Was 3901 Forest Park Too Old To Fight For?

Many are upset about plans to raze the “flying saucer” at Forest Park & Grand as well as the former headquarters of the American Automobile Association of Missouri at Lindell and Vandeventer. But near both buildings, at Vandeventer & Forest Park, a building dating to 1901 is nearly gone.

It wasn’t mid-centry modern, it was 1901 industrial.

The building held the corner nicely, standing watch over the intersection as it had done for more than a century. Neither of the modern buildings nearby hold their corners at all.

Sure it’s ugly but with new windows, the old storefronts opened up and a recreated cornice it could have been spectacular. The demolition permit was applied for on March 17, 2011.  I did not see it on any agenda of the Preservation Board.  The property is in a Preservation Review District.  It’s also in the Cortex Life Sciences District, which meant it’s fate had already been determined.

We will get this district about 20% built when cities move onto the next big thing after life sciences research.

– Steve Patterson

When Paved Sidewalks Were a Big Deal

A few weeks ago I noticed the above marker on an old sidewalk on the north side of  Olive at Ewing.  This old sidewalk is a “Granitoid” sidewalk, once a commonplace replacement for brick pavers. The blog Exploring St. Louis noted this same marker in January 2010 with a post called St. Louis Sidewalk Company (recommended reading).

– Steve Patterson

Two Great Years of Citygarden

It was two years ago today that Citygarden opened in downtown St. Louis. The two-block sculpture garden leaves a positive impression on all who visit.

The space has won numerous awards and graced the pages of many publications.  The critics all seem to love Citygarden!

And the critics that really matter, the kids, love the space just like us adults do.

I love Citygarden, but it’s not perfect.  Yesterday I filed an ADA grievance with the city’s Office on the Disabled against the City of St. Louis for accepting the curb ramp at 10th & Chestnut.  It doesn’t even come close to meeting ADA design guidelines — it should have been replaced by the general contractor by now.  I also don’t like 9th Street being closed to vehicles but that will take more work to convince the powers that be that we can’t keep effing with our street grid.

– Steve Patterson

Pros & Cons of Saving the 1960s Flying Saucer at Grand & Forest Park

Uh oh, the modern preservationists are gearing up to try to save another interesting, but highly anti-pedestrian, building.  Yes, the fight is on the save a gas station turned drive-thru taco stand at 212 S. Grand.  With a few exceptions, commercial modernism translates to brutal and outright hostile to pedestrians but lovingly embracing all in single occupant vehicles.

Developer Rick Yackey plans to demolish the distinctive flying-saucer-shaped Del Taco at N. Grand and Forest Park Parkway, near St. Louis University, and replace it with new retail buildings, a city development official said Tuesday.

The St. Louis Land Clearance Redevelopment Authority approved a blighting and redevelopment plan for the building, which was built to be a Phillips 66 gas station. The plan, said LCRA staffer Dale Ruthsatz, is to knock down the Del Taco replace it with a more pedestrian-oriented retail building of 3,500 to 7,000 square feet. (STLtoday.com)

The Del Taco at the SE corner of Grand & Forest Park, is not one of the few exceptions.

You can see from the above photo that razing of buildings in the Mill Creek Valley began at Grand Ave & Forest Park by 1958. Grand Ave had the #70 streetcar starting in 1895 so the length from North to South was very active and designed for pedestrians.  It was the modernists that actively destroyed the pedestrian-friendly city to usher in the auto-friendly city. Why do people want to save that which destroyed the city?

Granted, I love many modern buildings.  Their simple forms, the absence of applied decoration, the use of materials other than red brick, all make forms often pleasing to my eye.  My favorite architect is Bruce Goff (1904-1982), but thankfully the bulk of his work was on private residences. Like his contemporaries, his (unbuilt) commercial projects were an assault on the pedestrian: non-active walls, large setbacks, etc.

When I read  developer Rick Yackey wants to construct “a more pedestrian-oriented retail building” I thought of several things:

1. More pedestrian-friendly anything is needed around the Saint Louis University campus. You’d think the university has only been around 5 years judging by the adjacent activity level.
2. It doesn’t take much to be more pedestrian-friendly than the existing Del Taco.
3. The developer had the opportunity to make the adjacent Council Plaza building more pedestrian-friendly during a recent renovation project but instead the situation is worse, something I didn’t think was possible.

