On Wednesday, two events dealing with St. Louis mid-century modern architecture are up against each other — take your pick between seeing about the yet-unseen revised plan for the Arch grounds project and a lecture by Edward Durrell Stone’s son on his father’s architectural legacy. Also that night the Riverfront Times will be giving out its web awards. We are happy to relay that this blog is a finalist.
REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY: THE ARCH GROUNDS DESIGN CONCEPT PRESENTATION
Wednesday, January 26 at 6:00 p.m.
Ferrara Theater, America’s Center, 8th & Washington
Open to the public; pre-registration is preferred.
Lead designer Michael Van Valkenburgh, members of his design team and others, will update the community on the design concept and discuss next steps for invigorating the Arch grounds and making connections to downtown St. Louis, the Mississippi River and the Illinois riverbank area, and next steps for community
comments. Details here.
EDWARD DURRELL STONE: MAN AND ARCHITECT
Wednesday, January 26 at 6:30 p.m.
Lee Auditorium in the Missouri History Museum
Free and open to the public
Hicks Stone, architect, author, and son of Edward Durell Stone, will present anextensive illustrated review and commentary on his father’s work,which includes the former Busch Stadium. Sponsored by Landmarks Association of St. Louis. Details here.
Yesterday the Board of Alderman approved on second reading the ordinance that expands the boundaries of the Fox Park Local Historic District to include eighteen blocks at the southern end of the neighborhood. Included in the expansion, shown on the map here, is St. Francis DeSales Roman Catholic Church.
The Board will take votes on both the third and final readings, but the most important hurdles have been cleared and the ordinance should be law soon.
Here are a few images of buildings that now will be protected by the design code of the local district.
On 2800 block of Magnolia Avenue, near California Avenue.2711-13 Gravois Boulevard, owned by the Archdiocese.2620 Ohio Avenue.The flounder house at 2628 Ohio Avenue.The north face of the 2800 block of Victor Avenue.
Flood wall, south riverfront.Thursday, February 3
Fort Gondo
3151 Cherokee Street
Saint Louis, MO
Doors open at 7:00 PM
Discussion begins at 7:30 PM
Graffiti is as old as civilization itself, with examples found thousands of years ago in the pyramids of ancient Egypt and the Roman city of Pompeii. In contemporary America, any resident or visitor to a city — or even small towns–will see graffiti covering overpasses, abandoned structures and the sides of buildings.
On February 3rd, we will host a panel discussion that asks the following questions:
Is graffiti a valid form of artistic or political expression?
Does graffiti contribute to a sense that a neighborhood is blighted?
Can graffiti be a positive influence on city life, or is it alwaysdetrimental?
Who decides what is good graffiti, and what is bad?
Can different sides of the graffiti debate come to a consensus on itsvalidity?
Please come to City Affair and contribute your opinions and questions. The panel discussion will be followed by a question and answer session from the audience. Doors open at 7:00 PM, discussion begins at 7:30.
Panelists include:
Pete Wollaeger, local artis, inventor of the “eyeball” http://www.stensoul.com/
Angelo Olegna, “Mayor of Cherokee Street”
And addition panelists to be announced.
The map of the 1927 tornado produced by the Engineer's Club and the St. Louis Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Click for large version.
On September 29, 1927, a massive tornado made its way across the city on a northeasterly track. The path of destruction widened in a part of north St. Louis stretching from Fountain Park to Hyde Park. The worst damage was just west of Grand Avenue between Delmar Boulevard and St. Louis Avenue, but every place in the path was wrecked badly. The Report on the St. Louis Tornado of September 27, 1927 by the Joint Committee of the Engineers’ Club and St. Louis Chapter, American Institute of Architects displayed the staggering destruction of the built environment, chronicled the human loss and called for upgrades in construction techniques. A subsequent major tornado in 1959 spared north St. Louis but left major damage in the Dogtown and Central West End neighborhoods.
Compared to the 1927 and 1959 tornadoes, as well as the famous 1896 “Cyclone,” the tornado that struck the city on December 31, 2010 was mercifully weak. Still, the track of the officially-declared EF1 tornado is longer than the damage suggests. The National Weather Service has published track maps of the recent St. Louis area tornadoes that shows the north St. Louis tornado to have left a 2.1-mile track starting around Lewis Place and moving northeast toward Fairground Park before lifting. The tornado touched down at 12:08 a.m. and lasted for three minutes.
