City’s First LEED-Platinum Building Hosts SLU Environmental Planning Class

Last night our Environmental Planning course, taught by Dr. Sarah Coffin, met not at our usual classroom at Saint Louis University but at the new offices of the William A. Kerr Foundation on the north Riverfront. Never heard of the Kerr Foundation? Well, you are not alone. Kerr had set up a foundation so that after he died family members would help give away his money for good causes. Two brothers, nephews of Kerr, are responsible for the foundation. One lives in California and helps distribute the money there while the other, Dr. John Sweet, lives here in St. Louis and naturally he supports causes here.

I don’t have the exact mission of the foundation but local community support and education are key components. Dr. Sweet brings a strong environmental ethic to this job — a position that brought him out of retirement. Sweet is an avid bicyclist which is how we first met, I am fortunate to be able to call him a personal friend. Sweet, through this foundation, has given money to many groups throughout the region. Now keep in mind that they don’t have the tens of millions (or even hundreds of millions) that many foundations do. Still, to some organizations doing good work, even a few thousand dollars here and there can have a huge impact.

So a few years ago Sweet decided the foundation would buy an old building on the north riverfront area, near the entrance to the bike trail. I toured the building with Sweet prior to the start of any construction and I can tell you it was pretty well deteriorated. A former 19th century bath house turned food processing facility, it had had a rough life. Today the building has undergone a $2 million dollar renovation and has been approved as the first LEED-Platinum building in the City of St. Louis.

OK, from this view it doesn’t look like much. The more interesting section is up the hill to the left, which I failed to get a good picture of! As part of the LEED process you try to minimize waste & improve efficiency so I would image that is why we still see former windows blocked up. While the foundation does not need this much space for their office, they are allowing non-profit groups to use the facility for educational purposes, including meetings.

Inside it looks pretty conventional. But items such as a dimmable florescent lighting, non-VOC paint, recycled newspaper insulation, carpet made from recycled materials, kitchen cabinets from Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore and so on are certainly non-conventional. Getting natural light into the building to reduce lighting loads, which increase air conditioning loads, was important.

A glass floor in the main area helps get natural light to a lower level, shown here looking back up.

Six reasonably conventional solar tubes on the roof help take natural light down to another lower level that was formerly completely dark without artificial lighting. Here a framework is used to protect the tops of the tubes — glass tops help these serve as outdoor tables for rooftop events. The decking is the well-known TREX material which is easily available.

Except for the deck areas, the roof is a green roof — covered in drought tolerant materials. These were recently set in place so they’ve yet to fill in but they are expected to expand and disguise their containers. To the left is an exterior elevator for full access to the roof. Not visible are solar panels facing the south, mounted on a pitched section of roof.  The north riverfront trail is just beyond the flood wall seen in the background.  That body of water, for those of you that don’t see it often enough, would be the Mississippi River.  

Set on a deep base in the tiny sliver of ground to the north of the building is the first wind turbine in the City of St. Louis. On the tour we checked out the controllers that help invert the power from this and the solar panels so that it can be sold back and added to the grid. The wall of devices, meters and switches looked like something out of Frankenstein’s laboratory. Sweet says he still buys electricity but feels that it is reduced through the use of solar and wind energy. Obviously a wind turbine is not something Joe homeowner can run out and purchase. Nor can developers likely recover such costs either although as such technology becomes more commonplace we will certainly see prices drop.

Above and left is the Laclede Power Building, owned by Trailnet, may soon be renovated.  At first glance you might think it is derelict and abandoned and a candidate for demolition.  However, Trailnet has worked hard to keep the building intact by doing major stabilization work such as exterior tuckpointing and a new roof.  While it is currently rough around the edges, the Laclede Power Building will be reborn in the future and will serve many generations of St. Louisans.   Spending money on stabilization is often a far better investment than simply razing a building to create ever more vacant land.  And yes, John Sweet’s foundation helped fund the stabilization and environmental remediation that took place.

