St. Louis’ New Citygarden

Last week two blocks of St. Louis’ Gateway Mall were rededicated as Citygarden, a 2.9 acre garden sculpture park in downtown St. Louis.  The blocks, bounded by Chestnut, 8th, Market, and 10th, are part of the Gateway Mall project.  The Gateway Mall was declared done in 1993 when these two blocks got grass.  Yawn.  They are now far from boring.

I’m very impressed by the transformation of these two city blocks.  Of course, given that the Gateway Foundation spent $25-$30 million on the project not including the sculptures you’d expect it to be nice.  It is, in fact, nearly perfect.  As regular readers might expect, I do have a few criticisms of the design.  Before I get into the few flaws I need to offer more well-deserved praise.

It is nearly impossible to take a bad picture of the place.  Just point & shoot and you’ve got a stunning image.  On numerous visits I’ve seen people taking photo after photo.  I’d bet more pictures have been taken in these two blocks during the last week than the 15 years prior.  I saw people taking overall pictures, snapshots of friends, and of the many sculptures.  People were spotted holding hands and even kissing.  Intimacy in a public space is a sign of success.  Citygarden is an instant hit with the public.

The space is highly accessible.  My visits have all been in my wheelchair and I had no problem getting to all the various levels and spots within the space.

There was even a spot where I could go through this “spray plaza” on my wheelchair. At no point did I feel left out because I was in a wheelchair.  The able-bodied probably won’t notice but to me it was important.  There are steps in places but the ramps are just as interesting a route as those with steps — not an afterthought to comply with the ADA.

The spray fountain, above, will be popular day & night.

The lighting, by Randy Burkett Lighting Design of Webster Groves MO, is beautiful.  This is a good spot to mention the arrangement.  The land and improvements are owned by the City of St. Louis, the sculptures are the property of the Gateway Foundation.  The city pays for water & electric while the foundation pays for the rest of the maintenance costs.  The electric bill will be huge but so are the benefits.

The two blocks are well organized into many different spaces that invite exploration and numerous visits.  The walkway above runs east-west connecting the spaces.  More on this later when I get to the flaws.

The Terrace View Cafe, in the NE corner, should open soon. The cafe building was design by Studio Durham Architects of St. Louis.  The modern design is very appropriate given the context of garden & art.  The cafe will be open 7am to 7pm Monday-Thursday and open until 10pm Friday & Saturday.  Unfortunately, it will be closed on Sundays.  I could see the cafe becoming the hot Sunday brunch destination.  As a downtown resident it is often the weekends when I’m out with friends enjoying good food and the city.  But I understand how places need one day off.  Jurors will now have a great new place to enjoy their lunch breaks.

As I indicated earlier the park is two city blocks with just under 3 acres in total area.  Yet they only have 3 bike racks and those are all contained in one small area kinda hidden from view (off Chestnut).    With two blocks you have 8 edges total.  I’d expect one rack per edge — placed at each edge so bike riders arriving from all directions will see a rack as they arrive.  In the middle they could get away with a single rack on one side of 9th Street for a total of 7 racks.  The racks used are a good design — both attractive and functional.  Their location is not in the same block as the cafe.  So someone biking over for a quick breakfast or lunch is probably going to use a parking meter on 8th rather than these racks.  If we want to be a bike friendly city we must have bike parking distributed everywhere — not pushed off into a hidden corner.

The name is wrong too — Citygarden.  I like City & Garden being pushed together without a space but it should be CityGarden with a capital G rather than lowercase g.

The gardens fall into the praise category.  The trees are very mature and the plantings are varied.  I may like the plantings more than the sculpture.

9th Street was narrowed to two lanes at Market & Chestnut.  In the center they have room to drop off passengers.  The gardens where the street was narrowed collects rain water from the street and other non-pervious surfaces.  The cafe is said to have a green roof.

I try to get into the flaw mode and positives keep popping up.  Let’s return to the central walkway. As the Gateway Mall concept was extended east of Tucker there were several concepts.  The winning plan was to have four buildings on the north half of four blocks.  People mistakenly think the blocks were going to be cleared, free of all structures,  and somehow Gateway One got built between 7th & 8th.  Wrong, Gateway One was part of the plan.  But part of the idea was to walk down the center of these blocks.   Crossing 9th Street the designers did a great job at making this vision a reality by providing ADA ramps and special paving at the crosswalk.  But what about going east or west?

This is where the design fails in the biggest way — It doesn’t do anything to connect with adjacent blocks.  The block to the west contains Twain by Richard Serra.  Ideally 10th Street should have been narrowed as 9th was.  Granted, that could have only been done on the east side of the street at this point.  But once the Serra block is redone we’d need to remake the west edge of Citygarden.  Mid-block crossings at 8th & 10th would have gone a long way toward finally integrating these blocks.