The paths of the 1927 and 2010 tornadoes compared. The Lewis Place gate at Taylor Avenue is marked with a red asterisk.
The track of the 2010 tornado is notably similar to the 1927 track. Although the tracks and damage areas do not overlap, they follow a similar shape. The origin of the 2010 tornado is slightly west of the outer path of tornado damage in September 1927, although it is still farther from the actual tornado track. Another difference is that the 1927 tornado did not lift until it reached the river.
While the city was spared a major disaster on New Year’s, it endured a tornado that caused severe property damage and left at least a dozen households homeless. History shows worse could have happened, but also that north St. Louis has been hit by a tornado before. Disaster preparedness, urged in 1927 by leading engineers and architects, remains a crucial matter for the city.
Friday February 11, 2011
Doors open at 6:00pm Trivia starts at 7:00pm
Located at St Vincent DePaul Parish Hall, 1408 S 10th St. Saint Louis, MO 63104-3275
Cost: $20 per guest / $160 per table of 8
The Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion is hosting its second annual Trivia Night to raise funds and awareness of our historic site. Cost is $20 per person or $160 per table of eight. The evening will include: silent auction items, 50/50 raffles, heads/tails, and dead or alive. Soda, water, popcorn and three beer tickets provided. Outside snacks are welcome. Mulligans will be available for purchase. To reserve your table or if you have questions please contact Katherine Patterson at demenilvolunteers@gmail.com or call 314-583-5271. If you cannot attend but would like to donate, please mail donation to Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion 3352 DeMenil Place St. Louis, MO 63118.
Today Lewis Place, still dealing with damage caused by a New Year’s Eve tornado, received some powerful assistance. The day started when the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published its annual Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. Day editorial on the need for the region to get behind Lewis Place. (Read the editorial,“Dreams in the Wind”.) The eloquent call for action was written by editorial writer Eddie Roth.
Residents gathered today to listen to announcements by Mayor Francis Slay, Alderman Terry Kennedy and United Way CEO Gary Dollar.
At 10:30 a.m., big news was delivered directly to the residents of Lewis Place. Mayor Francis Slay, Alderman Terry Kennedy (D-18th) and United Way Chief Executive Officer Gary Dollar arrived at the 4500 block of Lewis Place to announce that the United Way has created a tornado assistance fund for Lewis Place. Mayor Slay also officially proclaimed today Lewis Place Day and presented a framed proclamation to Lewis Place Historical Preservation President Pam Talley.
Pam Talley talked to reporters about what the neighborhood has gone through between the tornado strike on December 31 and today. Here’s a clip.
A declaration of major disaster in pending at the federal level. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon requested the declaration Friday so that Federal Emergency Management relief funds can be made available to residents of Lewis Place and other areas of the state affected by the tornadoes.
Still the residents of Lewis Place rejoiced today that the region’s largest charitable organization was standing behind them.
Mayor Francis Slay presents his proclamation to Pam Talley.
Today’s announcement is an amazing show of support, but it’s only the start of the effort to rebuild. I urge my readers to contribute to the United Way fund to lend financial support, and to contact me to donate construction, architectural or engineering services. Even after the last storm damage is repaired there will be work to do — the work that the residents were doing before this interruption.
Today we are two weeks away from the day when a severe squall line moved through St. Louis, but for some people that is not a lot of time. On the north side, several neighborhoods are still dealing with widespread property damage and the looming uncertainty of whether homes will remain homes. Some owners lack insurance, while others may have policies with deductibles above the costs of repairing damage. Those costs may still be prohibitive for elderly and poor residents.
Yesterday this blog showed scenes from the Ville (see “Ville Area Still Recovering from New Year’s Eve Storm”). Today let us turn our attention to the Lewis Place neighborhood to the southwest of the Ville, where damage to the historic buildings there is even more widespread. Lewis Place has made it through the ravages of demolition, abandonment and disinvestment and has been on the upswing in recent years. Disaster was the last thing Lewis Place needed.
