Tough Decisions: Useless Plaza Vs. Another F-ing Parking Garage

The large law firm Thompson Coburn, who was being lured to Clayton, is staying downtown in floors of the US Bank tower on 7th. That is the good news. The bad news is the deal will cost about $700K in tax incentives to keep from losing a huge number of jobs. Furthermore, the Missouri Development Finance Board will build yet another parking garage downtown (garages are more prolific than Walgreen’s with sometimes more than one per corner).

The site of the new garage is the NW corner of 7th & Locust. Over a decade ago the Ambassador Theater was razed on that corner by then Mercantile Bank (now US Bank). I recall going downtown and seeing the once magnificent building being demolished. Mercantile Bank wanted a proper entry for its mid-1970s tower.
For twenty years the two had managed to co-exist next to each other.

At the same time the owner of the Arcade-Wright buildings a few blocks away wanted to raze those structures for surface parking. The Post-Dispatch editorialized at the time against razing the Arcade/Wright for surface parking but in favor of razing the Ambassador for Mercantile’s “urban plaza:”

January 30, 1995, Monday, FIVE STAR Edition
A PLAZA FOR DOWNTOWN
SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. 6B

Downtown St. Louis will lose another of its landmark buildings later this year when Mercantile Bank knocks down the 17-story Ambassador Theater Building at Seventh and Locust streets. That’s too bad, but the reality is that not every older building can or should be saved.
After the building is demolished, the site will be turned into a landscaped plaza with a fountain and trees. The plaza will be an enhancement to downtown besides setting off the bank’s modern office tower and its bank building at Eighth and Locust.
Built in the 1920s, the Ambassador Theater Building housed an elegant movie palace, which was also used for stage productions, but its lights went dim in the 1970s. The theater portion of the building was stripped bare before Mercantile acquired the structure in 1989. It has been vacant, or nearly so, since then. The city’s Heritage and Design Commission assented to the historic building’s demolition, influenced, no doubt, by the bank’s plan to create an attractive plaza there.
Meanwhile, the owners of the historic Arcade and Wright buildings on Olive Street, at Eighth, also seek permission to demolish. They want to replace the buildings – one 18 stories tall, the other 16 and both more than 75 years old – with a parking lot. That is hardly the kind of open space that will add to the quality of downtown life or promote its economic growth.

So presumably the paper’s editors in 1995 felt an “attractive plaza” with a “fountain and trees” would add to the “quality of downtown life.” So where are they now decrying the loss of this “enhancement?” It didn’t take long for everyone to realize this new plaza was just an elaborate circle drive – a seldom used one at that.

The public was fooled by the idea of a great public space in place of the fabulous but vacant Ambassador. The plaza does indeed have grass, a fountain and trees. I’ve also never seen anyone use the space. I think I biked through the circle drive once but it is truly a forgetful space.

In addition to losing the Ambassador and with threats against the Arcade/Wright the owner of the nearby Syndicate & Century buildings notified the city in May 1995 they were revising their plan for the block bounded by 9th, Olive, 8th & Locust to be surface parking.

The Ambassador didn’t come down until 1996, and it didn’t go willingly:

AMBASSADOR IS GIVING ITS WRECKERS A WORKOUT
St. Louis Post-Dispatch – September 3, 1996
Author: By Elizabeth Holland ; Of The Post-Dispatch Staff
After considerable struggle, Spirtas Wrecking Co. employees finally cut and removed a chunk of a truss of the Ambassador Theater late last week. Workers had been waging a battle with the building’s massive, concrete-filled trusses and expect to continue doing so until all of the trusses are removed, said Gail Partain, an executive with Mercantile Bank.

But back to the dreadful plaza that replaced the well-built 17-story Ambassador.

Butt look, grass and a fountain!

Again I don’t recall seeing anyone in the space – ever. I take that back, I have seen security guards make sure nobody dare use the space. When I was taking these pictures a guard came outside. Perhaps he thought I was a disabled terrorist in a bright orange wheelchair?

Perhaps a parking garage is a better use of this space? It couldn’t get any worse…unless they copied the other garage on this city block:

Does it get any worse than this?  We lost a spectacular building on another corner of this block so the bank could have a ‘nice’ entrance.  They should have started here.

