St. Louis Developer Don Breckenridge Dies

KSDK Channel 5 is reporting that well-known St. Louis developer Don Breckenridge has died of natural causes. Breckenridge has developed many hotels over the country but most recently he is known for the creative re-use of the Edison Brothers warehouse into a luxury hotel and condos.

Breckenridge was working on plans to renovate the long vacant Kiel Opera House. For more information on Don Breckenridge click here.

My sympathies go out to his family & friends.

– Steve

Downtown “Vehicular & Pedestrian” Study Open House 12/6/05

I just got the following information:

Click here to read a prior post on the traffic study. I’ve already commented previously so at this point I’m going to wait to see what they come up with on Tuesday.

– Steve

Observations of ‘Guns-N-Hoses’ Charity Event

Last Wednesday evening I attended the annual Guns-N-Hoses boxing event which raises money for Backstoppers, a highly worthwhile organization. Unlike previous years, I was seated in a luxury box. Wow, what a difference. All the luxury and social isolation of suburbia.

Walking around the regular folks I saw an interesting shirt on what I presumed was a police officer. On the back were big letters BDRT and in small letters the explanation — Baby’s Daddy Removal Team. Nice, huh?

[update 11/29 @ 10pm. For more explanation on the meaning read this.]

– Steve

Doering Mansion Should Not Be Razed for Mississippi Bluffs Condos

The Doering Mansion has clearly seen better days. Like thousands of nice but ordinary buildings all over the city this one has been allowed to slowly decay over a period of decades. Sadly, the ordinary building has no champion. We have the Landmarks Association which speaks up when… well… a landmark building is threatened. But we are a city of ordinary buildings. It is the streetscape of ordinary accented by the occasional landmark structure that gives our city its character and appeal. Raze enough of the normal, everyday buildings and the attraction of the city is lost.

My interest in saving the Doering Mansion is not that as a single structure it is historic, although by many standards it is. No, my belief is that we have lost all the ordinary run of the mill buildings we can afford to lose. In some areas, such as parts of North St. Louis and mid-town, we’ve razed too many buildings to have much appeal at all. Yet, we continue to raze buildings that are individually insignificant in the name of that old standby reason, progress. St. Louis has a preservation review ordinance for a reason, to examine the value of buildings before granting a demolition permit. Later today we’ll know the fate of the Doering Mansion.

… Continue Reading

Targeting Changes in Big Box Stores

The October/November issue of New Urban News has a nice article on Target stores:

Until recently, all Target stores were the typical single-story boxes with surface parking. But in the last half-decade, Target has built or acquired 35 multilevel stores with structured parking and another 8 stores with parking underneath. In all, about 3 percent of Target’s 1,350 stores nationwide have unusual urban formats that Target calls “unique.”

The full article is brief but highly recommended.

One of the key messages from this article is Target and other retailers change from their standard big box and big parking when forced to. But the stores are also a success with higher sales to offset their higher development and operating costs. While the new Target at Hampton & Chippewa is okay it is not the urban model we should have downtown.

As much as I want to support local retailers I do think a single Target in the downtown area would be good for both the retailer and the downtown residents. Some may suggest the ever changing St. Louis Centre shopping mall but I was thinking further West — somewhere between Tucker (12th) and Jefferson, North of Market and South of Dr. ML King Drive. We’ve got a number of vacant city blocks that would be excellent for such a store.

One of the main problems with newer stores is the lack of windows along the sidewalk either to the sales floor or window displays. Some solutions mentioned in the story is newer versions of displays that might include media but what I like most are called “liner stores” — smaller stores that line the sidewalk to create interest.

We are thankfully witnessing the beginning of the end of the big box store in a sea of parking. Yet not far from me the already obsolete Loughborough Commons is being built — complete with two big boxes, more parking than required by code, and several outparcels. The whole site faces the all mighty interstate and backs to the adjacent residential. We need more enlightened developers, or just more enlightened elected officials to force developers to give us good design over sprawl.

– Steve