Before the highway cut off downtown from the river

The razing of 40 blocks of St. Louis along the riverfront began on October 10, 1939. There was no plan at that time, a design competition wasn’t held until 1947.  So St. Louis created the biggest surface parking lot on what was the original village.

Ground breaking for construction of the Arch was held nearly 20 years later, on June 23, 1959.  For 20 years the only reason to connect with this location was to get to your car in a sea of cars.

Two years after the ground breaking we see that all that had changed was the reduction in the amount of land for surface parking.  By this point the city’s leaders saw this site as a wasteland, nothing we’d ever want easy pedestrian access to.

Future mayor Raymond Tucker was 43 (my current age) when the city razed these blocks.  One of his first duties as mayor would have been the ribbon cutting at the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex.  He was 68 when the depressed highway lanes created a permanent divide between the central business district and what would become the Jefferson Nation Expansion Memorial we know today.  He and others leaders at the time must have thought they were making good decisions for the future of our city.

But to them the site was simply parking.  They worked hard to get the Arch funded and built.  Tucker saw the Arch completed but not the landscaping, he died in 1970. This generation of men had experience with a very different St. Louis than us today.

Thank you to to Tom Bradley & Jennifer Clark of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial for the use of the above images.

– Steve Patterson

I-70 closure not a major problem

A week ago Sunday I drove the Northbound detour as all traffic was routed onto surface streets as MoDOT closed I-70 downtown as they removed the Madison Ave overpass.

Traffic made its way up Broadway and back onto I-70 between Madison and St. Louis Ave. It was not fast but it kept moving.

I’m now more convinced than ever that after I-70 is moved to the new bridge that we can convert the existing highway lanes to a tree-lined boulevard.  The grassroots group City to River has organized a walking tour downtown this coming Saturday, March 20th (first day of Spring).  The tour begins at the Stan Musial statue on the West side of Busch Stadium, 3pm (City to River is hosting a walking tour of Memorial Drive).  Arrive via the stadium MetroLink station, the tour concludes near the Eads Bridge MetroLink station.

– Steve Patterson

Gateway Mall Advisory Board appointed by Mayor, approved by Aldermen

Today the St. Louis Board of Aldermen passed a resolution approving Mayor Slay’s nominees to serve on the initial Gateway Mall Advisory Board. The advisory board was formed last year by ordinance 68407.  The 14 appointed positions are:

1. A designee of the St. Louis Public Library;

2. Four representatives of businesses with physical locations adjacent to the Gateway Mall;

3. A real estate developer with one or more projects adjacent to the Gateway Mall;

4. A representative of the Downtown St. Louis Residents’ Association;

5. A representative of an organization which has conducted a festival or other special event in the Gateway Mall within two (2) years prior to appointment;

6. An architect or landscape architect;

7. A representative of a public arts organization or agency;

8. A person with expertise in urban sustainability;

9. A person appointed at large; and

10. Two persons, one designated by each of the Aldermen of Wards Six and Seven , respectively; after revision of ward boundaries, one person designated by the aldermen of any ward in which any part of the Gateway Mall is located.

Not all positions were filled by Today’s resolution, the remaining will be filled shortly. An additional 10 ex-officio positions round out the board.

From the press release:

Appointed by the Mayor to the Gateway Mall Advisory Board are A.J. Bruning, Downtown Resident’s Association; Jack Reis, EVS Realty; John Sondag, AT&T; Pat Shannon, Shannon’s Restaurant; Byron Marshall, Union Station; Waller McGuire, St. Louis Public Library; Steve Smith, The Lawrence Group; Mike Kocielo, Entertainment St. Louis; Andy Trivers, Trivers & Associates; Chris Fannin, HOK; Sarah Smith, Community Development Ventures; Mike Kinman, Christ Church Cathedral; Steve Patterson, Urban Review; and Les Sterman, Downtown Resident.

Serving in an ex-officio capacity will be Pete Rothschild, Red Brick Management; 6th Ward Alderman Kacie Starr-Triplett; 7th Ward Alderman Phyllis Young; Don Roe, St. Louis Planning & Urban Design; Gary Bess, Director of Parks, Recreation & Forestry; Maggie Campbell, Partnership for Downtown St. Louis; Ann Chance, Special Events Manager; Lynnea Magnuson, Soldier’s Memorial; and Patricia Roland-Hamilton, Gateway Mall Conservancy.

The Gateway Mall Advisory Board will likely convene in April.

Yes, my name is on the above list.  Thank you to Ald. Kacie Starr Triplett for agreeing to allow me to fill the slot representing the 6th ward.  The Gateway Mall Conservancy Board was also recently created:

Named to the Gateway Mall Conservancy Board were Peter Fischer, Gateway Foundation; Robert Archibald, Missouri Historical Society; Steve Cousins, Armstrong Teasdale LLP; John Ferring, Plaze, Inc.; David Mesker, retired, A.G. Edwards; Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts; Kitty Ratcliffe, St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission; Henry S. Webber, Washington University; Josephine Weil, Community Volunteer; and Patricia Roland-Hamilton as Executive Director.

More information can be found at GatewayMall.org.

– Steve Patterson

Fourth floor view better than fortieth

As I visit different offices downtown I’m always looking for interesting views. From some of the tallest buildings you get spectacular views across the skyline.  But from the fourth floor you get a view I treasure much more.

The above is the view from the offices of the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis in the Laclede Gas Building.

– Steve Patterson

Readers want NFL football games played in same location

In 2025 the 30-year lease of the Edwards Jones Dome to the St. Louis Rams will expire.  Last week’s poll was a revision of a poll a few weeks earlier.   This time around I get a better sense of what you, the reader, expect. The biggest number want football to stay in the same spot, here are the results:

Q: Forget funding, where would you place a new stadium for the Rams?

1. Rebuild/build in current location 44 [ 23%]
2. East bank of the Mississippi River (IL) 41 [22%]
3. Old Nooter Co site just South of Chouteau 24 [12%]
4. downtown St. Louis (River/Cole/Tucker/Chouteau) 18 [9%]
5. Just adjacent to downtown 14 [7%]
6. As long as it is open air or has a retractable roof I don’t care. 12 [6%]
7. elsewhere in City of St. Louis 7 [3%]
8. Unsure/don’t care 7 [3%]
9. Metro East (IL) 6 [3%]
10. Other answer… 6 [3%]
11. St. Louis County 3 [1%]
12. anywhere in the region is OK 2 [1%]
13. St. Charles County 1 [0%]
14. Jefferson County 0 [0%]

Besides the same location, a few adjacent locations also ranked high. In this post I want to focus on the existing location, shown in green below.

Along Cole Street the Edward Jones Dome and convention center is a four block long wall (Broadway/5th to 9th).  A four block wall.  So here are my thoughts about rebuilding a football stadium on the existing site.  The first thing that needs to happen is 7th Street needs to continue through (blue above) rather than be cut off.  I’d like to see the new facility be open air.  Not a retractable roof, but no roof.  Such a facility would be less intrusive in the urban context.

Seventh Street was a through street before the dome was added onto the convention center so it can be removed. The back of the 1977 convention center will continue to be an ugly edge to Cole St. – two blocks of loading docks.  Allowing pedestrians and traffic to go through 7th Street will help connect our central business district to the areas to the North of Cole.

– Steve Patterson