Great Pizza If You Can Get To It
One of the most urban things is the ability to grab a slice of pizza while on the go. I’ve enjoyed slices in NYC, Philly, Boston, San Francisco and elsewhere, sometimes at 3am. A single slice can also solve a pizza craving without ordering a full pizza.
In St Louis the by-the-slice choices are limited. You’ve got Racanelli’s on Delmar & on Euclid. You’ve got Feraro’s Jersey Pizza in Soulard and recently Bridge & Tunnel Pizza downtown on Washington Ave. a storefront or two East of Tucker.
I need to preface this with the fact that I like B&T Pizza. But the design of their entry does not comply with the ADA — when I’m in my wheelchair I can’t open the door to get inside. The staff there is nice and they come open the door for me. B&T Pizza are tenants in the building — my beef is with the building owner, the architect and the city.
When designing doorways that open toward you there is supposed to be 18″ of clearance to the handle side. This allows a wheelchair user to pull up and grab the door handle and get the door open without having the door hit the chair. Without this room to swing the door open it is impossible for a chair user to open the door.
Button-activated motorized openers such as the one at a potentially difficult door at City Grocers eliminates this problem. But the entry to Bridge & Tunnel is not an old historic entryway. Prior to the recent renovation of the building the space was an auto drive to an interior courtyard. The entrance is entirely new, yet it doesn’t comply!
The ramp shown above was the subject of a post in December 2007. By sticking out the way it does I believe it poses a trip hazard to someone just passing by on the sidewalk.
I like the place, it is good, inexpensive and quick. They’ve got calzones now too. But I don’t like that I can’t get in the door on my own.
The opposite door into the apartments is a mirror of the problem.
Again these doors & doorways are all new yet I can’t get through them because of their placement. Both need to be retrofitted with electric openers to bring these into compliance. The city has got to do a better job of catching what is simple access issues.
Another option would be to reverse the door and sidelight – adding the width of the column on left side would probably work on both the outside (pull) side, where 18″ is required, and on the inside (push) side, where 12″ is required.
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Bottom line, you’re right, the city, the owner and their architects all are in the wrong – it’s a simple issue with a simple solution in most new construction – you just gotta pay attention!!!!
The 18″ is a minimum – 24″ is prefered.
The onus is on the architect. Looks as though there was a half-hearted attempt, which is even more agregious than an oversight. Thanks Joe Klitzing!
Had the door swung outward (though not required because of small square footage resulting in small occupant load for egress considerations-less than 50 persons can occupy this small mercantile space as calculated by floor area) this would not have been a problem, as the outside railing plainly shows wheelchair footrest clearance as needed under the railing as with other accessibility clearances (lavatories, water fountains, toilet partitions, etc). The door simply should be rehanded to swing outward, allowing the 12″ push side clearance to be compliant, and the minimum 18″ pull side clearance to be compliant as well.
OK, I now see the outside hinges in the top photo, but I’m a bit confused by the second photo- from which it appears that the door opens inward and not outward. The top photo also appears to show the width of the ramp/landing to be wider, but that’s actually a joint between the masonry inlay (or stamped concrete, whatever it is)… OK, I’m not confused by the second photo because the caption clearly reads “The opposite door into the apartments…” LOL.
need to open a little hole in the wall pizza joint in the loop where you can walk up or rollup to the door and buy a slice or a whole pie (new york style pizza) get rid of that damn star butts and then there will be a perfect location.
Steve – Has the monkey building (Erlich’s Cleaners) made the entrance accessible yet?