Carnahan School Gets New Sign, Remains Suburban
This summer Carnahan Middle School is transforming into the Carnahan High School of the Future. At least the new sign being erected says it is the future of high schools. While I treasure our classic early 20th Century Ittner-designed schools I’m not so crazy about this 2003 version. It looks like any suburban school. The problem is, it is located at Broadway & Gasconade (map)— hardly suburbia.
The new sign being constructed is the first clue to passersby this is a school. Sure, by the looks, they might assume as much. But I don’t believe it has ever had a sign at the street. In fact, the whole places tends to ignore the street altogether. That is what rubs me the wrong way. Buildings, especially civic buildings, should embrace and celebrate the public street.
This is the view presented to Broadway, one of the oldest routes in our region and along a major bus route. Sadly, an old streetcar storage & maintenance building was razed to construct this school. The old building, even though built for purely utilitarian means, did a wonderful job of relating to the street.
The current school is set back far from the street, much as you’d expect in places like Ballwin or St. Peters. The public sidewalk does run the length of Broadway and it is used often, including during the time I was taking pictures today. From the public sidewalk is another sidewalk which will eventually lead you to the building entrance. However, if you are standing at the intersection of these two sidewalks you cannot see the building’s entrance. With rare exception, a building’s entrance should be in close proximity to and visible from the primary public street.
The lush green lawn does little to benefit the urban streetscape along Broadway. With a nice small park to the immediate south the area did not need more open space. What it needed but didn’t get, is a building to reinforce the public realm of Broadway.
Access to the entrance is assumed by car. You enter from Gasconade St. —- oh wait —- make that the former Gasconade St. since it was vacated and blocked off on the west end. The site, just a hair over 6 acres, has been poorly utilized. Bordered on three sides by public streets (now two public and one private), the building doesn’t relate to any of them.
Unless hidden somewhere, the school does not have any bike racks for students, parents, teachers or staff to use.
One of the more common urban theories, popularized by the late Jane Jacobs, is the more eyes you had watching a street the safer it was. Thus, having multiple entrances immediately off a public street would create many people watching your actions. School age kids, in those times, may have tried to get away with wrong-doings but it is harder to succeed in such acts when being watched by many.
Since opening Carnahan Middle School, named after Gov. Mel Carnahan killed in an October 2001 plane crash, has been problematic since day one. Good urban design can not turn all students into well behaved kids but bad urban design can assuredly support bad behavior.
The solution?
More than a new sign!
The building, just a few years old, probably should be razed as it does such a poor job of fitting into the city. However, I think it could mostly be retained as part of a wing off a new 2-3 story structure built along Broadway. This would allow for a proper entrance along Broadway where parents and buses could use the more than ample on-street parking spaces. I’d throw in a few bike racks along the public right of way so that people coming to the facility, perhaps even for a community meeting, will have a place to secure their bikes. This vision of mine, of course, will likely never happen.
Our schools need a lot of help. As we invest in new schools we need to stop and think about how that school relates to the general public. Great civic buildings from past generations are special for their design and detailing but also their connection to the street and subsequently to the adjacent neighborhood.
– Steve
“Good urban design can not turn all students into well behaved kids but bad urban design can assuredly support bad behavior.”
Good quote.
Secondly, I like your analysis but I’d like to suggest that you stop using a wide-angle setting on your camera to emphasize the open spaces around buildings. Your 1st and 3rd pictures look like they’re on a 50mm (or equivalent) setting, but the 2nd looks like a wide angle was used. I think these spaces are bad enough, and your analysis convincing enough, that this form of subtle visual trickery doesn’t need to be used. Present the scene as it appears in real life, and let the reader/viewer make up their mind.
Thanks…
[REPLY– Thanks for the feedback. Trust me, I’m not using a wide angle for special effect. I use a point & shot that happens to have a wide angle (Canon S80). All three pictures above were taken on the same camera with the same settings. No trickery involved. – SLP]
[REPLY #2 – I drove back by the school and realized one of the earth berms in the front of the building is in the foreground of the 2nd picture. I think this makes the picture look distorted if you don’t realize the ground is not flat right there. For the record, placing earth berms along a major street is about as anti-urban as you can get. – SLP]
I agree with better urban design. As a taxpayer, I certainly don’t agree with “The building, just a few years old, probably should be razed as it does such a poor job of fitting into the city.” It’s functional,it doesn’t have a leaky roof or broken plumbing. Do better next time, but don’t waste money and resources proving a point!
Ten years ago in a design studio, our project was redevelopment of that particular site as housing. The proposals ranged from suburban style houses with front-loaded garages to a “cohousing” development.