The north side of the Terrace View Cafe facing Chestnut is the least appealing.  As you would expect, the building focuses inward on the garden.  This sidewalk is stark.  On-street parking is prohibited on this side of Chestnut in this block only.    I can see a no-parking section to allow access to the trash container and to facilitate deliveries but banning on-street parking on for the entire block is excessive. At this point none of the on-street parking around these two blocks are market as disabled only.  I’ll work with city officials to get a few designated as such.  As with bike parking, these should be distributed rather than concentrated.

The absence of greenery along the 800 block of Chestnut is very noticeable as well.  Street trees would have done wonders to make this sidewalk more pleasant for pedestrians.

In a city with so many blocks of dead open space it is refreshing to have two that are lively and intriguing.  Much work remains to fix the other blocks of the Gateway Mall (Broadway to 21st).

Check out the 11-minute time lapse video of the construction of Citygarden here.

– Steve Patterson

STL & ATL; Lessons from the “New South”

My wife and I relocated from University City to Atlanta in May 2009.  I accepted a promotion with the brand consulting firm I work for after she was laid off as a radio reporter, and we reluctantly moved.  We loved the walkability of our neighborhood, the eccentricity of the nearby Delmar Loop, fabulous Forest Park, the city’s world-class architecture and its many unique neighborhoods with character to spare.

It was a painful decision to leave.  But the long-term job prospects for the marketing and media industries in St. Louis look grim for a laundry list of reasons.  So we cut our losses, put our recently renovated home on the market, and headed south.  As we explore the built environment and our new neighborhood in Midtown, oftentimes I find myself comparing and contrasting Atlanta to my beloved hometown.  And I can’t help but think there are important lessons the STL could learn from the ATL.

St. Louis and Atlanta are two very different cities.  Unlike St. Louis, whose growth and revitalization of its urban core could be considered fledgling by almost any measure, Atlanta is a poster child for success.  It has enjoyed substantial growth since the 1996 Olympics.  Its Midtown area along Peachtree Street and nearby parallel streets, once a scattering of abandoned buildings and a hotbed for drugs and prostitution, is now a thriving, densely populated urban core with street-level retail and wide, pedestrian-friendly sidewalks.

But St. Louis and Atlanta also share much in common.  They are both home to prestigious universities that have a profound impact on their surrounding communities.  In addition, both cities have entire neighborhoods that were splintered by sprawling freeways.  Much like the depressed section dividing downtown St. Louis from one of its greatest assets, the construction of the 75/85 Connector disconnected neighborhoods, and Atlanta is still dealing with the unforeseen repercussions.

Technology Square, the Georgia Institute of Technology’s campus extension in Midtown, is a an interesting example of how to successfully reconnect parcels divided by a major highway with a “lid” approach.  Georgia Tech built a pedestrian-friendly, attractively landscaped bridge over the Connector and revitalized land that used to be a collection of surface parking lots to house its College of Management, Conference Center & Hotel, Barnes & Noble Campus bookstore, and non-university office space:

As opposed to Saint Louis University, which tends to create parking lots rather than turn them into part of the urban fabric, Georgia Tech had the vision to build a bustling multi-use development with wide, walkable sidewalks:

The planners incorporated efficient, plentiful bike racks that allow two bikes to easily fit side by side, securely locking both the wheel and frame:

The courtyard of the Centergy Building, home to the Royal Bank of Canada’s Atlanta headquarters, is a benchmark example of a well-designed corporate mall.  Street-level retail, including a cafe, and well-placed benches and xeriscaping, create an inviting, highly usable space where people actually congregate:

The neighborhood is linked to MARTA light-rail transit via the Stinger shuttle, free to students and the general public alike:

The only surface parking lot in the neighborhood features Zip cars:

And Wednesdays during the summer, 5th Street is closed between Spring and William for “Flicks on Fifth,” a weekly outdoor film series:

Atlanta has whole host of problems, including urban sprawl of gargantuan proportions, some of the worst traffic in the country, an underfunded police department, epidemic crime, a crumbling sewer infrastructure, recent drought…And much like Saint Louis University’s expansion projects, Technology Square is not without controversy or ill-conceived plans for parking lots.

Georgia Tech intends to demolish the Crum & Forster Building for additional campus parking.  (Ironically, according to Wikipedia, the building was originally designed by the architectural firm that helped found GT’s college of architecture 100 years ago this year.)  But overall the Georgia Tech expansion points to a few lessons the great city of St. Louis could learn from the “New York of the South.”

First, it’s the little things that count.  Details such as wider sidewalks, efficient bike racks, easy access to mass transit, and good use of “mall” space matter.  Without these complementary pieces, the likelihood of creating a vibrant and commercially successful urban neighborhood like Technology Square is greatly diminished.

Second, in order to reconnect two fractured parcels of land, there needs to be a solid anchor on both sides of the former divide.  Technology Square would not have succeeded if the extension to the west side of the 75/85 Connector didn’t include mixed-use development, street-level retail and a reason for students and other locals alike to use the area.  Even though it’s smaller in scale and the adjacent parcels are much different than downtown and the Arch grounds, any debate regarding a “lid” for downtown St. Louis should carefully consider the Georgia Tech expansion.

