Nineteen year ago I started this blog as a distraction from my father’s heart attack and slow recovery. It was late 2004 and social media & video streaming apps didn’t exist yet — or at least not widely available to the general public. Blogs were the newest means of …
The new NGA West campus , Jefferson & Cass, has been under construction for a few years now. Next NGA West is a large-scale construction project that will build a new facility for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in St. Louis, Missouri.This $1.7B project is managed by the U.S. Army …
Book publisher Island Press always impresses me with thoughtful new books written by people working to solve current problems — the subjects are important ones for urbanists and policy makers to be familiar and actively discussing. These four books are presented in the order I received them. ‘Justice and …
This post is about two indirectly related topics: the new Siteman Cancer Center building under construction on the Washington University School of Medicine/BJC campus and an update on my stage 4 kidney cancer. Let’s deal with the latter first. You may have noticed I’ve not posted in three months, …
ABOVE: 10th & Convention Plaza corner of the downtown Holiday Inn Select from 1980
In an urban setting it is critical for buildings to “engage” the street. Â By street I mean the entire public right of way, not just the road. Â In other words, the public sidewalk on each side of the roadway. Â By engage I mean interact, have access points & windows.
Downtown’s Holiday Inn Select was built in 1980 next door to the three year old Cervantes Convention Center (now called America’s Center). It occupies the entire block bounded by 9th of the east, Convention Plaza (formerly Delmar) on the south, 10th on the west and Dr. Martin Luther King Dr (formerly Franklin Ave) on the north.
ABOVE: Aerial view of hotel from Google Maps, click to view
The building fronts onto four streets but only barely addresses ninth, behind a circle drive.
ABOVE: west facade facing 10th street in completely inactive
ABOVE: blank wall next to Martin Luther King Dr. Image from Google Streetview, click to view
Sure, a relic of the period. But we have nothing on the books to prevent more of the same. The purpose of zoning is to dictate what the community desires from the built environment. From our zoning the above is still desired.
Our Board of Aldermen have no desire to change the zoning to articulate what is desired in 2011 rather than 1980. Why? So they get to negotiate for their approval, of course.
Wednesday 2/2/2011 a public hearing will be held to hear an appeal on a request for signs at 1000 Washington Ave. I’ve been to enough of these to know the signs are probably what the most recent downtown plans seeks. The problem is the city’s sign code doesn’t permit the type of sign that is desired in the downtown plan so the city staff has no option but to reject the request and schedule a routine appeal.
Here is a novel idea, why not change the code so that desirable signs are approved by staff upon application?
Nearly 85% of you felt St. Louis will show a population gain over the 2000 Census figure with most thinking the number will be higher than the 2009 estimate.
Q: The 2000 Census had St. Louis’ population at 348,189, the 2009 estimate at 356,587. Where will the 2010 count be?
More than 356,587: 82 [ 58.57%]
Between 348,189 and 356,587: 36 [25.71%]
Less than 348,198: 13 [9.29%]
who knows, will just have to wait for the results 7 [5%]
Other answer… 2 [1.43%]
I fall into the #2 camp, I think our number will be between the 2000 count and the 2009 estimate. Why? The methodology used for both is very different. Anything above 348,198 will still be huge though. Nearly 10% of you think we will show a loss, I hope you are wrong!
The “other” answers were:
has to be more than 356,587 due to the amount of construction permits issued
>375,000
The actual count taken in 2010 has nothing to do with building permits. In the last 10 years we’ve shifted population around. Folks are living in places they didn’t in 2000, like downtown, but other areas have emptied out.
The building on the NW corner of 10th & Convention Plaza (formerly Delmar) is better suited for a suburban office park.
ABOVE: at least a walkway to the entry from the public sidewalk is provided
The mirrored glass, generic design, parking out front (39 spaces) was commonplace in 1987, the year the building was built. Located one block north of Washington Ave., this building is a good example of how wrong we went in downtown St. Louis.
ABOVE: barriers block auto access to 10th during an Open Streets event in 2010
When built the convention center, one block east, was just 10 years old. Convention Plaza led to the entrance at the time, the entry was pushed out to Washington Ave in the early 1990s.
This building, once considered the future, is now part of one horrible suburban pocket adjacent to the good part of downtown. This building will be 25 years old next year but I can’t see the owners planning a new skin or something to infill the large corner parking lot. Without a strong effort to fix past mistakes, this section of downtown will remain dead.
This is my seventh year writing on Dr. Martin Luther King Day. Â Every year, except 2008 I have looked at the St. Louis road named Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, in 2008 I looked at the issue of race.
ABOVE: A former muffler shop at Kingshighway is being converted to a gas station. Progress?
ABOVE: Only the front remains (barely) standing
The back of the above building. located just west of Union, is nearly gone. I don’t expect to see this building next year, but I’ve thought that the last couple of years.
ABOVE: The adaptive reuse of the Arlington School into housing is a huge step forward for the Wells/Goodfellow neighborhood
ABOVE: These buildings at Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. & Bud Ave were razed to make room for new housing to be built as part of the Arlington Grove project. Image: Google Streetview
ABOVE: The Arlington Grove project will occupy the entire city block. Image: Google Maps (click to view)
From Multi-Family Housing News this past October:
Construction has started on the Arlington Grove residential redevelopment project in north St. Louis. When complete it will include 112 mixed-income rental units in garden apartments, townhouse and semi-detached housing, along with a new mixed-use building and rehabilitation of the historic Arlington Elementary School. All together, the redevelopment will total 162,000 square feet of residential space and 5,000 square feet of commercial space.
The school renovation will include 21 apartments. The rest of the Arlington Grove’s residential space will be 91 new-construction townhomes and garden apartments. All of the units are designed to meet mandatory Enterprise Green Communities (EGC) criteria as required by the Capital Fund Recovery Competition (CFRC) grant, a stimulus-related grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that helped pay for the $41 million development. (full story)
Foundation work on the new construction on the placement looks good from an urban perspective. I will report more on this later this year as well as on Martin Luther King Day 2012.
ABOVE: near the west city limits storefronts in the once bustling Wellston Loop area remain largely vacant
I say it every year but it is going to take a major transportation infrastructure project (modern streetcar or even a BRT line) to make MLK Dr a desirable enough street to bring back the middle class.
AARP Livibility Index
The Livability Index scores neighborhoods and communities across the U.S. for the services and amenities that impact your life the most
Built St. Louis
historic architecture of St. Louis, Missouri – mourning the losses, celebrating the survivors.
Geo St. Louis
a guide to geospatial data about the City of St. Louis
