If we had decent codes in St. Louis the owner of this 1923 building wouldn’t have been permitted to make all the window openings into big yellow rectangles.
Yes, the owner invested in the building. Let’s just hope they don’t invest in others.
 – Steve Patterson
The development process in St. Louis is all wrong. The city maintains 1940s suburban zoning codes (with absurdly high parking demands) and doesn’t attempt to connect the dots. Development isn’t about eventually having nice corridors that are pleasant to walk down. No, development is viewed as being in a vacuum — my block is completely unrelated to the blocks around me. Work the political system and you might be granted a variance to build something other than what made sense in 1950.
City block 1013 is one example out of many. Â The block, bounded by Washington, T.E. Huntley (formerly Ewing), Locust & Garrison, is owned by the Salvation Army. Â The Salvation Army, like any property owner & developer, has just gone with the flow.
From my view city leaders should have been figuring out what it would look like to connect downtown to Midtown Alley to Grand Center along four corridors: Olive, Locust, Washington & Delmar This isn’t about designing specific built;dings for specific parcels. It’s about building massing and frequency of windows and doors.
As I pointed out yesterday, I’m not a fan of just asking folks what they want — they likely don’t know what is possible. In depressed neighborhoods the idea of visioning vacant lots as active businesses (with jobs) and the sidewalks as busy & safe places just doesn’t come to mind. Vision takes leadership — something city hall is lacking.
I didn’t attend the open house but those who did said the proposed project was billed at being 75% veterans. Anyone who knows Fair Housing laws knows affordable apartments (48 in this case) can’t be restricted to veterans.
Last week I met with Gary Busiek of the Salvation Army and Andy Trivers of Trivers Architects to discuss the project. It became clear they had to work within the codes of the city and the low income tax credits for financing. The financing being used for the project doesn’t allow any retail space, something that would continue the storefronts from the blocks of Locust to the west.
The site plan I was shown shows the block would eventually have four buildings — one on each corner. The NW & SE corners are just conceptual right now — but the concept showed a community center gym at the NW corner. Blank walls would face Washington & Garrison. Instead of mandating massive quantities of parking, we need to require non-black blank walls — especially at corners.
The big picture is we should be looking at all our corridors where development will happen in the future. What form do we want future buildings to take? A one story McDonald’s on such a block would be absurd but I can see such proposals happening on other similar sites. Can we completely eliminate minimum parking requirements?
I care very little about the use of a building — I know use changes with time, The form, however, doesn’t. The form must be correct from the beginning, or at least be easily modified down the road.
 – Steve Patterson
Don’t get me wrong, I love our abundant stock of solid red brick buildings, but I also love beautiful contrasts like a nice buff brick building, a limestone facade or even something more colorful.
The buildings that are now the GW Loft Apartments were painted white (or gray?) for decades. They disappeared even though they are massive in size.
But now they demand attention. Â I’d tire of this if every building on every street were as colorful, it is the contrast with our reds that make me appreciate both more. Whenever I pass by the orange/yellow building on the #97 bus I can’t help but grin.
– Steve Patterson
Vito’s Sicilian Pizzeria & Ristorante has been at Lindell and Grand as long as I’ve been in St. Louis. They loved to their current location in the 90s when Saint Louis University bought & razed the building they were in at the NE corner of Grand and Lindell.
Building codes and the American’s with Disabilities Act have long required designated disabled parking when you have a parking lot. Which makes me wonder how Vito’s got away with not having a disabled space when they moved into their current location following a major rehab of the building.
I know no reason the city would have exempted Vito’s from the requirement in the building code.
The building and parking lot is owned by Saint Louis University, but that shouldn’t matter either. These pics were taken before 11am on a weekday so there is no shortage of close parking. Â But at noon it’s a different story. Â On weekend nights the metered spaces are taken for valet, $5 with restaurant validation. Do they have a permit for valet on the public road?
– Steve Patterson
The point where Olive goes off to the right and Lindell begins has never been friendly to pedestrians. As the above image shows, the amount of paving was enormous. As a wheelchair-using pedestrian, going straight wasn’t an option.
For the first time ever, this once-open intersection has changed. In a major road diet, the intersection has dropped many sizes.
Most of the intersection is gone. Motorists wanting to go westbound on Olive must now slow and make a right turn to do so. The road diet happened because of the adjacent Hotel Ignacio.
For pedestrians the distance to cross the street is significantly reduced, thus decreasing the chances of being hit by a car.
Crossing Lindell is still a challenge. Pedestrians could go east to Compton or west to Grand, both considerable distance.
The city will probably paint the crosswalk after a person is hit trying to cross the street. A pedestrian refuge is needed at the center of the wide roadway to protect the pedestrian in the future crosswalk.
– Steve Patterson