Author: Michael R. Allen

Categories
Architecture Downtown

10th and Locust

by Michael R. Allen


Here is the intersection of 10th and Locust streets in downtown St. Louis, with this view facing southwest. At left, one sees a massive cast-iron spandrel on the Syndicate Trust Building (built in 1906, designed by Harry Roach), which is being renovated into condominiums and apartments by LoftWorks and Sherman Associates. In the center, the art deco Civil Courts (built in 1930, designed by Klipstein and Rathmann) stands above the Thebes-Stierlin Music Store Building (built in 1906 and designed by Theodore Link, architect of Union Station). At the right is the 1899 Delany Building, designed by Matthews & Clark and rehabbed by LoftWorks in 2004. In 1953, the Delany Building was sold at a tax sale at the Civil Courts Building.

Categories
Housing North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Blairmont Money Goes to Hubbard, Nasheed and El-Amin

by Michael R. Allen

According to information in a post on Blog St. Louis (about other interesting matters), northside slumlords Blairmont Associates LC gave $500.00 to the 58th District Democratic Legislative District Committee. This money was combined with other donations and distributed to candidates Rodney Hubbard, seeking re-election to the 58th District State Representative seat; Jamilah Nasheed, seeking the 60th District seat; and Yaphett El-Amin, seeking the 4th District State Senate seat.

If Blairmont is simply a speculative endeavor, and not a front for a planned development project, why would it be buying influence with candidates for the state legislature? If all it needed was to hold the Building and Forestry divisions at bay, its contributions to the 5th Ward Regular Democratic Organization would seem to be all that it could do in that regard.

What could Blairmont need from the state government? Affordable housing tax credits?

Categories
Baden Demolition North St. Louis Preservation Board

Preservation Board to "Reconsider" Lutheran Altenheim Home Decision

by Michael R. Allen

The Preservation Board of the City of St. Louis meets May 26 to consider several items. One item that jumps out to me on the agenda is a “request for reconsideration” of a demolition permit for the old Lutheran Altenheim Home in the Baden area of north city. The owners, multi-state residential-care operators Hillside Manor LLC, have already contracted with Spirtas for demolition and started removing interior items. In April, they appealed the permit denial of the staff of the Cultural Resources Office to the Preservation Board, which upheld the denial.

While Hillside Manor has no use for the old building, and it stands in an awkward spot between Hillside Manor and another residential care facility, they have yet to prove that they need to demolish the building, or that they have considered other uses of the building.

Thankfully their “request for reconsideration” goes to the Preservation Board and not to the Board of Alderman as legislation. However, the Preservation Board should refuse reconsideration. No doubt that Hillside Manor will be pushing some high number on rehab costs that would be a “financial hardship” under the Preservation Review Ordinance. If so, it’s hogwash — Hillside Manor has expanded into a large network of locations and does not seem to be short on money for expansion.

There still are uses for the old building, but they would require creative thinking. It might make a great apartment building if more parking could be created. (Has Hillside Manor considered allowing a developer to build a second level of parking over their existing lot?)

Categories
Downtown Mid-Century Modern

Inside of the Dorsa Building

by Michael R. Allen

The interior of the Dorsa Building (1946) is a cavernous modern wonderland. There are few right angles in the space that Meyer Loomstein designed as the showroom for the Dorsa dress line. On the first level, the space is divided into two portions: a front lobby, accessible from Washington, with a large central open area flanked by offices that open to it. Through an opening at the rear wall of this space, one enters a fantastic auditorium consisting of terraced seating descending along with a curving staircase that leads down to a small stage. Curves are everywhere — in walls, the taper of columns, ceiling insets and in the shape of the stage itself. Plaster on metal lathe is the basic material used to mold the streamline spaces here. Terrazzo floors and stylized doors heighten the appearance. Color once was essential to the presentation of the space, but later alterations not doubt altered the original palette.

The auditorium was used for fashion shows for many years. The Dorsa company unveiled its new lines here, and also turned over the space to student designers from Washington University.

