A Detailed Look at the Old & New Luther Ely Smith Square

Following the Arch’s 50th Anniversary on October 28th I posted that the Luther Ely Smith Square Flagpole Will Replace Flag on Top of Old Courthouse Dome. At the time the newly redesigned Luther Ely Smith Square wasn’t open yet. Late last month it opened.

Before taking a look at the new I thought we should first look at the old.

Unfortunately. these images don’t give you a good overview. For that we need to look down from somewhere high up — like the Arch.

Okay, let’s take a look at the new Luther Ely Smith Square (LESS):

This Square is an important part of the new plan to have visitors enter the Arch grounds from downtown. It’s well-designed and draws you toward the Arch. The lid over the highway can become the lid over a boulevard in the future.

— Steve Patterson

Another Downtown/CBD Traffic Study In The Works, Looking Back At The 2005 Study

I recently learned that a traffic study will be done for downtown’s Central Business District (CBT), a good thing.  But then I thought about the last CBD traffic study. A search of this blog turned up posts from a decade ago:

• 12/6/2005: Initial Thoughts on CBD Traffic Study
• 12/7/2005: CBD Traffic Study Presentation Available Online

I’m a digital packrat, so I saved the presentation:

You can view the presentation and draw your own conclusions — I want to call attention to some of my thoughts at the time along with how things have changed, or stayed the same:

Doug Shatto, President of the consulting firm Crawford, Bunte, Brammeier did an excellent job of explaining the tradeoffs between various methods such as one-way vs. two-way streets. I felt he understands what it takes to create a pedestrian & retail-friendly environment. What I didn’t get was a sense that he will fight for that. Instead I think he’ll do whatever the city tells him.

Shatto has changed jobs.

Washington Avenue East of Tucker. While they say that on-street parking has not been ruled out I’m suspicious. They hinted at allowing parking except during peak hours. I pointed out after the meeting to Doug Shatto how KitchenK will not use their sidewalk cafe license until they have a row of parked cars to make sidewalk dining more hospitable to their patrons. I also pointed out that Copia is allowed to take a traffic lane for valet parking. If we can take a lane for a valet we can certainly take the balance of the lane for parking as the flow is already restricted. I still want to see on-street parking all the way from Tucker to at least Broadway.

Ah yes, a decade ago parking wasn’t allowed on Washington Ave East of Tucker. I did a number of posts at the time about this, finally we got limited parking on the EB block between 11th & Tucker and 10th-11th in both directions –except during morning & afternoon rush. On-street parking is still needed East of 10th, but it hasn’t happened. It’s needed to separate pedestrians from moving vehicles, reduce drive lines from four to two. The anticipated long line of WB cars turning right onto Tucker toward the new bridge never materialized, yet the rentire WB right lane from 11th to Tucker remains no-parking. Why?

I asked at the end of the meeting about Cole street being abel to take some of the traffic off Washington Avenue. Shatto did indicate that if Washington Avenue was restricted from four lanes to two lanes through drivers would likely alter their route and use the nearly vacant Cole. Another factor that may reduce some traffic on Washington Avenue is people going around the block due to one-way streets. They are recommending changing 8th & 11th from one-way to two-way (more later).

• Streets they deemed “appropriate” to change from one-way to two-way were 8th, 11th (North of Market only), and Walnut (from Tucker to either to 4th or Broadway).

• Streets they deemed “inappropriate” to change from one-way to two-way were 9th, 10th and Pine.

• Streets they deemed “inappropriate but viable” to change from one-way to two-way were 6th, 7th, and Locust.

• One-way streets not even mentioned were Broadway or Chestnut.

Balpark Village did cause portions of some one-way streets to become tw0-way again. Downtown remains confusing with one-way, two-ways, and streets that don’t go through because of vacations of blocks here and there. Decades of butchering the grid has created a nightmare.

• The immediate plan (2006) is to change the controllers for the existing signals. This will allow them greater flexibility in controlling the signals via computer. This might include changing the timing for game days or setting the signals to flash after a certain time. I think changing the timing makes sense as this could help with special events. I’m not sure how I feel about the flashing signals after hours. Does this say we have so little going on that we don’t need normal timing? Or does it say that we change over to a pedestrian environment after hours?
  

