Arch Charrette Exhibit Reception Tonight (12/3/08)

Last month the St. Louis Riverfront/Arch Grounds Interdisciplinary Student Charrette (flyer) was held at the Mansion House downtown. Tonight is the opening reception with the final boards on display at the gallery space at the Landmark’s Association in the Lammert Building at 911 Washington Ave.  The reception is from 5pm – 8:30pm and the exhibit runs now through January 3, 2008.

I was there on the day they started working and for their presentations.  I was promised their materials would be posted online but to date I have not been able to track down the location.  There were some really good ideas and some bad ideas.  Most recognized I-70 as a major, barrier along with an unfriendly Memorial Drive.

Some kept the highway and shockingly one team called for more destruction of downtown by having park tentacles reaching into the city.

Check out the exhibit & reception.  I’ll continue to track down the online versions of the presentations.

Critical Mass St Louis Founder Dr Dan Kliman is Dead

He lived in St Louis for about 5 years before moving to the San Francisco bay area. Dr. Dan Kliman’s body was found at the bottom of an elevator shaft on Monday December 1st, 2008. He was 38.

I met Dan Kliman a decade ago. In the late 1990s I was an avid cyclist. Dr. Kliman was a cycling activist. He started the controversial “Critical Mass” bike ride here after having been a part of Critical Mass Chicago while in medical school. He lived in the CWE but worked at a hospital in St Charles – he took MetroLink and his bike to get there.

Besides being a cycling activist he was also a pro-gay and pro-Israel activist. He joined my South Park group on Wednesday evenings at Colorado restaurant on Laclede. One weekend about 10 years ago we went to Chicago for a bike ride. Yes, a bike ride in Chicago in December! I think everyone started gathering around 9am at a microbrewery. After drinking a good amount of beer and filling our water bottles with more beer the group biked to the famed Michigan Ave. We’d gather outside of posh stores and sign twisted Christmas lyrics. You know, anti-commercialism, anti-fur sorts of twisting. I would have been 31, it was fun. Even the snow and ice we encountered on the bike ride back to a friend’s place where we were staying was fun.

Dan Kliman was an acquired taste – many were put off by his strong opinions and loud voice. Others just hated his insistence on asserting his rights as a cyclist. He was certainly an in your face type. I figured if he were to die it would be because a motorist ran him over.

Dr. Kliman moved from St Louis to California, specifically the East Bay, in November 2002.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued this statement:

The Anti-Defamation League is deeply saddened by the death of pro-Israel activist Daniel Kliman, a founder of San Francisco Voice for Israel. According to police reports, on December 1st, Mr. Kliman’s body was found at the bottom of an elevator shaft in the Sharon Building located at 55 New Montgomery Street. The police investigation is ongoing.

The ADL, founded in 1913, is the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.

An Elegant & Accessible Solution

My real estate office (Circa Properties) is located in a very urban building on S. Kingshighway at Landsdowne (map). The building’s owner, an Architect, lives with his family in one of the upstairs apartments.

This summer as I was about to return to work he make access easier. Since the building was built in 1922 the commercial storefront spaces have always had a single step at each entrance.

As you can see above he devised a simple and elegant solution to eliminate the steps. At each end of the new section of sidewalk is a gentle slope, allowing someone access without a step. Planting space softens the area and visually breaks up the previously large amount of concrete. Rather than a bunch of ramps this solution looks very thoughtful.

I’ve never had my wheelchair at the office but if I did getting inside would no longer be an issue.

Win Tickets to St. Louis’ 2009 Inaugural Ball

On Tuesday January 20, 2009 Barack Obama will be sworn in as President of the United States. There will be many parties in Washington D.C. and room rate there have skyrocketed. Not going to D.C. for the event? Still feel like celebrating?