On Sunday, Lewis Place Historical Preservation, Inc. President Pam Talley showed myself and Lynn Josse the damage that compels our assistance — and yours. What we saw demands St. Louis’ full attention.
The storm pummeled the rear of the ornate former dry cleaning plant at 4536-38 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive.
Just one block south of the apartment building at Deer and Aldine avenues that suffered a collapse is an ornate two-story, terra-cotta clad building on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. The former dry cleaning plant, with its baroque facade, is little more than a front wall after New Year’s Eve. The one story rear wing collapsed completely and much of the two-story front section fell in on itself. Demolition of the privately-owned vacant building is next, no doubt, but the front elevation ought to be salvaged.
The metal porch at right was destroyed on this house in the 4500 block of Evans Avenue.A blue tarp is keeping water out of the house at Evans and Deer avenues, which lost parts of its rolled asphalt roof.
One block south, damage is intense in the 4500 and 4600 blocks of Evans Avenue. Few houses escaped broken windows, many lost or small large parts of their roof and some even lost their wooden or metal porches.
These three houses on Evans Avenue have missing roofing and broken windows.This house on Evans Avenue is being rehabilitated. The roof was blown off and new windows destroyed in the storm.
Lewis Place storm damage was not limited to historic buildings. New houses on Page Boulevard lost siding and shingles and suffered broken windows. However, like most neighborhoods in north city, Lewis Place’s housing stock is mostly composed of historic buildings. That means most damage affects older homes that are more difficult to insure adequately and that already have maintenance problems that often drive up repair costs.
This house in the 4500 block of Enright Avenue was hit hard by the storm on December 31. Last weekend the owner was working diligently to make repairs ahead of the snow that fell Monday.
We saw damage on streets throughout Lewis Place, including Vernon Avenue, Newberry Terrace, McMillan Avenue, Kensington Place and Enright Avenue. Pam reported that the city’s Forestry Division — usually not a timely factor in Lewis Place events — swept in quickly after the storm and worked throughout New Year’s weekend to clean up the large amount of tree debris generated by the storm. Still, such debris was piled everywhere. Most of all, at every turn we saw boarded windows, asphalt roofing material on the grounds, brick bats from chimneys and parapets, sagging porches, maimed fences and signs that something terrible had happened. Simply, we were tracking the path of a disaster.
These houses in the 4500 block of Lewis Place was hit hard by the storm on December 31.
When Pam took us to Lewis Place itself, our hearts sunk. The houses that were so essential to the civil rights struggle that made what we now call St. Louis possible stood with yellow caution tape in front. Some had collapsed front parapet walls. Others had boarded up windows, missing roofing and — in one particularly unnerving instance — a frozen waterfall under a window on a vacant house. Even #10 Lewis Place was ailing with its front porch collapsed. Dr. Robert and Fredda Witherspoon, who in the 1940s organized fair-skinned African-Americans to purchase homes on Lewis Place to break down restrictive covenants, called this house home for decades.
The front porch is damaged at #10 Lewis Place.
Pam told us that the Building Division rushed in after the storm, and had condemned houses the day of the storm. This is standard operating procedure following a disaster, because unsafe buildings must be vacated, but it still seemed insensitive to residents. Lewis Place Historical Preservation raised the money to hire a structural engineer for one resident who is being threatened with condemnation and eviction. Others face potential fines for code violations due to storm damage. This is a sad state for a street that has been a National Register of Historic Places historic district since 1980 and whose residents care deeply about both their neighborhood’s past and future.
At least six house son the north side of the 4500 block of Lewis Place have extensive damage, including masonry failure.
While the Building and Forestry divisions of the city treated the storm in Lewis Place like a disaster, other entities have not been so swift. While state officials and mayoral chief of staff Jeff Rainford visited the day after the storm, government assistance has not arrived yet. Pam says that the Salvation Army took eight days to send volunteers. Still Pam has not let the lack of response down — she has secured tarps, blankets and other items for needy residents. By the snow fall on Monday, only three houses with roof damage lacked tarp protection. Pam and her neighbors are used to doing things for themselves, and really are quite good at it. Still, they can’t do it alone — nor should they.