Another building in the area I am hugely fascinated with is this old warehouse. A group of investors owns this building and quite a bit of land around it.  I can picture a whole new neighborhood of mixed-use buildings built around those that remain.  A short walk to the south, through the Laclede’s Landing casino district, and you are at the MetroLink light rail station.  I would love to live in this building!  Note to self, call the one investor you know and see where they are with this project.

Following the tour our class met in the main space of the foundation’s building for actual lecture and discussion.  One person we learned about was Garrett Hardin who, in 1968, wrote a still controversial paper, The Tragedy of the Commons.  The basic premise being that selfish individual interests can end up destroying the common good — fishermen that over fish an area can ruin the fishing not only for themselves but others as well.  We didn’t get into his views on human overpopulation as well as he and his wife’s belief in choosing when to die — they committed suicide together in 2003 — both were in their 80s. 

We also looked at the writings from the late Rachel Carson.  Carson was a marine biologist and her writings on the impact of DDT on bird populations helped ban the use of the pesticide in the US.  Monsanto apparently still makes DDT for use on crops in countries like Mexico.  Some consider Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring, a significant part of the birth of the environmental movement that led to the first earth day in 1970 as well as major environmental laws enacted during the Nixon administration. 

We reviewed/discussed many more topics in class, too numerous to outline all here.   Post class I scootered around a bit and got a few more photos. 

The  Kerr foundation is in the foreground at right.  This is technically still an alley although it is not really paved.  The building I am madly in love with stands proud in the background. 

The sunset, like the weather, was quite nice yesterday.  This electric substation brings home the point about what it takes to power our lives, including the Mac I type this on now.  I want to thank Dr. John Sweet for creating a wonderful demonstration project to help educate and prompt us to think about our decisions about building materials and energy use.

Six Years and Counting

Like the “where were you when Kennedy was shot” question from an earlier generation, we all know what we were doing as we watched on live television the unfolding of events on 9/11/2001. There I was in the living room of a client I had just met, watching that second plane hit the other tower of the World Trade Center. Any doubt about the first plane being lost in the fog was gone. I think what I remember most was the courage of those in the fourth plane, knowingly facing their own deaths, thinking of others on the ground — preventing the deaths of so many more.

In the weeks prior a friend and I had booked an exciting 17-day trip to the east coast — Washington DC, Pennsylvania and New York. Our flight to DC was October 19th. I had been to DC before but this time was obviously different — the Pentagon had a huge hole in the side. Still, people were out and about in the various neighborhoods. The Washington Monument, as you might suspect, was closed to visitors. We had planned a road trip from DC to New York via Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water in rural Pennsylvania and thus had booked a rental car. Getting off the city bus at National Airport was weird — the place was a ghost town as flights were still not being permitted in or out. My first time in New York was surreal. Hotels and restaurants were eager to kick start the local economy so tourists were welcomed. As you approached “ground zero” as it was becoming known, the smell hit you. Neighbors in nearby Battery Park were hosing out the filters on their ventilation systems. The skyline I had seen my entire life in pictures was different, the Statue of Liberty was closed. We walked through the upper east side on the day a person died of anthrax poisoning on the upper east side. Stores had signs indicating they sold the anti-anthrax drug.

I visited New York again in the Fall of 2005. By then the debate about the future of the 16+ acre WTC site was in full swing. It should become a memorial park, it should be rebuilt as it was, and we shouldn’t build targets anymore were among the numerous viewpoints. Others advocated for much needed housing rather than simply replacing vast quantities of office space. Still others sought to return to the long abandoned street grid.

When Minoru Yamasaki was selected to design the World Trade Center his Pruitt-Igoe public housing, designed a decade earlier, was already troubled. When the ribbon was cut for the WTC in 1973 St. Louis had already begun to implode Yamasaki’s insensitive work here. In the 50s and 60s there was little opposition to such large scale projects save for Jane Jacobs. Today the debate over the 16+ acre site in lower Manhattan continues. Such a massive site in NYC is a rarity.

