The Missouri History Museum Press is pleased to announce the publication of it latest book, The Architecture of Maritz & Young: Exceptional Historic Homes of St. Louis. No single architecture firm has shaped the style of St. Louis more than Maritz & Young. Anyone who has driven along Lindell Boulevard across from Forest Park or strolled the sidewalk on Forsyth by Washington University has seen the residential architecture of two men named Raymond Maritz and William Ridgely Young. The homes include the French Renaissance splendor ofhotel owner Morris Corn’s Lindell mansion and the Spanish-influenced Forsyth home of William Lewin.
From the beginning of the 20th century, Raymond E. Maritz and W. Ridgely Young built more than 100 homes in the most affluent neighborhoods of St. Louis County, counting among their clientele a Who’s Who of the city’s most prominent citizens. The Architecture of Maritz & Young is the most complete collection of their work, featuring more than 200 photographs, architectural drawings, and original floor plans of homes built in a variety of styles, from Spanish Eclectic toTudor Revival. Alongside these historic images, Kevin Amsler and L. John Schott have provided descriptions of each residence detailing the original owners. Lovingly compiled from a multitude of historical sources and rare books, this is the definitive history of the domestic architecture that still defines St. Louis.
I’ve only had time to browse the book, but it is packed with great vintage images and detailed text. The book is on sale now, copies will be available for purchase at the lecture as well. The authors will sign copies following the lecture.
August 9, 2013Downtown, Education, FeaturedComments Off on New Downtown Elementary School Open House Saturday August 10th 10AM-Noon
For a couple of years now a small group of parents have been working to open a new charter school: Lafayette Preparatory Academy:
Students returning to the school from time outdoors
We start with the conviction that every child, at-risk or otherwise, has the right to a high-quality education. We follow it with the vision that if we provide the families living in the Urban Core and surrounding neighborhoods of St. Louis that education, it will not only benefit them individually, but contribute to what is increasingly becoming the revitalization of downtown St. Louis.
I first met with organizers in the Fall of 2011, offering some help with social media. At that time they described a their desire to stay in St. Louis, but also make sure their young kids get a quality education.
This first year (2013-2014) the school offers kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. Their original plan was to add a grade level each year through high school graduation. The school is opening in leased space in the office wing attached to Christ Church Cathedral. The community is invited to an open house tomorrow morning:
Come one, come all … LPA is ready to open and wants to share with you all of the hard work put in by the many volunteers and families committed to bringing an excellent elementary school to support the growth in Downtown St. Louis. We invite you to come see what all the hype is about. At the Open House, you will see the changes made in our facility and learn more about our college prep program. (source)
The open house is 10am-noon Saturday August 10th at 1210 Locust (entrance off alley on east side).
City buses are great ways to transport many people, but their weight can take a toll on roads. Bus stops, in particular, take a lot of punishment. This #11 stop on Chippewa at Hampton is a good example:
Repeated weight of buses stopping on Chippewa just east of Hampton has messed up the paving.
Asphalt tends to move when it is hot and pressure is applied over and over. To avoid such a maintenance headache some cities & transit agencies are paving bus stops in concrete.
Example of concrete paving at a bus stop. Source: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Guidelines for the Design and Placement of Transit Stops, click image for PDF
These concrete bus stops aren’t cheap though, and with hundreds of heavily used bus stops the cost to upgrade all would be astronomical.
I’ve observed damage like this at numerous other bus stops. I’m not sure how much this costs the city to repair, or if remains until the road is resurfaced. Thoughts?
Seniors (65+) and the disabled can ride Metro for half price, but a reduced fare permit is required. Seniors have several options on obtaining such a permit, the MetroRide store downtown, for example. The disabled, like myself, must visit Metro’s Transit Access Center at 317 DeBaliviere. Let’s pretend we’re newly disabled and need to get a reduced-fare permit, for the first time. We arrive on the #90 (Hampton) MetroBus or via MetroLink at the Forest Park station. Remember this station opened twenty years ago, and was altered significantly in 2006 when the extension to Shrewsbury was built.
We get off the bus or come up from the platform on the east side of DeBaliviere and head north to find our destination.
Based on the map online the Transit Access Center must be located in the strip mall over there.This curb ramp has nothing to do with the crosswalk, no curb ramp exists on the other end of the crosswalk. When the light turns green we’ll have to head over to the auto drive where cars will be leaving.Made it across safely, there’s our destinationDrat, no ramps on either side of the driveway! We could enter the auto driveway and hope we find a ramp before a vehicle backs over us, but none are visible from this point. Let’s continue along the public sidewalk to see if we can find another way in or our destination.There’s a ramp to the right of that car, we can’t reach it from here due to planter/curb/parking, We could go back and risk getting backed over or continue until we see our destination. I say we keep looking for a safe route.Oh, there’s the Transit Access Center, there must be a pedestrian route down further.See, I knew we’d find a direct way! Oh wait…Naturally a curb is in our wayAll the way on the far end is a route to reach the storefronts from the public sidewalk.We get to the door and we’re glad it has an automatic opener, but it doesn’t work when pressed. “It’s never worked”, says the person inside when we mention it.Leaving we see the problems from the other sideStill too risky to go behind parked cars, why must it be such a challenge?The fix here in this privstely-owned development is pretty simple actually, just replace a couple of curbs with ramps.
