National Trust Opposes SLAPP Suit Against Two St. Louis Residents

A lawsuit against two downtown St. Louis residents has been ongoing now in excess of four years.  Recently (8/11/09) another St. Louis resident posted a question on the Facebook page of The National Trust for Historic Preservation:

Could you please ask your redevelopment corporation to drop the lawsuit against the two St. Louis citizens who filed suit to save the 1896 Century Building?

Nine days later (8/20/09) the National Trust for Historic Preservation posted the following response:

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is not a party to this litigation and has no control over it. Our subsidiary investment arm holds only a .01% stake in the project, and all authority to pursue litigation of this type lies in the limited partnership’s general partner alone. We have urged that party to reconsider their actions, but to date they have not heeded our request. We believe there are ways to learn from the Century Building controversy and advance the cause of historic preservation and community revitalization. This lawsuit is not the way to achieve those goals.

Agreed, this lawsuit is not about advancing anything other than instilling fear in the public so they won’t challenge the status quo, such as awarding a historic building to a connected developer without putting the building out for proposals.

The trial date is currently set for September 14, 2009.  The plaintiffs have asked for yet another delay.  Sorry good ole boys, no matter how long you delay your case won’t get any better.

– Steve Patterson

24/7 Old Post Office District Closed on the Weekends

Part of the justification offered for razing the Century Building, that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was that it had to be sacrificed for parking for the Old Post Office  – the centerpiece of a 24/7 district.

It has been a couple of years now and I’m still waiting for the area to get beyond 11/5:

The Pasta House Pronto,  located in the Old Post Office, is not offering 24/7 fare.  Granted, the customers are not there.  But if they were, they’ve got plenty of parking.  Most of the exciting 24/7 areas I know of in other cities are known for their numerous businesses and shortage of parking.

Non-profit, government  & library tenants also aren’t known for their contribution to 24/7 living.

When the Schnuck’s grocery store, Culinaria, opens next week I hope they maintain at least the daily 7am to 9pm hours that City Grocers has had for years.  My fear is they will cut back on days and hours within a year.  I hope my fears prove unfounded.

Maybe they will be open 24/7?

– Steve Patterson

Cronkite’s Early Missouri & Oklahoma Roots

Yesterday, as you know, Walter Kronkite Cronkite died at his New York home at the age of 92.  Kronkite Cronkite was born on the other side of Missouri in St. Joseph Missouri, 56 miles north of Kansas City.

Wikipedia indicates his family lived in Kansas City, MO until he was 10, when they moved to Houston, TX.  After attending the University of Texas in Austin Kronkite Cronkite found work at the oldest radio station West of the Mississippi River, WKY in Oklahoma City, my hometown:

“5XT” became the 28th licensed station in the United States on March 16, 1922. The station was assigned the WKY call letters and began broadcasting weekdays from noon to 1:00 P.M. and from 7:30 to 9:30 P.M. On Sundays, WKY was on the air from 3 to 4 P.M. and 7:30 to 9:30 P.M.

In November 1922, WKY announced a “silent night” policy, meaning the station would broadcast only four, and later three nights a week. This was so listeners could have a chance to tune in to other stations in neighboring states.

WKY operated from the Skirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City from 1936 to 1951, and was contracted to broadcast live from the Venetian Room from 11:00 to Midnight every evening.

Kronkite Cronkite announced on WKY the football play by play for my alma mater, the University of Oklahoma, during the 1936 season.  Kronkite was only 20 years old.

The Skirvin Hotel, where WKY broadcast during Kronkite’s Cronkite’s time at the station, was one of the fanciest hotels of the day.  Remember that Oklahoma had only become a state in 1907.  The Skirvin Hotel was opened by Michigan native Bill Skirvin:

On September 26, 1911, Skirvin opened the ornate hotel for public inspection. Visitors attracted to the 10-story building found an unique exterior with two wings, each facing south, and a rounded bay between the wings running the height of the structure. The façade was red brick laid in a Flemish bond pattern, the lower level was faced with limestone, and two covered entryways were located on both 1st Street and Broadway.