Back in St. Louis 16 acres is nothing to us. The Schnuck’s City Plaza development at Natural Bridge & Union is 20 acres, the Southtown Plaza strip center (former Famous-Barr site) is 11 acres. The old arena site, now called The Highlands, is 26 acres. The remaining Pruitt-Igoe site is roughly 33 acres. At 30 acres, Loughborough Commons, the Schnuck’s/Lowe’s albatross, is nearly twice as big as the WTC site. Yes — Loughborough Commons is 87% larger than the World Trade Center site! Wow, they are debating how many blocks and streets as well as how much office, retail and housing they can squeeze onto their 16 acres while here just getting the ability for an ADA-compliant sidewalk clearly takes more than action by the Board of Aldermen.

Thousands lost their lives six years ago and many more were strongly impacted by the loss of family, friends, co-workers, neighbors and simply a smile from a passing stranger no longer with us on the subway. Decisions made about the future of the WTC site, as well as development sites here in St. Louis and throughout the world, will too have an impact on people’s lives, although in a different way. We must ask ourselves why we are not creating places beyond just the short-term — a place to buy a cordless drill or get a latte at a drive-thru window. Architecture cannot made us better persons but our environment can and does impact how we all engage each other in our daily lives. We must do better. If not, we are simply funding a self-inflicted form of long-term terrorism.

The Magic Continues at Loughborough Commons

It has been a while since I’ve written about Loughborough Commons, the big box retail center receiving something like $14 million in various tax incentives. They been busy building some more retail square footage and preparing for some new tenants to open soon. This is simply a teaser post to show you a couple of the things I’ve been watching for a while.

Above, a staircase leads you down to the parking lot for the multi-unit strip center from the public sidewalk along Loughborough. So we have an SSC — sunken strip center. Or is the center depressed rather than sunken? Or simply depressing? When this stair was announced in the Holly Hills neighborhood newsletter a while back, prior to construction, they made mention of a bike rack at the bottom of the stairs. And here it is — a bike rack at the bottom of stairs.

A bike rack at the bottom of stairs! Get it? Pretty convenient location if you are capable of biking down a set of stairs. So when you bike into the parking area from the complete opposite side you might decide to ride over here to lock up your bike — if you know it is there. And yes, the bike rack is the same width as the concrete pad so that on the off chance the front side is full and you need to use the back side you must push your bike through the grass and shrubs, assuming the sprinkler system is not on. I’m not sure how they expect you to bike back up the stairs.

Those that bike for transportation might have actually appreciated not having to lift their bike over the curb. Say you’ve got one of those handy kid holders on the back of your bike — suddenly the bike is a lot heavier and the kid is precious cargo. Those biking through the park with a kid trailer are simply out of luck as no place is big enough to park your bike & kid trailer. Well, unless you can pick up both over the curb and through the shrubs you can leave the trailer on the grass portion at the back.

I’m also really fond of the ADA ramp at the bottom of the stairs. That will actually come in quite handy for everyone taking their wheelchair up & down the stair. The red truncated domes serving as a “detectable warning” for those with visual impairments are meant to be felt under foot to alert someone when entering a road — not a parking area. That is communicating to someone the are entering a street situation. Clearly they should have consulted with someone with some actual knowledge about the ADA.
Speaking of ADA ramps.

Down the hillside closer to the Schnuck’s and Lowe’s some new stores are being built. In the foreground is a new sidewalk and ramps that to the right connect to the sidewalk along the edge of the main driveway (I say sidewalk but it is too steep to be considered a sidewalk per ADA). The original drawings for the center didn’t include this is the way to get to the Schnuck’s — they had pedestrians crossing the main drive earlier and then the side drive to where you see the back of the stop sign above. I think this could have been a better solution. OK, so you make your way down the hillside from the pubic street, you cross a drive that is just to the right, you make the 90 degree turn, you note the half buried fire hydrant, and you spot the ramp across the drive — they don’t line up.

