The Failure of St. Louis’ Gateway Mall
For those that don’t know, the Gateway Mall is not a failed downtown shopping mall. That would be St. Louis Centre. The Gateway Mall is a failed grand outdoor space running from the Arch on the East to Union Station on the West.
Originally envisioned decades ago as a grand green space along the lines of The National Mall in Washington D.C., it has consistently failed to live up to expectations. The reasons for failure are numerous and complicated. As decade after decade past the reason for failure changed.
Keep in mind that clearance for what would become the Arch grounds didn’t commence in earnest until the early 1940s. Yet, in the decades prior to WWII plans were under way to begin creating a grand boulevard in downtown St. Louis. Early plans focused on Market Street from Tucker (then 12th) West to Grand. Yes, plans show concepts clearing a path all the way from 12th to Grand! Thankfully they only found money to raze 10 blocks from 12th to 22nd.
So first came the vacant blocks along the North side of Market Street West of 12th. Then one by one blocks between the Civil Courts building and the Old Courthouse were razed. During the same period the adjacent blocks were also raised for banal buildings and parking garages. One-way streets and other mistakes drove the life out of downtown.
[Gateway Mall in the 1980s. Gateway One office building and the Morton May amphitheater are not yet constructed. Area is dominated by wide streets, surface parking and lifeless parking garages. Photo courtesy of Robin Ringwald]
Gateway One, the 1980s office building that was built on the site of old buildings and in the middle of the greenway has received much deserved criticism. It wasn’t until I was reading through many newspaper columns and proposals did I fully understand what happened and why. The politics was ugly. One property owner had the best plan to restore most of his buildings but the call for open space was overwhelming. He lost, confirming the St. Louis tradition for razing buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. I never thought I’d say this but Gateway One is far better than some proposals on the drawing boards.
At the time the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects did not support the plan that would have preserved the historic buildings. Instead, they supported a plan calling for new buildings along the North half of about 4-5 blocks. The South half of these blocks were to be a walkway. While I would have preferred keeping the historic and no so historic buildings the plan supported by the AIA was not bad. It had the openness and views sought by many while having street level retail in the bases of the new buildings. While people didn’t think so at the time, this plan would have resulted in more pedestrian activity than what we ended up with.
Each generation over the years has developed a new plan to stimulate the area. All sorts of ideas have been suggested including ice staking, world-class museums, fountains and special paving patterns. Each and every time these schemes have failed to understand one important ingredient…
People.
If marketed correctly I could hold a successful event on the ruins of the former Pruitt-Igoe housing complex but that doesn’t mean it will remain active after the event. Same is true downtown. Events draw people for the event. Assuming people will return to a location after the event is the downfall of many schemes to revitalize areas. Pretty plans with decorative paving stones and retro lanterns will continue to fail.
[Gateway Mall in the 1980s. Two blocks still retain a few buildings but newer buildings on both sides of the image rob life from the street. Photo courtesy of Robin Ringwald]
Downtown St. Louis has too much open space.
Decades of razing buildings for surface parking and gratuitous green space has left too little urban activity. The current ratio of active buildings to open space is too low to sustain a lively downtown during non-event times. Washington Avenue is thriving partially because it feels like an urban street should feel.
Successful urban open space has lively edges. That is, the surrounding buildings are a haven of activity with lots of people coming and going at all hours. The best way to achieve this constant level of activity is street-level retail. But take a good look at what surrounds the Gateway Mall — parking garages, low activity office towers, and other buildings not adding to the area. Jurors in the middle of the area must leave to find food and beverage. The City Hall entrance facing Market is closed. The Kiel center remains closed.
The most recent of many plans is the Downtown Now! action plan from 1999. I think it correctly determines the problems the area faces but only offers window dressing for solutions. In some cases I think this plan would worsen things by turning Market Street into one-way Westbound. Thankfully they never found funds to make they recommended changes. To read the Downtown Now! 1.8mb PDF file on the Gateway Mall click here. More information on The Gateway Mall can be found on the St. Louis Parks Department website.
I’ve got some specific thoughts on the area but I’m going to save those for this weekend when the AIA is holding a design charrette to examine the area. The public is invited to participate in one of two ways. First, by serving on a design team for $10. Second is to view the results at a free Sunday afternoon open house. More information including the program and registration forms at AIA St. Louis.