Well then the St. Louis African American Caucus Foundation and the St. Louis Young Democrats have just what you need, St. Louis’ 2009 Inaugural Ball held inside the beautiful rotunda of the St Louis City Hall. Tickets for this black-tie event are $50 per person or $125 per person for the VIP ticket which includes valet parking, a cocktail party and dinner. The Ball starts at 8pm with the VIP events starting at 6:30pm.

I’ve got two regular tickets (non-VIP) for a lucky reader. The contest is open between now and 5pm Friday January 2, 2009. Entering is easy, just send an email to contests@urbanreviewstl.com – include your name, your home address and your phone number. I’ll take all the entries and pick a winner at random. Only one entry per person. If you cannot attend please don’t enter. I’ll notify the winner by email and/or phone by 5pm Monday 1/5/2008 so that person has plenty of time to go shopping for the right outfit, arrange for a baby sitter, etc. Your contact information will not be used by me or sold to others.

I would use the tickets myself but I don’t have the proper attire and I’ve got class until 7pm that evening anyway. Besides, my bedtime is often before 9pm. Trust me, when President Bush becomes former President Bush and Barack Obama becomes President Obama I will be celebrating.

Burger King at Loughborough Commons Lacks Pedestrian Access Route

Given what a clusterfuck Loughborough Commons has been I really shouldn’t be surprised the new Burger King lacks a pedestrian access route. Burger King joins Lowe’s as two places at Loughborough Commons where pedestrians are not welcomed — pedestrians must be willing to risk injury or death and share space with cars to access these buildings located in a project that utilized generous tax incentives.

The public continues to get hosed at Loughborough Commons. I’m surprised because providing pedestrian access, as you will see, would have been quite simple.

Burger King has very generous provisions for the motorist but zip for the pedestrian. What pedestrians you might ask. Well, people do walk to Loughborough Commons. People also arrive by bus and bike. Yes, most use a car but we shouldn’t overlook those not driving private autos. Everyone spending money at Loughborough Commons is paying an extra tax to the Community Improvement district. Shouldn’t pedestrians expect some accommodation in return?

Potential pedestrians coming to the Burger King include nearby residents and workers at other businesses at Loughborough Commons. For example, a clerk at the OfficeMax may want to walk to Burger King for lunch

So how would it have been easy to provide pedestrian access to this Burger King? From the above picture you can see the width of the Fifth Third Bank lot is not terribly wide. To the right is the new Burger King. To the left is the main entrance for Loughborough Commons. Both sides of that entry include Pedestrian sidewalks.

So they have sidewalks bringing the pedestrian into the development.

At the bottom of the entrance the sidewalk ends (above) with a crosswalk to the South (below). Going off to the left is an outer drive that separates the out parcels from the main parking area. When built I though the solution was pretty good – the sidewalk could simply be continued to serve all four outlots.

Of course for all the establishments located in the out parcels to be accessible the sidewalk needs to be continuous. Burger King being located in the 2nd of four out parcels the fact they didn’t continue the sidewalk means the remaining two to the East will also not be in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. It also means that an able-bodied person who might consider walking a few hundred feet is being encouraged to drive.

How can this possible be so bad? They had the origins for a sidewalk to serve all four of the out parcels yet they still managed to screw it up. Clearly the pedestrian is given no thought. The folks at DESCO & their engineering consultant must all be amateurs because they can’t seem to figure out something so utterly simple.  If they want to do stupid development with their own money fine but when they hold out their hand asking for help from the public we need people & ordinances to ensure we’ll actually get something worthy of our investment.

This is not about excluding cars, or even creating the ideal urbanist project, but about planning for all means of site arrival as well as circulation within the site.  One of the residents in new homes a few blocks to the West might want to walk to the grocery store or to get a Whopper his way.  I’m referring to Mayor Slay, a new resident to the area.

One of the four out parcels will soon have a Fifth Third Bank.

One of the conditions needs to be that the bank extend the sidewalk along the edge of their parcel and that they actually connect to it. I’m emailing everyone I know at City Hall to try to improve this situation before it gets worse.

I’m sure Alderman Matt Villa would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on Loughborough Commons.