Presumably the controllers were changed. Many signals themselves remain the same. Many intersections still lack any type of pedestrian signal, others need countdown timers.

• They mentioned trying to change Missouri law to allow a left turn on red on one-way streets. Apparently this is allowed in 16 or so states but not Missouri. It is commonplace downtown to see drivers do this.

I posted about this in June — Missouri law still doesn’t allow left turns on red.

• I think they did an excellent job of evaluating pedestrian concerns and will do a good job upgrading the system and reducing conflicts. One of the changes it to go to a simple two-phase system where pedestrians are permitted to cross with the flow of traffic. Currently some intersections are considered scrambled where pedestrians can cross any direction while cars wait. While this sounds good that also means that they are generally not allowed to cross with the flow. It seems more natural to have the simpler system.

The pedestrian experience downtown is horrible — highly inconsistent from one block to the next. With the Arch parking garage gone we’re expecting visitors to parking in garages in the CBD and walk to the new downtown-facing entry. The pedestrian experience doesn’t seen to have been given the scrutiny that traffic flow & space availability has.

Hopefully once a new plan is complete we can actually take some action!

– Steve Patterson

Creative Firms Continue Buying Downtown Office Condo Space

Industrial design firm fredsparks is moving downtown from S. Kingshighway, the news of their purchase of an office condo came in April:

On April 15th, 2015, design firm fredsparks acquired the last remaining commerical unit comprised of 3,823 SQ FT for $26/SQ FT.  The unit is currently in gray-box condition as one of the only unrenovated spaces in the Washington Avenue loft district.  fredsparks plans on retrofitting the space as offices for their headquarters.  

Blood & Sand, which still owns its commercial unit next door to fredsparks & The Kelley Group, continues their success as one of downtown St. Louis’s best restaurant venues & favorite Washington AVE neighborhood gathering spots.  More recently Blood & Sand owners Adam Frager & TJ Vytlacil opened Death in the Afternoon at City Garden.   (King Realty Advisors)

Work in their space has been ongoing since their interior finish permit was issued in late August.

Earlier this year the firm leasing the office condo in my building a block West on Locust Street bought their space. I’m very glad to see small businesses thriving, occupying spaces, and investing in downtown. Actually, seeing smaller local firms investing anywhere in the region is a positive.

— Steve Patterson

Readers Say Keep Washington Ave’s Zipper Motif, No Consensus How

Over half of those who voted in the non-scientific Sunday Poll favor retaining the cobblestone zipper design motif in the center of Washington Ave:

Q: Wash Ave’s 12+ year old streetscape includes a cobblestone “zipper” motif down the center, which makes repaving from 14th-18th Streets a challenge. We shou[ld]:

1. Lose the zipper motif, not important to the well-being of the area 18 [32.14%]
2. Retain zipper, just don’t resurface the center where cobblestones are located 17 [30.36%]
3. Retain zipper, incurring extra costs to resurface street 15 [26.79%]
4. Unsure/No Opinion 5 [8.93%]
5. Other: 1 [1.79%] “Let the residents decide and let them pay for any extra costs.”

As you can see from the numbers, there isn’t a consensus view.

You can count me among those who say rip out the zipper from 14th-18th Streets. The two blocks from Tucker to 14th is different — Washington Ave is brick pavers, not asphalt.

It won’t be long until the new asphalt fades and it’ll be hard to see the difference between the old & new. Setting cobblestones in asphalt was a very poor decision, and as a motif I doubt anyone could guess what it’s supposed to be.

— Steve Patterson

Aloe Plaza Lighting Is Too Bright

Aloe Plaza, across Market Street from Union Station, used to be very dark at night — too dark. While Kacie Starr Triplett was Alderman of the 6th Ward new lighting was added. The best that can be said is that it’s no longer dark.

From a distance, the lighting does a good job.  Before nobody wanted to be there after dark because it too dark, but now it’a too bright! Trying to get a good photo with Union Station in the background is impossible.

Not sure how much was spent on this lighting, or if it can be modified. It shouldn’t stay like this.

— Steve Patterson