I’m not sure how long the Transit Access Center has been a tenant in this building, at least 4 years. The building was built in 1988, two years before the ADA and five years before the MetroLink opened. But for the last twenty years this development adjacent to a light rail station hasn’t been very accessible.
Again, this is the location every disabled person that seeks a reduced-fare permit must go. Granted, access from disabled parking is easy enough but many who need the permits can’t drive. For the disabled, independence is very important.
Regular readers know I’m a supporter of public transit, and an advocate for modern streetcars, in particular. When I received an email from a planning student asking about publishing her paper on her evaluation, I was curious. Here’s how Jill Mead described herself to me in that email:
I’m a Masters in Public Health and Masters of City Planning student at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. I also work for the Pedestrian & Bike Info Center at UNC’s Highway Safety Research Center. If that weren’t enough, I’m very much a St. Louisan. I grew up in Forest Park Southeast (in the 80s!) and am a K-12 graduate of the SLPS. I went to UMSL for one year and Wash U for the rest of my college degree.
Though I don’t agree with her analysis and conclusions in the paper, I thought it would spur some good discussion. Here is a brief summary of her paper:
Artist rendering of proposed streetcar in downtown St. Louis.
Spurred by the availability of federal funds and inspired by the success of streetcar projects in other cities, the non-profit Partnership for Downtown St. Louis released a feasibility study for a downtown St. Louis streetcar project in March 2013. The feasibility study recommended the project based on its likelihood of achieving its two main objectives: (1) enhancing the region’s transit system and (2) catalyzing economic growth throughout the streetcar corridor. While the St. Louis Streetcar Feasibility Study is optimistic about the achievement of these two objectives, reviewing the study calls some of their claims into question. Ridership estimates seem inflated given the slow travel speeds of the streetcar and methodology used. The choice of alignment fails to prioritize the city’s densest areas and is out of sync with plans being made at the regional level. In terms of the streetcar’s ability to catalyze economic development in St. Louis, the study inadequately addresses the wide variety of contextual factors, such as land use policy and the existence of strong public-private partnerships and market demand that were characteristic of other cities’ success in attracting development to streetcar corridors. The paper concludes that strategies to improve economic growth and public transportation are necessary in St. Louis, but it is not clear that the proposed St. Louis Streetcar project is the best use of public resources to achieve these goals.
When St. Louis University announced plans to move their law school from midtown St. Louis to downtown, the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis once again began the discussion of a streetcar for downtown. This move presented an opportunity to link the two campuses with a streetcar and fulfill the goals of the Downtown Next Plan.
The idea of SLU running shuttle buses every day between midtown and downtown meant only a small segment of the population would be served, pollution would increase, roads would be see additional traffic from the continuous loop of shuttles. Us regular transit riders along Olive/Lindell would still have 30-40 minute headways on the existing #10 MetroBus. Why not improve the public transit system for all?
Connecting to south St. Louis wouldn’t help SLU with transporting students, faculty, and staff between the main campus in midtown and the new law school building downtown. By including a north-south segment on 14th the proposal recognizes future expansion into south & north city.
The existing MetroBus isn’t slow, it doesn’t take me long to get to the Central West End from my downtown loft, but the streetcar will come every 10-15 minutes instead of every 30-40 minutes — that’s far more important than whether it takes 8 minutes versus say 12-15 minutes to reach my stop! The streetcar will be faster than the bus, the center dedicated right-of-way, off-board fare payment, etc. will make the trip no longer than bus, very likely shorter. Buses are sometimes late; they get stuck in traffic, wheelchair lifts malfunction, rerouted around events, etc. When the bus takes 10 minutes to get to my stop but arrives 10 minutes late that puts me way behind. If I take the 30 minute earlier bus I arrive way too early and it uses more of my day.
Also from page 2 of the final study:
The purpose of the study was to:
support the goals established in The Downtown Next 2020 Vision to improve Downtown’s accessibility;
create a catalyst for continued economic development;
provide additional opportunities for alternative transportation;
support the region’s and City’s sustainability initiatives;
and promote an environment that will retain and attract new jobs and residents to the City.
I’ve invited Mead to come downtown and ride the #10 MetroBus with me, to midtown and back, to better understand the existing conditions, then I think she’ll see how the streetcar will be a potentially massive improvement. She’s in town visiting family, we’re talking about doing this later in the week.
Mead is correct when she said, “the study inadequately addresses the wide variety of contextual factors, such as land use policy.” The word “zoning” appears just four times in the final study report. “Proper zoning” is mentioned, but not defined. My fear is we won’t set up the necessary land-use controls to guide new development over the 10-20 years following the completion of the streetcar. If the prevailing Laissez faire attitude in St. Louis is allowed to squash good form-based zoning then the streetcar investment will be at least partially wasted.
But if we can get the formula right, it will be a boon and expansions can follow every few years, as we’ve seen in other cities. But I’ve been here long enough to know the old guard isn’t going to change so easily. Will this time be different?
Please share your thoughts on Mead’s paper, or my response, below.
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