In retrospect, the appearance of my house prototype was horrible. The site planning was better, however, with a new street and alley system cutting through the site. Houses along Broadway were designed with the potential for retail/home office to be added to the street facades. Each house also had potential for an alley-facing garage and/or second unit in the back.
It is interesting to me that back then, I was certainly not what I would now call an “urbanist”. Yet, my proposal, developed with very little formal study of urban form, exhibited some of the elements I now recognize as critical to our urban environement.
[REPLY I was hoping for housing on the site along with commercial/retail along Broadway. While the old bi-state garage shed would have been a challenge to reuse the stately brick front to the shed was spectacular. That building, in admitadly poor condition, could have been the focal point of a renewed Broadway.
I’ve tried finding pictures on the internet as well as in my own collection but I’ve had no luck. If someone has a picture of this building please let me know. – SLP]
“Good urban design can not turn all students into well behaved kids but bad urban design can assuredly support bad behavior.”
Care to elaborate on this assertion and offer evidence to support it, other than that it just sounds ‘cool’ to say it?
The schools which reside in Ittner-designed buildings certainly seem to have their fair share of problem students as well, which would lead us to the conclusion that the building itself is not a determinant of bad student behavior.
[REPLY The vintage Ittner buildings may also not be the best internal school designs but from an urban perspective they are outstanding. The point is the best urban building cannot make poorly behaved people suddenly act better. Good urban design can help discourage or mitigate such behavior. On the other hand, a poor urban design can help foster or be more tolerant of bad behavior. The building is not the sole determinent, I never said it was, but it can have an influencing role. – SLP]
The point is the best urban building cannot make poorly behaved people suddenly act better. Good urban design can help discourage or mitigate such behavior. On the other hand, a poor urban design can help foster or be more tolerant of bad behavior. The building is not the sole determinent, I never said it was, but it can have an influencing role.
But you haven’t explained how urban design can play an influential or mitigating roal in student behavior; you’ve merely restated your prior point using more words.
Please elaborate on your point; I’m fairly curious as to your reasoning.
What he means is that urban design matters. How buildings are built and arranged will have and effect on how people behave, which in turn can have a direct effect on the safety of a place. Urban design that doesn’t keep eyes on the street presents an opportunity for crime. Low-density areas with limited street connectivity will promote driving. Mixed-use developments will encourage more people to walk. Large, wide streets encourage traffic to speed up, while smaller streets tend to slow it down. None of these types of urban design force people to adopt these behaviors, but they can encourage them and create opportunities for them. This is why design matters. People are free to make their own choices, but these choices are influenced by the information that they are receiving from their surrounding environments.
Steve:
The view that everything in the city must fit your definition of urban is a bit worrisome. It almost sounds extremist to make statements like razing a recently built school because it doesn’t look how you would like.
I was not around when the debate on the issue of the school was being discussed, so I don’t know all the issues involved there. But, the campus-styling looks appropriate to the current use. As a highschool, it might need additional parking, and I would like to see some additional gardens between the building and the three streets that border the property. At this point, I agree with the statement above related to doing better next time if there are elements about the structure that you don’t like. We need to work with the building as it is currently, which is why the community was involved planting flowers along with the new principal a few weeks ago on a Saturday morning.
[REPLY Why must everything fit my view of urban? Well, I’m critiquing things and it generally works better if I argue in favor of my views rather than against.
And some, like yourself, seem to overlook details such as the next sentence after I suggested we raze a 3-year old school. “I think it could mostly be retained as part of a wing off a new 2-3 story structure built along Broadway. This would allow for a proper entrance along Broadway where parents and buses could use the more than ample on-street parking spaces.”
You and others get caught up on a sentence or two without taking in the context of the paragraph or post. You then label me extremist. Take in the totality of what I have to say.
What is really worrisome is that most of our society could care less about these issues. That leaves it to a few elected officials to call the shots on how things get built and therefore how our city is shaped — decisions that have impacts for decades. This is no time to be shy or timid about urbanism. We need a good healthy dose of discussion on these topics. And that, my friend, is why I write what I do. – SLP]
It is an important issue, but we should look for common ground. Keep up the discussion and keep it ever present in our consciousness. You serve an important role keeping the discussion alive.
people have been talking bad about our school, ive been there for 3 years almost 4 and every since mr creg williams dd the st, louis public school thing our school wasnt the same. he messed stuff up. but that is the greaest school ever. so everbody, shut up and stop making the school look bad.
from a student attending carnahan