Before delving into the street known as Convention Plaza I need to give you some background…
Grand Opening festivities for St. Louis’ new Cervantes Convention Center, named after former mayor Alphonso J. Cervantes, were held in July 1977. The original facility, costing $34 million, was much smaller than the one we have today. Eight and Martin Luther King Drive were closed to create a contiguous four block area bounded by Cole on the north, 7th on the east, 9th on west and Delmar on the south. Delmar between Broadway and 14th Street was renamed Convention Plaza to reflect its new role as the entry to the Cervantes Convention Center.
Six years later the city was ready to consider an expansion of the facility and in July 1989 ground was broken on the expansion to the south. This expansion required the closing of two blocks of Convention Plaza and Lucas Avenue. In May 1993 the south expansion was complete the complex was renamed America’s Center. The expanded facility now fronted on Washington Avenue as we see it today. Combined with the Edward Jones Dome (formerly TWA dome) the entire complex now occupies 12 city blocks.
For nearly 17 years now Convention Plaza, the once busy street in front of the convention center, has been a road to nowhere. For all these years the street heads east toward the blank side of America’s Center.
The photo at right shows Convention Plaza between 9th & 11th Streets. The vertical street in the center is 10th Street while the big object on the far right is the convention center.
Convention Plaza is wide —- 60 feet from curb to curb. It includes four driving lanes plus a center turn lane. No parking is permitted on the street. This is a lot of potential volume for a street that doesn’t do much or go anywhere to speak of.
10th Street is one-way heading south and 11th is one-way heading north. 9th is one-way northbound from Convention Plaza north and two-way south of Convention Plaza. Here is a Google Map of the area.
None of the buildings adjacent to the street have entrances facing Convention Plaza. To the west the old Globe-Democrat building has loading docks and parking garage entrances. All in all this three block section looks pretty dismal.
By contrast 10th Street (one-way southbound) is a mere 30 feet wide curb to curb between the two big surface parking lots. Here the street has one row of on-street parking and two travel lanes. 10th Street’s two travel lane receive traffic from I-70 into downtown while Convention Plaza gets the occasional car by comparison.
Oddly this area, part of the 7th Ward,
wasn’t included in the recent Downtown Access, Circulation and Traffic Study. An area left behind.
Ideally I’d like to see new construction on the blocks where we now have all the unsightly surface parking. This could create new uses for Convention Plaza.
In the meantime the city should be allowing parking on this unnecessarily wide street. We are losing money by not having parking meters in this area. We are not getting all the revenue we should plus it makes an area two short blocks from our emerging Washington Avenue look desolate.
And while we are at it we should the name of these five blocks (9th to 14th) back to Delmar.
– Steve
Today I took advantage of the stunning weather and rode my scooter downtown for some meetings. Despite having a new car I enjoy time in the open air.