Alas, there is no definite future for the space even though the building is being renovated by the Pyramid Companies. Pyramid is leasing the space to a commercial tenant, and favors preservation. However, ultimately the choice to preserve the space will be passed to whomever leases this space.

Needless to say, the space is the only large-scale intact Art Moderne interior in downtown St. Louis, and one of a handful ever created there. Its preservation would guarantee that the city would retain a space like no other. The uncertainty points the need for redefining local, state and national preservation standards to give architectural interiors protection equal to that of exteriors.

We thank Paul Hohmann of Pyramid Architects for giving us a tour of the interior.

After passing through the street lobby, one enters a show room flanked by offices.  Tapered plasterwork hide the building’s original columns.

Inside of the show room, the curvaceous entrance to the theater beckons.

Arriving at the top of the theater, one is face with an asymmetrical array of curves and a double-back progression to the lowest level.

Wedge-shaped mirrors in stylized frames — replete with coquillage at the center top –adorn the walls.  The stage is no simple platform, but a continues to make use of wide parabolic and circular curves.

The columns in the theater have cloud-like plaster capitals, and the ceiling repeats the motif with recesses.  Once you enter, you pass to the land of dreams — and dresses!

Every detail seems to be considered by the architect. Even the the view lines between these columns, once governed by a grid, serve as an axis for a Rorschach-like scene.

Categories
Gate District Historic Preservation Salvage South St. Louis Terra Cotta

City Hospital’s Missing Pieces

by Michael R. Allen

The City Hospital has reopened, but without two important elements: Its front steps, and its front gates. (Or its original cast-iron cupola framing, made locally by Banner Iron Works. But that’s another story.)

The gates are in the middle of one of the ugliest new developments in the city, The Gate District. The city removed the gates around 1994. They sit on Park Avenue west of Jefferson, framing an ugly and useless lawn that now sits sun-baked.

The gray Maine granite steps are in the City Museum, having been removed by Bob Cassilly in 1997 along with other items from the front entrance, including a terra cotta arch and a transom window bearing the hospital name. While the future of the hospital was bleak at this stage, demolition was not scheduled and salvage bids were not being taken.

Why anyone would rob an architectural landmark of defining features is beyond comprehension. Then again, in 1997 believers in the future of the City Hospital were in short supply. Alderwoman Phyllis Young was seeking demolition in coordination with the redevelopment of the Darst-Webbe housing project, and Mayor Freeman Bosley’s office concurred. While these instincts proved wrong, and some of the hospital buildings ended up being renovated, what sort of pessimism would lead the city government to allow the removal of the gates and steps?

The bigger question is why the city under different circumstances years later did not try to return the gates.

Categories
North St. Louis Riverfront

You, Government


Drawing seen on a railroad embankment near the St. Louis approach to the Merchants Bridge.

Categories
Century Building Downtown Parking

Shouldn’t This Be Done By Now?

by Michael R. Allen

Progress on the century Building Memorial Parking Garage has been slow, although parts of it have reached a height above the Century Building’s roof. This photograph from June 2006, looking northwest from the corner of Olive and Ninth, makes one wonder why the garage project is taking so long. The view also shows how the choice of pigment for the cast concrete cladding may not have been the best, to say the least.

The post-modern hulk slowly rises.

Categories
Demolition National Historic Landmark St. Charles County

The Demolition of Prince Hall at Washington University

by Michael R. Allen

Built St. Louis has already published demolition photographs from Prince Hall, which is a long way gone.

That the demolition started so quickly raises many questions. How did preservationists fail in this case? There seemed to be considerable delay from the time people started talking about the proposed demolition to the time people acted. And the action came mostly in the form of letter-writing and a few newspaper article quotes. Admittedly, the preservation dynamo Esley Hamilton worked hard to preserve the building. The rest of us were there mostly in spirit and not enough in deed to make a difference.

The potential to have lobbied alumni and donors could have been utilized. Washington University may have changed its mind if its decision was costing money. With large universities, there seems to be no other way outside of legal restriction to keep historic campus buildings standing.