Finally, St. Louis needs to embrace its architectural treasures.  Atlanta’s were destroyed during the Civil War when General William T. Sherman ordered the city burned to the ground.  Despite having it’s own devastating fire in 1849, St. Louis still has one of its greatest assets: a superb building stock that’s arguably one of the richest in the country.  Unfortunately, in many instances it seems to be squandered away due to poor planning or auto-centric development.

Georgia Tech’s expansion was largely a start-from-scratch project, and it didn’t need to take architectural preservation into consideration. However, it’s possible to incorporate the modern elements that make Georgia Tech’s expansion a success while preserving architecturally significant buildings in the process.  Saint Louis University, public institutions, private developers and other local entities that have such a deep and long-lasting impact on St. Louis’ urban core owe it to the communities they serve to have a longer-term vision.

After starting from scratch after the Civil War, Atlanta’s city planners and developers seem to have had little appreciation for the past.  Few post-Civil War historic buildings have been preserved in the “New South.”  Today, Atlanta is a sprawling metropolis of glass and steel canyons, creating an awe-inspiring nighttime skyline.

But it lacks much of the richness, architectural detail and aesthetic diversity of St. Louis’ remarkable building stock and unique neighborhoods.  In this respect, St. Louis can learn a thing or two from Atlanta’s past mistakes.  Preservation doesn’t necessarily impede progress.  And once architectural treasures are gone, they’re lost forever.

– Bryan Oekel

Blog Comments Pass 20,000

Reader comments on this blog have now passed 20,000 in less than 5 years time.  Wow, thank you!

– Steve Patterson

“We Are Barely Surviving”

“We are barely surviving” was the testimony of one bar owner on day one of hearings last week on Board Bill 46 to create a smoke-free St. Louis.  75% of her customers are smokers.   Her business is barely making it as it is.  Take away her smoking customers and she won’t survive.

During the 3 hours I was at the hearing she was just across the aisle from me.  Throughout the testimony of those speaking in favor og BB46 she’d say things like “stay home.”  Her bar targets 25% of the population and is barely getting by yet she wants non-smokers to stay home.  When your business is focused on a niche market but isn’t doing well, telling a bigger audience to stay home just seems like bad business.

Just as I will not step foot into an establishment that permits smoking I would imagine there is a group of smokers unwilling to go to a place were they can’t smoke indoors.  I’d imagine this being around 5% of both smokers and non-smokers.  Do smokers drink more than non-smokers?  Perhaps but I know many non-smokers that drink plenty.

But non-smokers don’t stay home, they just go to places that are not heavily smokey.  Again, I don’t go into spaces where smoking is permitted.  Two places I’d like to visit again, Tuckers & Joanies, have non-smoking sections upstairs over smoking areas.  Might as well make it all smoking because the air is the same. Pathetic.

Those restaurants that are viewed by smokers & non-smokers as a smoking establishment to the point that 75-90% of the customers are smokers likely will not survive when St. Louis or Missouri finally goes smoke-free.  They are going to hold onto that niche clientele until they go broke (lack of non-smoking customers) or the law says smoking is no longer permitted indoors.

If more than 25% of your customers smoke indoors you need to rethink your business plan.  Improve your outdoor options.  Begin preparing for the day when indoor smoking in public places in St. Louis is no longer permitted.  Or you can fight it and in a few years return to your old space to see what opened after your niche business closed.

The Board of Aldermen’s Heath & Human Services committee will continue hearings on BB46 at 1pm on July 9th in Room 208 in City Hall.

– Steve Patterson

Tearing Out A Pedestrian Mall

Soon we will see crews doing to St. Louis’ North 14th Street what I saw yesterday in the town of Rockford Illinois:  ripping out a tired pedestrian mall  (Map).

Crews began ripping out the two remaining blocks last month.

There were 48 retailers, restaurants and salons on the mall when it opened in 1975. Today only two of those 48 are still there. Five years later, in 1980, retail establishments on those four blocks were already being decimated as shoppers flocked to shopping centers and the CherryVale Mall that opened in 1973.   (source)

The same story can be told in places where the mall was seen as the way to lure shoppers away from new open-air & enclosed malls in the suburbs.  Rockford appears to have been on the cutting edge with efforts to revitalize their downtown.  Cutting edge planning has been destructive to cities and their downtowns.  Revitalization efforts today are often simply to undo past mistakes.  Rockford’s retail area is now firmly embeded in the think ring of sprawl.  The 21st century version will be different than it was 75 years ago but also different than it has been over the last 30 years.

I had lunch inside the restaurant you see pictured with the outdoor seating.  I asked my waitress what she thought of the mall going away.  She didn’t want to see it go. I should not the mall was older than she was.

She was skeptical of the plans for having traffic on the street.  “I hope it works out,” she said.  Indeed, I plan to return after the Main Stret reopens.

– Steve Patterson