By 1923 the hotel’s success and the continued growth of Oklahoma City convinced Skirvin that expansion was justified. Again, the oilman went to Sol Layton, who developed plans to add another wing and bay to the east, replacing the one-story Skirvin garage, and to raise all three wings to 14 stories. In addition, plans called for remodeling all existing rooms, the first of many refurbishings which would change the hotel each decade thereafter. By 1926, with revisions in plans and the investment of $650,000, the hotel had a new wing of 12 stories and two wings still 10 stories.

Although his original plans had been temporarily halted, Skirvin persevered. In March 1928, as another prosperous era was overtaking Oklahoma City, the rotund entrepreneur announced plans to raise all wings to 14 stories and to initiate an extensive remodeling of the entire hotel. As Skirvin noted, “we are planning our improvement in anticipation of a greater Oklahoma City,” an attitude which would consume every subsequent owner of the grand dowager of hotels.

One year later and three months after the first well in the world-famous Oklahoma City oil field was discovered, Skirvin let the first contracts for the renovation. When workers left in April of 1930, the proud owner opened the hotel for public inspection. The entire building had been raised to 14 levels, capacity had been increased to 525 rooms, a roof garden and cabaret club had been added, and the old café had been enlarged and converted into a modern coffee shop. The improvements carried a price tag of $3 million, almost twice the cost of the original building.  (source)

Skirvin himself had done quite well over the years. His daughter Perle Skirvin Mesta also did well.  In 1916, the year Kronkite Cronkite was born, she married George Mesta at the age of 27.  By age  36, in 1925, she was a widow.  A rich widow, inheriting her late husband’s $78 million estate.  She lived in Rhode Island, Maine during the year that Kronkite worked at WKY radio in her father’s hotel but it is possible they met. After Perle Mesta moved to Washington DC in 1940 she became a leading socialite.  She served as the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg for four years in the early 1950s after being appointed to the position by President Harry Truman.  She died in 1975 but it is possible that Kronkite may crossed paths with her after he became the CBS News anchor in 1962.

The places we live and the people we know along the way contribute to our character.  Walter Cronkite was from my late parents generation — he was 12 when my father was born and 14 when my mom was born in March 1931.

My folks watched Kronkite on the news like so many others.  They would have seen his reports on the assassination of  President Kennedy and the moon landing. Kronkite Cronkite, as we’ve been haring, was fascinated with space travel.  Among the 12 or so graduates from my dad’s 1947 high school class of 1947 was astronaut Thomas P. Stafford.  Stafford was commander of Apollo 10 that orbited the moon in May 1969.  Two months later, in July 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon with Commander of that mission, Neil Armstrong, walking on the moon.

Thank you for indulging me in a sentimental journey that was triggered by Kronkite’s Cronkite’s passing.  RIP Walter Kronkite Cronkite.

– Steve Patterson

STL & ATL; Lessons from the “New South”

My wife and I relocated from University City to Atlanta in May 2009.  I accepted a promotion with the brand consulting firm I work for after she was laid off as a radio reporter, and we reluctantly moved.  We loved the walkability of our neighborhood, the eccentricity of the nearby Delmar Loop, fabulous Forest Park, the city’s world-class architecture and its many unique neighborhoods with character to spare.

It was a painful decision to leave.  But the long-term job prospects for the marketing and media industries in St. Louis look grim for a laundry list of reasons.  So we cut our losses, put our recently renovated home on the market, and headed south.  As we explore the built environment and our new neighborhood in Midtown, oftentimes I find myself comparing and contrasting Atlanta to my beloved hometown.  And I can’t help but think there are important lessons the STL could learn from the ATL.

St. Louis and Atlanta are two very different cities.  Unlike St. Louis, whose growth and revitalization of its urban core could be considered fledgling by almost any measure, Atlanta is a poster child for success.  It has enjoyed substantial growth since the 1996 Olympics.  Its Midtown area along Peachtree Street and nearby parallel streets, once a scattering of abandoned buildings and a hotbed for drugs and prostitution, is now a thriving, densely populated urban core with street-level retail and wide, pedestrian-friendly sidewalks.