Since I started writing this post I’ve made a couple more visits.  Yesterday afternoon I spotted a few smokers at the base of the tower — not in the plaza itself.  Again no seating is provided and sitting on the grass would probably upset the guards. The Plaza was designed by Gene Mackey who was just honored by the AIA St Louis.

Demolition of the Ambassador cost over $2 million.  Spiratas & Mercantile Bank ended up in court over the extra costs due to the concrete filled trusses.  When built the Ambassador was meant to stay around longer than it was.

While we have too many garages already I think we have too many vacant corners as well.  At least a garage will bring some urban form back to this corner.

Further reading:

• The Ambassador on Built St Louis (w/photos)
• St Louis Doesn’t Need More Parking by Matt Mourning on The Beacon
• Thompson Coburn and the Economics of Parking Downtown by Michael Allen on The Ecology of Absence
• Thompson Coburn to stay in Downtown St Louis in the 9/9/08 St Louis Business Journal
• Slay Says Centene “taking advantage of state incentives”, Aug 29th on this site

Lack of Ramp Forces Man in Wheelchair Into Street

I write often about curb ramps and street closures. Comments on street closing is often along the lines of “nobody uses that street.” Well unless you are there 24/7 you don’t really know who does and doesn’t use streets. Same goes for access to those in wheelchairs.

On the 10th of September I was enjoying a great lunch with a friend al fresco at The London Tea Room on Washington Ave in the Ely Walker Building. I like having lunch there as they have great salads and as they are the closest place to my loft so I can walk there relatively easy.

This part of Washington Ave has a shifted street grid – 15th & 16th don’t line up with each other across Washington. So while we are having lunch I spot a guy in a manual wheelchair at 16th & Washington.

I didn’t bring my camera so I used my phone to snap a quick image. The man was using a manual wheelchair with his right leg propped up for support. He used both hands and his left leg to propel himself. He was coming from 16th on the North side of Washington Ave – he had possibly been at the Social Security office as 16th & Delmar. He was heading South. The streetscape along Washington is pretty good for East-West travel but not so good for crossing it North-South, especially here where the streets do not align.

Ideally at these points ramps and crosswalks would have been provided. Instead this man entered the street using the ramp on his side, crossed Washington and then traveled in the street on Eastbound Washington until he reached the driveway for the small parking lot for the Ely Walker Building. Returning to the sidewalk using the auto drive he made a right turn at 15th. Traveling a 100ft or so on the street in a slow moving manual chair is an excellent way to get hit & killed.

What were his options?

Few.

A crossing point exists where 16th intersects on the South side of the street and at 14th. I’ve used the crossing at 16th before. Traffic is not required to stop, signs are few and the crosswalk is in pavers that visually blend too well with the road surface. Sometimes traffic will see you on the edge of the road looking for a break and they’ll stop to let you cross. Of course if a car in one direction stops you still have to be sure it is clear from the other side.

But for this guy in a manual chair going uphill to this crossing was likely to be too much effort. While in the hospital I spent months using a manual chair and I can tell you that you come to appreciate level surfaces. This guy had a direct route in mind. Going up to 16th or down to 14th and back up to 15th was probably just too much. Also, he may not have realized a crossing existed the block up the street.

This is one of those cases where somebody might look at the intersection and say, “Nobody in wheelchairs cross here.” I know I had never seen anyone do it until the 10th. Just because you haven’t personally seen someone cross at a certain point, or use a certain street, doesn’t mean its not used ever.

I have seen able-bodied individuals cross Washington at this place before. I’m guessing typically people coming from City Museum heading to The London Tea Room for lunch. If this were an official crosswalk with ramps and good markings it would be much safer. I know that when in my car I don’t always notice people wanting to cross the street at odd intersections like this. I’m always concerned too that if I stop the driver behind me might not realize why I’m stopping and go around me hitting the person I stopped for.

Some other cities, like Toronto, make it a point to call attention to pedestrian crossings.

Drivers expect pedestrians at traditional 4-way intersections. It is where we deviate from the norm that special highlighting is necessary. Ramps are also necessary because we end of with wheelchairs traveling unsafely in auto lanes.