This is entirely new construction and the ramps on each side of the main driveway do not align. This is all by the same people being built at the same time — am I being unreasonable expecting that they’d align ramps so the person in the mobility scooter, the child on their bike or the parent pushing a baby stroller can safely cross the main entrance to a busy shopping center? This is not complicated stuff here. Yeah yeah, they are not done yet. I don’t want to hear it —- they’ve poured the concrete so they are done with this portion.

I am waiting for a bit more to get done and I will bring you a more in depth review of the new areas and some changes in the old. It is clear to me they were making an effort to improve upon what they had previously done but from the looks of things they simply didn’t have the right people on the job.

“Two Hours of Pushin’ Broom Buys an Eight by Twelve Four-Bit Room”

The times Roger Miller wrote about in his classic song, King of the Road, are long gone.

Trailers for sale or rent
Rooms to let…fifty cents.
No phone, no pool, no pets
I ain’t got no cigarettes
Ah, but..two hours of pushin’ broom
Buys an eight by twelve four-bit room
I’m a man of means by no means
King of the road.

Miller wrote King of the Road in 1965 at the age of 29. Using an online inflation calculator I found that $0.50 (aka four bits) in 1965 is equal to $3.14 in 2006 dollars. In 1965 you may not have been able to get a room for such a rate but the point is that today it is likely harder to find a cheap room for a couple hours of work. I checked St. Louis area room rates on some online sources and the best deal I could find is $45/night — if you are able to drive there. Ninety 360 bits plus tax. I’m sure cheaper places exist but you’ll likely need a credit card to check in.

Miller, born during the Great Depression, grew up in the next county over my father in very rural Western Oklahoma. My father was born seven years earlier in 1929. My dad rented a room briefly in the late 40s until he and my mom got married after she graduated from high school. These were the dust bowl days with families packing up and leaving for greener pastures further west. In these years and later you always had mostly single men that were drifters, vagabonds, and such — traveling from town to town working jobs here and there to get by.

Interestingly, one of the great names of St. Louis has just such a history: former St. Louis Mayor A.J. Cervantes. Cervantes, born on the city’s south side in 1920, became mayor in 1965 as Miller’s song was hitting the charts. Cervantes’ 1974 book “Mr. Mayor” talks about growing up in St. Louis, getting kicked out of St. Louis University High School and hitch hiking toward California “with a quarter and a few dimes in my pocket”. He continues:

Thumbing my way through the Dust Bowl offered few hardships. Motorists were usually friendly to a neatly dressed teen-age hitchhiker, and aside from suspicious farm wives in rural Arkansas, enough housewives who responded to my knock on the back door were ready to trade a meal for cutting the grass or some other odd job. I learned other tricks, too. A firehouse usually offered a place to sleep, and sometimes a meal as well. Firemen seemed always ready to interrupt a card game for a few words with a young wayfarer. And if all else failed I could always try the parish house next to the church.
Cervantes made it as far as Dallas but it was only a few months before he was back with his family on Juniata St. The next spring, however, he would venture out on his own again as he had had his “first taste of freedom.” Cervantes talks about hopping on freight cars and how they’d stop the train sometimes to toss off the free loaders — he describes learning to “ride the suspension rods underneath the cars – a dirty, precarious business. When I was sneaking rides over the Rockies in unheated boxcars, I used to wrap myself in newspapers to keep warm.”

Cervantes, a 2-term Mayor of our city, had lived for a brief time as a homeless drifter trying to find his way. Eventually he did find his way to a mansion on a private street and to Room 200 at City Hall. A future mayor may not be among our homeless today but you just never really know who is out there.