Based on the developer’s record with Council Plaza I have little confidence any replacement would be pedestrian-friendly. Before removing a highly unique building I’d like to see controls in place to ensure the 9 acre site becomes pedestrian-friendly.  Saying a project will be pedestrian-friendly and actually delivering a pedestrian-friendly completed project are

I like the Del Taco building, it makes me smile when I’m in my car driving by or even at the drive-thru window but the entire nine acre Council Plaza site makes me furious as a pedestrian.  It should be noted that the unfriendly site planning that exists can change without altering the historic composition of buildings. We can improve the walkability and accessibility while leaving the buildings intact.

I won’t lose any sleep if the Del Taco is razed but I will be mad as hell if some generic anti-pedestrian strip mall is built in it’s place. We do have a unique collection of five buildings that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

But hey the developer needs retail space, that’s important too, right? But if the demand is so great why is every retail space in the renovated Plaza Council building vacant?

I can picture the Del Taco structure gone, replaced with a high-design modernist structure to compliment the other buildings. But I don’t think that’s what we’ll get.  Instead I picture a generic strip mall not connected to the public sidewalk on Grand or to other buildings on the site. The loss of such a great building can only be offset with a great building. Show me the designs, with proof it will be pedestrian-friendly, and I’m willing to listen. Until then not a chance!

If I were developing this site I’d use the Del Taco building as a draw. Renovate the building and accenting it with great lighting, new pedestrian-friendly site design connecting to a new structure to the east on the existing surface parking lot. I can see the building not as a fast food joint but as a pub with a focus on great outdoor patio seating. This could become THE corner where SLU students hang out.

Most developers would kill to have such a widely known building to attract customers to their development!  Certainly the 24 hour drive-thru is nice after you leave the bar but let’s face it, the use of the building can easily change.  Thousands on Facebook want to save the building, although some want to also save the fast food chain currently operating within the building. An online petition has been started as well to save the building.

Razing this building makes zero sense no matter how you try to look at it, believe me I tried!  Board Bill 188 (redevelopment bill) has been assigned to the Housing, Urban Development & Zoning committee. I’m sure all 12 committee members would love to hear from citizens via email, fax, text, twitter or phone prior to the hearing at 10am Wednesday morning.

– Steve Patterson

It’s fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A

In celebration of the annual St. Louis PrideFest this weekend I thought it would be interesting to talk about the connection between gays and the revitalization of rundown urban neighborhoods.

In watching Before Stonewall again recently one point stood out to me: gay men would open bars in run down neighborhoods because the buildings or rent was cheap and the level of scrutiny was potentially less than in other areas.

This is the story of one such place, a collection of businesses on 20th Street across from Union Station:

The area around Union Station was as run down as they come:

As railroad passenger services declined in the 1950s and 1960s, the massive station became obsolete and too expensive to maintain for its original purpose. With the takeover of national rail passenger service by Amtrak in 1971, passenger train service to St. Louis was reduced to only three trains a day. Amtrak stopped using Union Station on October 31, 1978; the six trains daily did not justify such a large facility. (Wikipedia)

Of course Union Station was famous for being in Escape from New York, helping solve problems for the film’s producers on where to film:

[Associate Producer] Bernardi suggested East St. Louis, Illinois, because it was filled with old buildings “that exist in New York now, and [that] have that seedy run-down quality” that the team was looking for. East St. Louis, sitting across the Mississippi River from the more prosperous St. Louis, Missouri, had entire neighborhoods burned out in 1976 during a massive urban fire. Hill said in an interview, “block after block was burnt-out rubble. In some places there was absolutely nothing, so that you could see three and four blocks away.” As well, Alves found an old bridge to double for the “69th St. Bridge”. The filmmaker purchased the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge for one dollar from the government and then gave it back to them for a dollar, “so that they wouldn’t have any liability,” Hill remembers. Locations across the river in St. Louis, Missouri were also used, including Union Station and the Fox Theater, both of which have since been renovated. (Wikipedia)

Union Station was, of course, reopened as a festival marketplace in 1985.  On 20th Street just across the street to the west stood a former YMCA building built in 1907. In the 1970s it contained the places shown on the above ad from 1976.

Today the building continues to serve travelers with a Drury Inn and Lombardo’s Trattoria.  Remember, “It’s fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.” Learn more at www.stlouisgayhistory.com

– Steve Patterson