—

The above was written Sunday morning for posting today.  While driving Sunday around noon I spotted the same man wheeling in the street — on Gravois West of Jefferson!  He was in the tiny amount of space between parked cars and the outer drive lane.  He must have used the bus at some point considering the distance traveled.

Century SLAPP Suit Pushed to April 2009

The trial against downtown residents Roger Plackemeier & Marcia Behrendt, both friends of mine, over past efforts to save the historic Century Building had been scheduled to start today.  However, according to MO Casenet, the trial has been pushed to April 27, 2009 – over four years after the suit was first filed on April 19, 2005.

I believe the case to be a classic SLAPP suit – a strategic lawsuit against public participation (see wiki entry).  In the case Plackemeier & Behrendt are charged with “malicious prosecution.” Presumably the city & state, through agencies, have unlimited funds to pursue these two individuals for years.

Signs Point Out the Not So Obvious in Suburbia

Last week I was in the suburb of Des Peres.  Typical sprawl near Manchester & Bopp Rd.  While visiting two different places I spotted interesting signs in the windows pointing out things not readily apparent.

So while the Barnes & Noble bookstore on Manchester Rd apparently has a bike rack somewhere it is not obvious to the point they had to put a sign in the window.  I’m glad they have bike parking and I’m glad they try to help direct people to the right spot.  From the entry I could not see a bike rack.  I didn’t have the energy to walk along the front of the store to peak around the corner to see where they had hidden a rack.

Across the street and just a bit East is a FedExKinko’s location:

“Handicap Ramp, Please do not park here” reads the sign in the window.  They must have had people parking in the ramp space  so they put the sign up.  The space to the left of the ramp is a regular space, to the right a disabled space.  With white markings the asphalt ramp is not overly obvious.  A second disabled space is over one more to the right.  Typically you want the ramp in between the two spaces.  Doing so makes the ramp a bit more obvious to others.  Blue strips would help distinguish this area from a normal no parking zone.

Last week I was out in the car and stopped by the Lammert Building at 911 Washington Ave. to visit the Landmark’s Association’s new offices and the AIA Bookstore.  The building has a small parking lot on the West side of the building with a single disabled space.  The unloading zone is to the left of the space with the ramp to the left of that.  A car was parked in this unloading zone.  I was able to get out of my car OK, I do have to open my door fully to get my legs in/out.  Once inside I stopped at the guards desk to ask if they knew who’s car it was.  Turns out it belonged to one of the security guards.  If someone needed the ramp not enough space would have been left for them to get out of the vehicle and into a chair and access to the ramp was blocked  – by building security!

Provisions such as bike ranks & curb ramps are great provided we know where they are and we don’t render them useless by parking a 2-ton piece of steel in the way.

Saint Louis University Corrects Accessibility Issues Created By Chaifetz Arena

Last month I highlighted an access issue that had appeared in the St Louis Post-Dispatch on August 4th (see post). In short, when Saint Louis University built the Chaifetz Arena at Laclede & Compton they omitted curb ramps that would permit a wheelchair user from crossing Compton, severely limiting East-West access in this area that was more accessible prior to the new arena. They also lacked an accessible passenger loading zone (examples). Both of these major access problems have now been corrected.

blah

blah.

As you can see no crosswalk is yet indicated on the pavement.  Hopefully the work order is in place for that to happen soon.  As many drivers blow right through this stop sign it would be advisable for the city to use a  bold “zebra crossing” rather than the simpler parallel lines.  A cop sitting on Laclede could write quite a few tickets in a single hour — I’ve never been here and not seen someone completely ignore the stop sign.  Extra precautions need to be taken to ensure pedestrian safety.  This could take the form of signs indicating “stop ahead” or just STOP on the pavement.  Pedestrian crossing signs are another way to alert drivers to look for pedestrians.  Having Laclede open to through traffic in both directions would be the best way but SLU and Harris-Stowe have both screwed up the street grid.

I’m glad to see this has been corrected.  It never should have been an issue in the first place.  This is simply evidence of design professionals not considering the needs of pedestrians, in particular those pedestrians that are disabled.