Celebrating Six Years Of UrbanReviewSTL This Month

Halloween marks the sixth anniversary of this blog. In that time I’ve published over 2,300 posts. To celebrate I’m going to have some Top Six lists this month.

To start things off here is my Top Six Priorities I want to work on in the next 12 months (short term):

6) Moving the taxi stand off the sidewalk in front of the convention center.

5) Getting good policy, procedures and oversight in place regarding valets.

4) Opening up food vendor options (stand & truck) throughout the region.

3) Increased bike parking in the region.

2) Some municipality in the region to begin adopting form-based zoning, even if for a small area.

1) Switching city elections to be non-partisan.

These are not the region’s top priorities but what I’m personally interested in working on.  Discuss.

– Steve Patterson

Gems Hidden Inside Our Downtown Buildings

Yesterday I met a friend for lunch at a lunch place on the ground floor of the Bank of America building bounded by Broadway, Chestnut, 4th & Pine.

The picture above is the Atrium Cafe as seen from the outside.  Exciting huh?

However, from the lobby the place was very open visually and there was a steady flow of customers.  From the outside it is impossible to tell what is going on inside, a visitor to St. Louis could walk right past the building and not realize the place they want to grab a bite for lunch is right there.

This is not the fault of the owner of the Atrium Cafe, but the design of the building and so many others.  They are internally focused. Hopefully we can get building owners to begin piercing through the exterior walls to create more excitement at the sidewalk level.

– Steve Patterson

PR: Bridge Rehabilitation of Compton Avenue between Chouteau and Spruce

The following is a press release:
—
Bridge Rehabilitation of Compton Avenue between Chouteau and Spruce
 
On Monday, October 4, 2010, Compton Avenue will be closed between Chouteau Avenue and Spruce Street in order to make repairs to the bridge substructure.  All repair work will be performed beneath the bridge deck and workers will generally not be visible from the adjacent roads.  It is anticipated that the closure will last 90 days.  The General Contractor is Kozeny-Wagner, Inc.
 
The signed detour will be on Chouteau Avenue to Jefferson Avenue to Market Street and vice versa.

The MVVA Team Won, Now What? Part II (Kiener Plaza) – Updated

Friday (9/24/2010) I attended the introduction of the winning team in the FRAMING A MODERN MASTERPIECE | The City + The Arch + The River | 2015 International Design Competition.  The event was held in the rotunda of the Old Courthouse. This is a continuation of my post on Friday when I began looking at the MVVA design in detail.

Over the next 90 days the MVVA team will listen to public feedback.  Michael Van Valkenburgh said he heard plenty about their idea to use cobblestones on the riverfront. Many seem disappointed in the design but I know from my own experience in architecture school back in the 80s that the flashier designs are not always the best from a functional perspective.  I’m looking at the winning design with a critical eye to see where it can be refined and improved, hopefully you will as well.

For this post I’m looking at the concept for Kiener Plaza, located just west of the Old Courthouse.

Page 126:

“Kiener Plaza becomes a simple bosque that gathers the playful energy of Citygarden and channels it around the Running Man fountain into a formal processional axis facing the Old Courthouse and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. “

Page 129:

“Our proposal unifies all of Kiener Plaza, creating a flat bosque that better connects the eastern end of Citygarden to the Old Courthouse and the Memorial beyond. The bosque features a smooth gradient between formally and informally organized space, and can accommodate everything from large sports rallies to intimate gatherings around a café table. Carefully placed trees frame views of the historic Wainwright Building, and new restrooms and visitor service facilities-including a remote ticketing location-make the Kiener Bosque a natural starting point for a visit to the Memorial.”

I had to start by looking up bosque in Wikipedia:

Bosque is the name for areas of gallery forest found along the flood plains of stream and river banks in the southwestern United States. It derives its name from the Spanish word for woodlands.

As an appointed member of the Gateway Mall Advisory Board it will be my obligation to see how the proposed Kiener Bosque fits with the Gateway Mall Master Plan, from page 33:

It is important that the redesigned Kiener Plaza consider a new performance pavilion that rises above grade, providing a unique architectural statement during the day and evening. This will help connect the space more intimately to the city.

In plan view the Master Plan envisioned something like this:

So how does MVVA’s Kiener Bosque fit with the above? It doesn’t –  in a good way.

The MVVA design continues the “hallway” that will eventually run the length of the Gateway Mall, to the north of Market Street. It includes a visitor’s center (top center), restrooms (bottom left), and a water feature (existing).  The space between the fountain and Broadway can be used for the “unstructured play & gatherings” of the Master Plan, but otherwise it is a complete departure.     I  would imagine we will need to formally amend the Master Plan before we can sign off on this design.

The Kiener Bosque unites the space as one, rather than being different on each side of the former 6th Street. I personally like the simplicity but I do have questions.

• Is seating anticipated in the two block area? If so, what type? Fixed benches? Movable tables & chairs?
• What is the vision for the lighting? Up lighting in the trees? Subtle bollards?
• What about the materials used?
• Will the restrooms be self-cleaning?

The next quarterly meeting of the Gateway Mall Advisory Board is Wednesday October 20, 2010 at 5pm.  The location is the conference room at the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis, 720 Olive Suite 450.  MVVA has been asked to have a representative address the board. I don’t know yet if this will be on our agenda but the meeting is open to the public. Update 9/30/2010 — MVVA will not be able to attend the 10/20 meeting.

– Steve Patterson

The MVVA Team Won, Now What? Part I

Today at 10am in the rotunda of the Old Courthouse the public will meet the MVVA Team — now the winner of the City+Arch+River Competition — and hear the next steps in the process leading up to the 50th anniversary of the Arch in October 2015.

The MVVA video:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArNdigN48Kg

The project area is large and includes both sides of the river. I have hot button issues both inside & outside the project area, these include:

• The elevated highway lanes north of the Arch grounds as well as adjacent to the memorial site itself.
• The flow of pedestrians and vehicles of those passing by as well as visiting the Arch.
• As a member of the Gateway Mall Advisory Board, we will be asked to advise the St. Louis Parks Dept on proposed changes to Kiener Plaza.
• The viability of the proposed changes within the project area and beyond.

Today I will look at parts of their proposal on the Missouri side.

The diagram above shows current circulation and proposed. The diagram is misleading to a degree in that it shows only the current vehicular access point at the north end. What is true is the pedestrian access points will be greatly improved.

From page 133 of their narrative:

“The Interstate 70 trench is now the most striking barrier between the Memorial and the city. Our proposal creates physical and experiential continuity by creating a pedestrian overpass between Market and Chestnut Streets. Both the deck itself and the landscape hoods on either side will break direct lines of sight and sound between the highway and Memorial-bound pedestrians, creating a quiet, landscape-focused choreography of approach between Luther Ely Smith Square and the Arch grounds.”

“We have proposed a one-block overpass, rather than an at-grade boulevard, because it is less expensive, easier to achieve by 2015, and would require fewer jurisdictional and regulatory negotiations. But the benefits of removing the highway altogether are clear, and we have purposely created a proposal that is compatible with either solution.”

I like that highway removal was something they designed for.  More tomorrow in part II.

– Steve Patterson