This is your chance to participate in the process — don’t let it slip by.
– Steve
I say open up large portions of it for development. The mall is too large for its surroundings, so if you cut down the size of the mall, and leave a few small pocket parks here and there, then the city will be able to increase the population downtown while also having several small, but highly utilized parks. I would rather have residential and office structures occupying the space where the mall is than what is there now. The space is dead. Perfect example of what Jane Jacobs said about parks.
I appreciate your comment about the missing element (people). It’s easy to wonder if the architects and planners involved in the various planning efforts for this space ever actually visited the site. The physical characteristics of the mall (most notably, the curiously wide streets on each side, and the highways just west of the Arch) cover as much ground as the actual green space they frame.
I’ve never believed bringing life to Downtown (presumably to the exclusion of other neglected neighborhoods), by itself, is a reasonable objective. However, If Downtown has anything aside from its architecture to boast, it’s its ability to host large events. Regrettably, those events are almost all baseball or football games, hosted in enclosed structures served by excellent parking facilities.
On the other hand, Brooklyn, NY has enjoyed great success hosting small-time bands and theater acts at a bandshell in a formerly dingy and underutilized Prospect Park. Surely the popularity of the Muni in the summer suggests that people in the city will attend well executed outdoor events–why not at the Gateway Mall? Music performers, skateboard competitions, farmers markets, could all find an appropriate space on the mall to conduct their business. I wonder what, if anything, the City is doing to spur regular utilization of the space–anyone know?
Were the 1980s really that hazy and yellow, or is that the quality of the photography?
[REPLY – back in the old days we used this thing called film. It was a very primative system only slightly better than the use of glass plates to record still images. This combined with task of scanning the printed photo you lose some quality. I think Robin did take these on a hazy day. Drab huh? – SLP]
Everytime I drive through the city of St. Louis I’m overwhelmed by conflicting senses of excitement and despair. There is so much potential for developing dead spaces, yet, there are so many damn dead spaces. When you look at pictures of other cities like Chicago or Manhattan 70 years ago and compare them to today, the growth of life and new development is astounding. When you look at pictures of St. Louis 70 years ago compared to today, we’ve traded a sort of European urban density for ground level parking and vacant lots. Essentially it’s like we’ve deconstructed St. Louis. It makes me want to stay and help it grow and move to another city all at once.
I do think we’re headed in the right direction with many of the new developments. I’m just really troubled by sites like the Gateway mall. I always thought it was a terrible waste of space, I didn’t know the history behind it but I should have assumed as much.
If there is anything we DON’T NEED in downtown it’s more open space! I haven’t taken a precise count, but just at a glance there are over 25 ground level parking lots occupying 1/4 to 2 blocks and over 25 vacant lots posing as “green spaces” in the downtown area alone! And that’s not including Pruitt-Igoe or the our sad exuse for a riverfront.
I really feel we have an overabundance of open space downtown and we shouldn’t be fighting to preserve things who’s only historical significance is the colossal failure of leadership and execution in the city of St. Louis. I just hope that St. Louis can attract investors and businesses with true urban sensibilities to downtown and stop tearing things down to replace them with nothing but dead air.
From the very little bit I remember of the ’80’s (I’m a youngin, leave me alone), it was pretty yellow and drab.
My thoughts echo Josh’s exactly. The Gateway Mall is a complete waste of real estate, as is the green space by the Eagleton Courthouse and the planned urban plaza by the Old Post Office. We already have a NATIONAL PARK downtown – enough with the open space!
Downtown needs to take a street, any street, and completely shut down 10, 12, 20 blocks and have a big street festival every weekend starting Friday night. Bands, activities, booze, in the nighttime, an open air market in the daytime, whatever. Go easy on the permits and hard on the idiots.
[REPLY – I kinda agree with the intent – a vibrant downtown – but I strongly disagree with the suggestion to close streets and have a big festival. These tactics – temporarily closing streets and have a huge event is the logic that has gotten us where we are today – with a vacant downtown anytime we are not closing streets and holding a big event.
If the street system and buildings are designed in a property, urban fashion the festival will exist in the form of sidewalk life. No need to close the streets unless we have so many pedestrians they spill off the sidewalk into the street. – SLP]