Rooms to let…fifty cents.
No phone, no pool, no pets

In those days rooms were plentiful and available throughout every major and minor city. Ironically our efforts to provide better housing cleared many of these places located on skid row. The arch grounds, 40 city blocks cleared. East of Soulard, cleared. Blocks along Market near Union Station — all cleared. The free market naturally provided housing at many price ranges, including two bits. But by the time Miller’s song became popular many of the rooms were gone. But one type still existed, the rooming house.

Former mansions had been cut up into apartments of varying quality . Sometimes people would share a single bathroom and kitchen. Codes required fire escapes, many can still be seen today. Cities were naturally responding to market conditions, providing housing that people needed. Many a beautiful staircase, for example, were ripped out to be replaced with a wall to create separate units. The wealthier continued to move out of their once fashionable mansions to new digs on the edge — not really caring about what they left behind.

But in popular culture we could also see the old mansion divided up into apartments as something cool and modern. The perfect place for a single gal at age 30: Mary Richards. Mary Tyler Moore’s character lived in a former mansion turned apartments. Cloris Leachman played Moore’s landlady — at least the building was owner occupied, right? Some rooming houses still exist but they are very hard to find. Do you think any respectable associate producer for a local TV station would live in such an apartment? Getting permission to rehab an existing rooming house is not likely given today’s climate of people only wanting neighbors just like themselves.

Today few choices exist for those seeking the four-bit room. Downtown’s Mark Twain Hotel is one such choice, an old fashioned residential hotel (pictured at right). I called them earlier in the week to ask about rates, terms and availability. Rates start at $113/week for a room, $118/week for room with a bath (others have shared baths), a $50 deposit and $15 application fee for a background check — no felonies in the last 3 years and no drug convictions in the last 7 years. Doing the math you’ll see that someone could rent an apartment for what it takes to live at the Mark Twain but leasing an apartment usually requires a steady job, good credit, a 12-month lease and the ability to get utilities. For those on the edge of being homeless, the cheap residential hotel rented by the week is an excellent option to keep them out of the parks & shelters. When I called the Mark Twain all 238 rooms were full.

The new term for the residential hotel is the SRO — single room occupancy. The idea is to rent a room to someone at a very low rate. Hostels are similar although they usually serve a somewhat different clientele. Like the tiny cold water flat and rooms of the past, we’ve razed or otherwise done away with buildings that once served a useful need to a segment of the population. Other cities, working on real solutions to homelessness, are building new SROs. Having a place where someone working can put their few possessions and have a good night’s sleep is an important part of a city’s housing mix. St. Louis, like most cities, have unknowingly eliminated a housing option that would keep many homeless from being homeless.

We need to increase our housing options for the working poor. This doesn’t mean a hand out, just not forcing out viable choices via zoning or other methods. To me it is in our best interests to catch people with such housing on the way down — a far better way to solve the problem than pulling them up from park benches after several years on the streets. For more on this subject read a piece called A Place in the Sun written a few years ago by my friend Robert E. Lipscomb.

Downtown Reverend Speaks Up on Feeding the Homeless in Public Parks

A guest editorial by Rev. Karen Fields:

Over the past year or so, I have been a part of the St. Louis Downtown Residents Association’s meetings that have focused on the safety issues that face those who have chosen to make downtown their home. Recently, I attended a similar meeting convened by Alderman Kacie Starr Triplett. As a clergyperson whose church has opened the doors to the homeless, I went to these meetings already on the defensive. I had an idea of how the residents might feel about the population that walks through our doors everyday looking for a meal, a restroom, or a phone. I knew that they didn’t know me, my motivation, our program, or even very much about the people we serve. I didn’t say much at these meetings. I wanted to assess the prevailing sentiment.

