks Rather Than Pay Cash?

The poll this week relates to a bill at the Board of Aldermen:

The ordinance would force scrap yards to stop dealing in cash and to computerize records of what they buy and from whom. They could only accept air-conditioner coils from certified technicians and could lose their business license if they violate the ordinance.

It is the first item — requiring scrap dealers to pay their customers by a mailed check — that is causing the most consternation. But that’s the one element police say is a must if the city wants to curb scrap metal thefts that are costing property owners thousands in repairs and driving rehabbers out of St. Louis.

Since 2010, the city has seen more than $6 million in scrap metal thefts, $1.5 million of that since March. Police say drug addicts who steal scrap and sell it to support their daily habits would lose interest without the immediate payout of cash. (STLtoday.com)

Board Bill #86 sponsored by  16th ward Ald Donna Baringer on June 3, 2011. Co-sponsors listed are Troupe, Arnowitz, Wessels, Boyd, and Cohn:

An ordinance pertaining to the purchase or resale of scrap metal; repealing Ordinance 67424, presently codified as Section 15.159 of the Revised Code of the City of St. Louis, pertaining to electronic database requirements, purchasing HVAC scrap metal, establishing licensing requirements and rules and regulations for persons doing business in the City of St. Louis as scrap metal merchants; containing definitions; a penalty clause, a severability clause and an emergency clause.

I’ve read opposition on Facebook, saying this bill, if passed, will hurt legit guys who collect metal for a living. The argument is they depend on cash to buy food and pay rent.

I don’t have a strong opinion, but I’d like to see how readers feel about this issue so this is the poll topic this week. As always, the poll is in the upper right corner of the blog.

– Steve Patterson

Lambert Airport Main Terminal MetroLink Extension Opened 17 Years Ago

When our light rail system, MetroLink, opened on July 31, 1993 it didn’t quite reach Lambert Airport, as it does today. Originally the line stopped at the Hanley Station. Eleven months later, on June 25, 1994, the 3.15 mile extension to the main terminal opened.

The original line used existing railroad right-of-way but new structures had to be constructed to get the line over I-70 & I-170 to get to the airport. Many use MetroLink to get to/from the airport for flights or work.  In fact, MetroLink has been a success:

“More than 15 Million passengers boarded Metrolink in FY 2010.”- Metro’s 2010 Annual Report

The airport’s Terminal 2 (East) opened in May 1998 but , due to several delays, the MetroLink  station didn’t open until December 23, 1998.

– Steve Patterson

It’s fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A

In celebration of the annual St. Louis PrideFest this weekend I thought it would be interesting to talk about the connection between gays and the revitalization of rundown urban neighborhoods.

In watching Before Stonewall again recently one point stood out to me: gay men would open bars in run down neighborhoods because the buildings or rent was cheap and the level of scrutiny was potentially less than in other areas.

This is the story of one such place, a collection of businesses on 20th Street across from Union Station:

The area around Union Station was as run down as they come:

As railroad passenger services declined in the 1950s and 1960s, the massive station became obsolete and too expensive to maintain for its original purpose. With the takeover of national rail passenger service by Amtrak in 1971, passenger train service to St. Louis was reduced to only three trains a day. Amtrak stopped using Union Station on October 31, 1978; the six trains daily did not justify such a large facility. (Wikipedia)

Of course Union Station was famous for being in Escape from New York, helping solve problems for the film’s producers on where to film:

[Associate Producer] Bernardi suggested East St. Louis, Illinois, because it was filled with old buildings “that exist in New York now, and [that] have that seedy run-down quality” that the team was looking for. East St. Louis, sitting across the Mississippi River from the more prosperous St. Louis, Missouri, had entire neighborhoods burned out in 1976 during a massive urban fire. Hill said in an interview, “block after block was burnt-out rubble. In some places there was absolutely nothing, so that you could see three and four blocks away.” As well, Alves found an old bridge to double for the “69th St. Bridge”. The filmmaker purchased the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge for one dollar from the government and then gave it back to them for a dollar, “so that they wouldn’t have any liability,” Hill remembers. Locations across the river in St. Louis, Missouri were also used, including Union Station and the Fox Theater, both of which have since been renovated. (Wikipedia)

Union Station was, of course, reopened as a festival marketplace in 1985.  On 20th Street just across the street to the west stood a former YMCA building built in 1907. In the 1970s it contained the places shown on the above ad from 1976.