But St. Louis and Atlanta also share much in common.  They are both home to prestigious universities that have a profound impact on their surrounding communities.  In addition, both cities have entire neighborhoods that were splintered by sprawling freeways.  Much like the depressed section dividing downtown St. Louis from one of its greatest assets, the construction of the 75/85 Connector disconnected neighborhoods, and Atlanta is still dealing with the unforeseen repercussions.

Technology Square, the Georgia Institute of Technology’s campus extension in Midtown, is a an interesting example of how to successfully reconnect parcels divided by a major highway with a “lid” approach.  Georgia Tech built a pedestrian-friendly, attractively landscaped bridge over the Connector and revitalized land that used to be a collection of surface parking lots to house its College of Management, Conference Center & Hotel, Barnes & Noble Campus bookstore, and non-university office space:

As opposed to Saint Louis University, which tends to create parking lots rather than turn them into part of the urban fabric, Georgia Tech had the vision to build a bustling multi-use development with wide, walkable sidewalks:

The planners incorporated efficient, plentiful bike racks that allow two bikes to easily fit side by side, securely locking both the wheel and frame:

The courtyard of the Centergy Building, home to the Royal Bank of Canada’s Atlanta headquarters, is a benchmark example of a well-designed corporate mall.  Street-level retail, including a cafe, and well-placed benches and xeriscaping, create an inviting, highly usable space where people actually congregate:

The neighborhood is linked to MARTA light-rail transit via the Stinger shuttle, free to students and the general public alike:

The only surface parking lot in the neighborhood features Zip cars:

And Wednesdays during the summer, 5th Street is closed between Spring and William for “Flicks on Fifth,” a weekly outdoor film series:

Atlanta has whole host of problems, including urban sprawl of gargantuan proportions, some of the worst traffic in the country, an underfunded police department, epidemic crime, a crumbling sewer infrastructure, recent drought…And much like Saint Louis University’s expansion projects, Technology Square is not without controversy or ill-conceived plans for parking lots.

Georgia Tech intends to demolish the Crum & Forster Building for additional campus parking.  (Ironically, according to Wikipedia, the building was originally designed by the architectural firm that helped found GT’s college of architecture 100 years ago this year.)  But overall the Georgia Tech expansion points to a few lessons the great city of St. Louis could learn from the “New York of the South.”

First, it’s the little things that count.  Details such as wider sidewalks, efficient bike racks, easy access to mass transit, and good use of “mall” space matter.  Without these complementary pieces, the likelihood of creating a vibrant and commercially successful urban neighborhood like Technology Square is greatly diminished.

Second, in order to reconnect two fractured parcels of land, there needs to be a solid anchor on both sides of the former divide.  Technology Square would not have succeeded if the extension to the west side of the 75/85 Connector didn’t include mixed-use development, street-level retail and a reason for students and other locals alike to use the area.  Even though it’s smaller in scale and the adjacent parcels are much different than downtown and the Arch grounds, any debate regarding a “lid” for downtown St. Louis should carefully consider the Georgia Tech expansion.

Finally, St. Louis needs to embrace its architectural treasures.  Atlanta’s were destroyed during the Civil War when General William T. Sherman ordered the city burned to the ground.  Despite having it’s own devastating fire in 1849, St. Louis still has one of its greatest assets: a superb building stock that’s arguably one of the richest in the country.  Unfortunately, in many instances it seems to be squandered away due to poor planning or auto-centric development.

Georgia Tech’s expansion was largely a start-from-scratch project, and it didn’t need to take architectural preservation into consideration. However, it’s possible to incorporate the modern elements that make Georgia Tech’s expansion a success while preserving architecturally significant buildings in the process.  Saint Louis University, public institutions, private developers and other local entities that have such a deep and long-lasting impact on St. Louis’ urban core owe it to the communities they serve to have a longer-term vision.

After starting from scratch after the Civil War, Atlanta’s city planners and developers seem to have had little appreciation for the past.  Few post-Civil War historic buildings have been preserved in the “New South.”  Today, Atlanta is a sprawling metropolis of glass and steel canyons, creating an awe-inspiring nighttime skyline.

