Gateway Mall Wishes It Was Boston’s Commonwealth Mall

St. Louis’ Gateway Mall was an afterthought — a way to clear away buildings and people thought to be too seedy for downtown. However, in clearing the blocks for the Gateway Mall and numerous other later projects in the urban renewal era all the people were removed as building after building were razed. Businesses and residences were lost by the hundreds if not thousands.

Boston’s Commonwealth Mall, however, was planned from the start. Dating to the 19th Century, not the 20th Century, it has a quite different feel. I visited the Commonwealth Mall this morning.

The mall is technically a wide median but it is sufficiently wide enough that you don’t feel endangered by a passing motorist nor do you feel so isolated that you fee unsafe. Surrounded on both sides by stately masonry buildings which, combined with the trees, creates a wonderful scale. There are no parking garages or blank walls, just varied architecture with entry/exit points (aka doors) highly frequently. There are no follies or other tricks to get you to be in this space, it was designed to be an integral part of the city.

Frequent sculptures break up the linear pathway while retaining a formal feeling. Despite the cold and snow, many in Boston walk to their destinations and the Commonwealth Mall provides a beautiful way to do so.

What planners in the 20th Century failed to understand is that you cannot simply cut a slice through a city at any point and expect it to succeed. Furthermore, destroying activities and interest along the edges is critical to the overall feel and ultimately will help determine if the public will use the space or not. St. Louis’ Gateway Mall has no reason for the general public to walk along it. Regardless of the attractions contained inside the space it will remain lifeless and disconnected from the city, the opposite of Boston’s Commonwealth Mall.

Interco Plaza, An Ugly Reminder of Past Mistakes

St. Louis, like many other older industrial cities, has made numerous mistakes in the past decades. One of those is a city park, known as Interco Plaza, located at Tucker and Dr. Martin Luther King. The city’s lists of parks simply indicates it is 0.71 acres and has a single fountain. However, the fountain no longer exists. From the City Journal on May 14, 2002 I see the Board of Public voted to approve “Demolition of the High Wall of Interco Plaza Fountain, Tucker Street & Dr. Martin Luther King.”

When proposed I’m sure the artist rendering showed many people conversing around the now-removed fountain. Politicos probably wax poetically about how this new investment in the city was going to do wonders for the area as nothing else had. It may have worked, for a while. Today it stands (barely) as a relic of the brutalist concrete movement.
Although I had been past it hundreds of times I had never stopped and taken a closer look. On a hot day this past August, I did stop and take in the beauty of all the broken up concrete:

So who is this Interco Incorporated? Their long standing name was the International Shoe Company and currently they are known as Furniture Brands. Furniture Brands is based in Clayton, in the Interco Tower which opened in 1985. Click here for a company history.

Interco Plaza is located at the SE corner of Tucker and Dr. Martin Luther King — between the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to the North, the St. Louis Public Schools HQ to the East and St. Patrick Center to the South. The balance of the area is parking. Hadley Street to the East was cut off to through traffic and Dr. King Drive between Hadley and 10th were also removed. Just as well, the Convention Center cuts off through access on Dr. King.

Getting in closer we see the Plaza before the removal of the fountain and the high wall near it. The green spaces (left & bottom) shown above are holes to the tunnel below. The balance of the green, basically the NE corner, are at grade. Still doing research but I guess that a building and basement were razed at this site and the plaza was the replacement.

A few images:

This park is such a horrible space, even the homeless will not use it! Well, at least not the top. Homeless do use the space underneath and the tunnel under Tucker for shelter. A Post-Dispatch article from October indicated the city estimates the cost to replace Tucker (either by filling in the tunnel or building a new tunnel) will cost $30 million, they are seeking federal assistance. Unclear to me is the future of Interco Plaza.

It really needs to go away.

Does Furniture Brands still own the land under the air rights? Can we re-open the closed streets in the area? What about building an SRO (Single Room Occupancy) on a portion of the land? What will become of those living underneath?
I just watched a documentary, about the homeless in an abandoned Amtrak tunnel, filmed in the late 1990s in NYC. The film, Dark Days, was very moving. The homeless themselves were the film crew. This documentary, the first for Marc Singer, received several awards, including a couple at the Sundance Film Festival in 2000.

Here is a brief intro:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpXHCRYXP7s[/youtube]

Like the rest of our city, we have many forgotten areas between areas being revitalized. We need to learn what we can from past mistakes such as brutal concrete plazas and resolve to reconnect and heal the entire city.

Gateway Mall Announcement in January ’08

Yesterday’s “town hall” meeting at the Downtown Partnership regarding management of the CID (Community Improvement District) produced little new information, other than the fact than the city will be unveiling the final Gateway Mall plan next month.

You will recall that earlier this year, prior to a meeting where citizens were asked to provide feedback on the draft, the city announced final plans for the two-block Sculpture Garden between 9th and 11th (see prior post). That leaves Kiener Plaza/May Amphitheatre, “Twain”, and the blocks from Tucker West to 20th.