Today the building continues to serve travelers with a Drury Inn and Lombardo’s Trattoria.  Remember, “It’s fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.” Learn more at www.stlouisgayhistory.com

– Steve Patterson

Carl Milles’ Meeting of the Waters in Aloe Plaza

The Swedish-born sculptor Carl Milles was born on this day in 1875.  Milles, as you probably know, designed the beautiful sculptural fountain “Meeting of the Waters” in Aloe Plaza, located across Market St. from Union Station.

“Aloe Plaza was named in honor of Louis P. Aloe, who died in 1929. He served as President of the Board of Alderman from 1916 to 1923 and led the movement for passage of the [1923] bond issue” that funded many St. Louis projects. But Aloe never met Milles:

Edith Aloe, Louis P. Aloe’s widow, became acquainted with the work of the Swedish sculptor, Carl Milles, at an exhibition of modern art held by the St. Louis League of Women Voters in 1930. The idea of commissioning Milles to build a fountain in Aloe Plaza grew out of her enthusiasm for his work.

But the country was in the middle of the Depression so her idea was put on hold until January 1936 when Mrs. Aloe gave a dinner in her home for the sculptor,Carl Milles, and members of the St. Louis Art Commission. She officially presented her check for $12,500.

The City signed a contract with Milles in 1936. Milles designed and cast the bronze statues for the fountain in his studio at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Cranbrook, Michigan. The fountain was completed in November 1939, but remained veiled until its dedication on May 11, 1940 before a crowd of 3,000 persons.

The fountain, originally named “The Wedding of the Rivers,” depicts the union of the Missouri and the Mississippi Rivers, represented by the two central figures. Accompanying the two main figures and forming a wedding procession are 17 water spirits, symbolic of the smaller streams that empty into the two major rivers.

An uproar arose over the nudity of the male figure, reprenting the Mississippi River and the female figure, the Missouri River. In deference to the criticism, the name of the fountain was changed to ,”The Meeting of the Waters.” (source)

Oh yes the horrors of a nude male sculpture, we can’t use the word marriage when nudity is involved. Perhaps we should rename the fountain as Milles originally intended? Perhaps for the 75th anniversary in 2015?

Here is more info on Louis P. Aloe:

Louis P. Aloe was the president of the highly successful business created by his father, A. S. Aloe & Company, which manufactured and sold optical, surgical, and photographic equipment. Elected to the highest city office achieved by a Jew in St. Louis, Louis was president of the Board of Aldermen from 1916 to 1923. In 1917 he became acting mayor during Henry Kiel’s illness and was widely acclaimed for his leadership during that critical period and in the effort to pass the 1923 bond issue. He suffered a severe stroke in 1926, a year after his defeat for the office of mayor, and died in 1929. His son-in-law, Howard F. Baer, took over leadership of A. S. Aloe at Louis’s death. The fountain was finished in November 1939, but the dedication was delayed until the spring, when some three thousand people gathered to witness the unveiling.Lighting and landscaping were added to the area in 1954. During the renovation of Union Station in the mid-1980s, Aloe Plaza and Milles Fountain, just across the street, also underwent some refurbishing. (source)

Howard Baer built a new headquarters for A. S. Aloe & Company just two blocks north of Aloe Plaza. Sadly that building was razed in 1996.  For pictures and more information see Built St. Louis here. Without a doubt, this fountain, created by Carl Milles, is the finest in St. Louis.

– Steve Patterson