But it lacks much of the richness, architectural detail and aesthetic diversity of St. Louis’ remarkable building stock and unique neighborhoods.  In this respect, St. Louis can learn a thing or two from Atlanta’s past mistakes.  Preservation doesn’t necessarily impede progress.  And once architectural treasures are gone, they’re lost forever.

– Bryan Oekel

Citygarden Dedication Today

At 10am this morning (Tuesday 6/30/09) Mayor Slay will dedicate Citygarden, the new 2-block long sculpture garden downtown.  Before I get into the garden I want to talk about what existed on these two blocks previously.

The two blocks (bounded by Market St on the South, 10th on the West, Chestnut on the North and 8th on the East) were the last two blocks to have their historic long-standing structures razed for a grand vision of a Gateway Mall — a vision of a long green spine that dates back to the early 20th Century (map).  The city was vastly different then — it was populated, dirty (coal was still burned for heat) and anything but uniform.  Early planners sought to clear away a section of the city to offer some relief and to bring some order to a bustling chaotic city.

The problem is city leaders over the decade became addicted to demolition as a solution.  That new order would invigorate the city, they thought.  But it was the unplanned chaos that gave the city life.

In 1993 two city blocks remained to complete this ordered new vision.

Stunning huh?  But in a city with more open green space than people to occupy what we had it was decided we should create more.

What we got was two more passive (boring) city blocks.  I argued with the city’s head architect at the time but it did no good:

Unlike some older mall blocks, particularly ones west of Tucker Boulevard, Royse said, the new ones “will be inviting and attractive . . . and
people should use the mall more.” (Post-Dispatch of July 16, 1993)

Royse, now retired in Seattle, was in town recently.  I saw him last Thursday at the Loop Trolley forum.  He had not yet seen how his two blocks of the mall, the last two, had been altered.

But the two blocks were not inviting, unless you wanted to be alone with nothing to do.  The buildings surrounding these two blocks have been uninviting since new. Blank walls, raised entrances, parking garage entries.  The stuff that sucks life out of a city.

And now, these two blocks are once again recreated.  They are the opposite of the 1993-2008 blocks — a good thing as Martha Stewart would say.

From what I’ve seen from Citygarden so far it is interesting, complex (requiring exploration),  colorful, and a delight to the senses. With a permanent cafe on the Eastern block you can stay and enjoy the space.  There is seating throughout.  We shouldn’t have razed the old buildings but once they were gone we should have created dynamic space.  Instead we got 16 years of dead passive space added to the many acres of additional dead passive space we’ve had for decades longer.

While I like the Citygarden I don’t like the process that led to today.  I wrote the following just over 2 years ago (see post):

In a classic St. Louis move, the city’s “leadership” is already moving forward with a plan the public has yet to see. Mayor Slay, Aldermanic President, Alderman Phyllis Young, and Downtown Parnership’s Jim Cloar last week talked of the newest concept as a done deal even though we the public have not seen anything yet. Typical.

The public open house is scheduled for this evening, Monday June 11, 2007 at 6:30pm in the rotunda at City Hall. This is one of those meetings designed to give the appearance of public participation without any actual participation. The usual round of types — officials, business executives, etc… — have already approved of the plan on our behalf. How big of them to do so. I assume tonight will also be a chance for all these folks to congratulate each other on a job well done. I’ll be there simply because I need to see what sort of disastrous plan the city has drafted this time. Any comment forms will likely be a waste of paper.

Hopefully these two blocks will serve as an example of the level of excitement necessary as we look at the remaining blocks of the Gateway Mall.  I’ve got a good relationship with Patricia Roland-Hamilton, the person in charge of The Gateway Mall Project.  We’ve had ongoing conversations about the qualities needed along the mall.

Once inside I’ll do a full review of Citygarden.  Again, I like it already.  But I have noticed a few details I would like to have seen done differently.  These can now serve as lessons for when the remaining blocks are addressed.

– Steve Patterson