Now living only a few blocks away, I can see the failure even stronger. Public space needs to feel like it is surrounded by a vibrant city. The South wall of the Gateway Mall, at 16th at least, is horribly bland. Union Station, down at 18th, is at least a stunning work of architecture. Sometimes, on my walks, I’ll take 16th street to Market —- of course 16th between Olive and Market hasn’t been a street in decades — it was closed long ago during urban renewal.

Our downtown is very linear, very East-West. The focus being Washington Ave. By the time you make it to the too-wide Olive Blvd the synergy has run out. I don’t know that anything can sustain interest in Gateway Mall without appearing too Disneyland. No matter what, the “walls” of this open space are largely lifeless and will remain as such.

Decades ago this area was cleared of the slummy properties that were viewed as unseemly by our elite and to provide some relief from the hustle & bustle of the city. The 500,000 residents we lost (pushed away?) in the last half century took the bustle with them. Will a new Gateway Mall plan bring the hustle back to this section of St. Louis?

Century Building Case Continues Wind Through Court System

Yesterday I spent a half hour sitting in a courtroom listening to lawyers support and counter arguments in the case against two friends of mine, Marcia Behrendt and Roger Plackemeier.  Each filed lawsuits a number of years ago once it was realized developers sought to raze the historic Century Building for a parking garage.

Ultimately the developers got their financing and began demolishing the long-standing building — the very one the city had only a few years earlier told the then owner it should not be razed for parking. That started on the evening of October 20, 2004 — they had to quickly damage the building beyond repair.  As Behrendt & Plackemeier had sought to save the building, the one remaining and active suit was dropped.
In April 2005 the state (via the Missouri Development Finance Board) the city (via the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority), the developers NSG Developers LLC and St. Louis US Custom House and Post Office Building and Associates (aka Steve Stogel and Mark Schnuck) decided to sue Behrendt & Plackemeier, claiming “malicious prosecution.”

Recently they are asking the court to name attorney Matt Ghio as a defendant as well.  By doing so, he could represent himself but not B&P.  Doug Down, now representing NSG and the Post Office Associates, made Ghio out to look like an evil lawyer run amuck – handing out bad advice to B&P.  Dowd then told judge Donald McCullin that they’d sue Ghio individually if he were not added a defendant.  Ghio, in rebuttal, indicated this simply proved the developers, state and city sought to separate Ghio from defending B&P.  Ghio, having been involved in these cases for a good five years or so, knows all the issues quite clearly — that removing him would “prejudice his clients.”

Before Judge McCullin now are motions from each side.  The plaintiffs (developers, city, state) seek to add Ghio as a defendant (a motion to leave) as well as add another charge of “abuse of process” to B&P.  The defendants (B&P) filed a “motion for summary judgment” — asking the judge to throw out the case all together.  I’ll keep everyone posted once the judge makes his ruling on these motions.

[Photo by Alan Brunettin from Remember the Century pictorial.]

What To Do With the Vacant Municipal Courts Building?

The latest plan for the shuttered Municipal Courts building was to be a boutique hotel across the street from a renovated Kiel Opera house. However, two years ago today developer Don Breckenridge lost his battle with lung cancer, he was 73.

The Municipal Courts building was vacated when the federal courts moved to the new Thomas Eagleton Federal Courthouse.   This allowed our municipal courts and related offices to move into the former digs of the federal courts, at Tucker and Market — two blocks East.

Just across the former 13th Street (now a parking lot for city hall) the building is ideal for city offices.  Currently the city leases office space in at least two other buildings —- 1015 Locust and 15th and Olive.  Traffic court is in space over at 15th and Olive.   The St. Louis Development Corporation and various departments such as the Planning & Urban Design Agency operate on the top two floors of the building at 1015 Locust — about 7 blocks away.  Someone visiting city hall for a building permit might be told they need to talk to someone over at 1015 Locust, say relating to a historic district.  I think Cultural Resources keeps someone over at City Hall even though their offices are on the 11th floor of 1015 Locust.  Eventually you learn the lay of the land and where everyone is located but why not have complimentary departments closer together?

Above is the view of the Municipal Courts building from the Ray Leisure conference room on the 2nd floor of City Hall.  As you can see, it is close!  The parking lot below is the former 13th Street.

The very civic nature of the building, the proximity of it to the existing city hall, and the fact we have leased space spread out in other buildings are all reasons we need to seriously consider using this structure for city government.

Of course, we have no money for renovations.  I don’t even know the minimum it needs to reopen for such purposes, certainly less than what it would need as a posh boutique hotel.  I also don’t know how long our leases run on the other two buildings where we have space.  ADA entrances and security becomes an issue with such an old building, as in city hall.  The city hall entrance facing Market street is no longer open, only the East entrance facing Tucker and the south entrance facing the parking lot are open, with the exception of the ADA entrance into the basement.  Thus someone going from one building to the next has to take the long way.
While the steep pitched roof of city hall eliminates the option of a green roof the Municipal Courts building is ideal for such a green living roof.   A green roof often implies a larger renovation but not necessarily.

I like the notion of taking a look at all of our city departments and various agencies to see how best to use City Hall and the Municipal Courts building as complimentary facilities.  Could we, at minimal cost, use this building?