I also think that the building’s secluded location on a private campus located amid wealthy neighborhoods kept it from being a championed cause among the rank-and-file of urbanists and preservationists. Most of us, to be frank, didn’t go to Washington University and live far from the manicured lawns of Clayton. I have to admit that Prince Hall was low on my list given the urgency of the situation of the Mullanphy Emigrant Home and other north side buildings.

Still, the Washington University Tudor Gothic campus core — designed by Cope & Stewardson and built between 1901 and 1905 — is one of the most attractive collegiate groups in the country. The great significance of this group as architecture, that art so public that ownership legal barely restricts its appreciation, outweighs any reservations myself and others had. We should have tried much harder.

One final question the demolition raises is whether or not the Washington University campus district’s listing as a National Historic Landmark District should be de-certified. Is there sufficient context left for it to remain listed? What would de-certification mean for the other buildings? The National Historic Landmark listing again proves to give no special protection to an historic building, even if it gives special recognition. Preservation is the result of human action.

Categories
Public Policy

Carnahan Aims to Expand Federal Historic Rehab Tax Credits

While this is old news, it should be noted here: On May 18, Missouri Third District Congressman Russ Carnahan introduced the Preserve Historic America Act of 2006 (HR 5420), a remarkable bill that would greatly enhance historic rehabilitation tax credits available at the federal level. Among many things, the bill would make federal tax credits available to owner-occupant rehabbers living in a house that is not drawing income. The bill also creates tax credits for moderate rehab projects and creates targeted tax credits for rehabilitation projects in low-income areas. If passed, the bill could be a boon to marginal areas like north St. Louis, and make it easier for low-income homeowners to rehab their historic homes appropriately without going broke.

Carnahan represents areas of south St. Louis that have seen extensive rehab using Missouri’s state historic rehabilitation tax credit. His constituents there certainly support the bill, so in some ways it is easy for him to introduce it. However, the text of the bill is incredibly sensitive to the needs of historic preservation efforts in urban areas and shows careful consideration of real needs rather than pandering.

Congressman William Clay, who represents the rest of the city, is a co-sponsor along with 22 other members of Congress.

Read the full text of the bill here.

Categories
Granite City, Illinois Metro East Riverfront

The Founding of Granite City: Industry and Aspiration

by Michael R. Allen

Based on notes for a bus tour that I gave during the 35th Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial Archeology, June 2, 2006.

German immigrants Frederick G. and William F. Niedringhaus played a major role in St. Louis history by organizing the industrial city of Granite City, and a major role in American industry by pioneering the process of creating durable, affordable stamped and enamelled metal-ware. They came from Westphalia to St. Louis around 1858 after having trained under their father, a tinner and glazier. With $1,000 and three helpers, the brothers incorporated Niedringhaus & Brother in downtown St. Louis. Their first products were hand-made kitchen utensils, but early on they experimented with mechanized production. By 1862, the brothers began using machines to stamp utensils from single sheets of metal — a technique on which they would build their fortunes. By 1865, they were making deep-stamped wares and were likely one of only two such makers in the country. The brothers began working with sheet iron imported from Wales.

The Niedringhaus brothers founded the more focused St. Louis Stamping Company in 1866, and enjoyed immediate success. Their seamless stamped tinware met the public demand for durable, affordable kitchenware. The first year’s sales were $7,000 — an amount that they would increase one-hundred-fold within eleven years. Production increased to levels that led them to purchase land north of downtown near the Mississippi River in 1870. They built a four-story brick manufacturing, warehouse and office building between 1871 and 1873. This building, still extant, was likely designed by architect August Beinke and faced Collins Street between Cass Avenue to the south and Collins Street to the north. By 1876 adjacent to the first building, the brothers built seven additional smaller buildings including a blacksmith shop, annealing building, galvanizing shop and boilerhouse. (Part of one of these buildings remains.) North of this block, the Niedringhaus brothers constructed a rolling mill in the style of the English tin-plate mills of the era. This railroad- and river-served mill could produce twenty tons of sheet metal daily and employed about 700 workers.

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