I have to admit that I did hear some of what I went expecting to hear. I heard the voices that said that the presence of the homeless in the parks and on the streets was hurting their property values. I heard the voices that said that there needed to be more security measures in place to protect residents and their investments. But I have to also admit that these voices were dwarfed by the voices of those who were looking for safety and security for all downtown residents, not just the ones sleeping in a loft. There was evidence of compassion for those with whom they share their neighborhood. It is hard, however, to hold compassion and the desire for safety and security in tension; especially when you have compassion for those whom you feel threaten your safety and security. It was obvious that it is in that tension that most of the St. Louis downtown residents live.

None of the homeless service providers created homelessness nor did they bring homelessness to downtown St. Louis. This population was downtown long before the first developer decided to invest in gentrification. They made their homes in abandoned warehouses, in tunnels under the city, in the parks, and along the riverbank, long before the warehouses were reclaimed for profit or there were pets to walk in the parks. The service providers responded to a human need that existed. They are still responding to human need.

Working with this population, I have learned a great deal about the human condition. There is no one definition of the characteristics of a homeless person. Stereotypes are as wrong for them as they are for any other minority. I have learned that they are a microcosm of the larger society from which we all come. Just like in any neighborhood across the metro area, some of the members of the homeless population are extremely intelligent. Some are intellectually challenged. Some are creative and artsy. Some are linear and analytical. Some need to be on medications to maintain a balanced temperament. Some are diabetic. Some have high blood pressure. Some have families that love them. Some are estranged from their past. Some have criminal tendencies. Some try to be model citizens. Not one wants to be a failure. Not one dreamed of someday living on the streets. Not one of them wants to be invisible. All of them want to love and be loved. Not all of them know how.

As part of the neighborhood, Centenary Church decided two years ago that we have a responsibility to step into the tension and become part of the solution. No matter how well intended a suburban group might be, it is not a safe and healthy practice to feed people in our parks. There is no control over how the food is prepared, served, or disposed of. The homeless population risks illness and the parks suffer from trash and rodents. Centenary has a large dining hall with an inspected kitchen and lots of trash cans.

No matter how much downtown residents and business owners dislike the problem of public urination, the fact remains that there are few public restrooms available for a homeless person to take care of this most basic human need. Centenary is in the process of completing the construction of new public restrooms that will be available for anyone’s use. It is the hope that in the near future, we might be able to acquire the funds necessary to also offer showers.

No matter how hospitable the library is to the homeless population, most are not using it for the purpose for which a library is intended. Centenary will be open from breakfast to dinner most days, so that the homeless have a place of respite from the elements – to get in out of the rain or snow or to escape the heat, a place to get a cold drink of water or a hot cup of coffee, a place to rest feet or wait for an appointment.

I have heard rumor that some have said that we are nothing more than a City-sponsored Methodist jail. I have been asked how I feel about the City requiring people to join Centenary in serving evening meals or they will be ticketed. Neither one of these accusations could be further from the truth. Centenary Church has opened its doors to help ease the tension and help find ways that diversity can co-exist. Nobody is required to join us “or else.” Nobody is being forced to spend their day in our building.

The re-development of downtown St. Louis is exciting. Dry bones are beginning to come to life. Downtown living offers something that can be found no place else. Centenary Church has been a downtown church since 1839. It has chosen twice in its history to remain a downtown church; even as other churches have packed up and moved west. It did not go to the suburbs and decide to move back downtown. It has always been here. Centenary knows what a great place downtown St. Louis can be and is committed to being a place of hospitality and grace to all of the residents of the neighborhood.

At the last meeting I attended, the question was asked about what people could do “right now” to address the issues that homelessness causes for the community. I said it then, and I will say it again. Come join us at Centenary. Help us build bathrooms. Help us provide a safe place to eat. Come help us serve a meal. Come have a conversation with one of your neighbors. You might find that they are more human than you thought.

—

Reverend Fields is an Associate Pastor with Centenary United Methodist Church located at 1610 Olive and is the Program Director of Centenary CARES. For more information go to centenarystl.org. To volunteer time and/or money please contact Rev. Fields at 314.421.3136 ext. 106 or k.fields at centenarystl dot org.