The bungalow at 4541 Lewis Place is condemned after its front parapet wall collapsed.
What You Can Do
Lewis Place needs our help! This historic neighborhood is part of our collective heritage, and we need to shoulder it through this rough moment. Consider helping by making a donation.
Assistance for the residents — a high percentage of them senior citizens — is welcome. Items needed are:
• Food items, both perishable and non-perishable, water, juice
• Blankets, toiletries such as toothpaste, tissue, mouthwash and soap
• Clothing such as gloves, caps, scarves, socks and underwear
• Trash bags
Donations can be made at Centennial Christian Church, 4950 Fountain Avenue, St. Louis 63108 between 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. The contact at the church is Cheryl Poynter at 314.367.1818.
Financial donations are needed, too, to assist homeowners with repairs and rebuilding. Checks can be made out to Lewis Place Historical Preservation, 3920 Lindell Blvd., Suite 206, St. Louis, MO 63108, and Attention Pam Talley. For information about how you can help, contact Talley at 314.535.1354.
This week's snow compounded problems. This is 4551 Lewis Place.
Teamsters Retreat in Peveley, Missouri by Isadore Shank.
Landmarks Association of St. Louis continues its “Lines of Beauty: Original Renderings by St. Louis Architects” exhibit through the end of the month. The exhibit is displayed at the Carolyn Hewes Toft Gallery at Architecture St. Louis, located at 911 Washington Avenue, Suite 170. Gallery hours are 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Early Klipstein & Rathmann design for the Civil Courts.
The exhibit features extensive selections from the private collection of Kyrle Boldt III as well as items from the collections of Landmarks Association and modernist architect Isadore Shank’s sons. “Lines of Beauty” is the most extensive recent exhibition of historic renderings by St. Louis architects, and showcases numerous drawings of work in St. Louis, St. Charles, Peoria, Cairo, Alton and other places in the region.
Faith Hospital rendering by Joseph D. Murphy.
Architects represented include a range of twentieth century designers, including John L. Wees, Helfensteller, Hirsch & Watson and Kilpstein & Rathmann. The show has a particularly strong selection of mid-century modern designs by St. Louis’ most important designers, including William A. Bernoudy, Frederick Dunn, Shank, Joseph D. Murphy and Charles Eames. The three images here only hint at the breadth of the renderings displayed. Don’t miss this show.
Severe storms that hit the city on December 31st have left lasting destruction in parts of north St. Louis. In the Ville and Greater Ville area, winds of over 70 miles per hour struck after noon and left blocks of houses with damage ranging from missing fascia cladding to entire collapses. Nearly two weeks later, building owners struggle to get damage repaired amid snowfall, cold weather and — in a few tragic cases — lack of insurance. And some of the buildings hit hard are owned by the city’s Land Reutilization Authority.
The storms on December 31 tracked just east of the path of the devastating tornado that hit St. Louis on September 29, 1927 — a disaster that struck coincidentally at 1:00 p.m. during the week. Over 75 people perished then. Luckily, no one died in the city on New Year’s Eve. However the face of neighborhoods may be changed socially and physically as families are forced to leave their homes and neighborhood landmarks are demolished.
In the last decade, Ville has been hard hit by waves of demolition, arson, brick theft and disinvestment. The storm’s path sadly cuts through the heart of a fragile neighborhood. Some solace can be taken in the fact that not only did the storm just barely avoid Dick Gregory Place — where a $9.5 million redevelopment is taking place — but also did not disrupt work. Workers worked through the storm inside of the 15 historic and two new buildings that comprise the project.
Here are some images of the damage that struck the Ville.
This multi-family building in the 1800 block of North Taylor Avenue at lost most of its roof.A tree fell on this house in the 4500 block of Cote Brilliante Avenue.This vacant LRA-owned residential building at 4596 Garfield Avenue suffered some masonry damage.Damage was concentrated in the east end 4500 block of Garfield Avenue. The building at left had been hit by brick thieves before the storm but suffered a collapse during the storm. The occupied house next door suffered severe damage to the front parapet, showing that the wind blew at both north and south facing elevations.The north elevation of a vacant apartment building at the southwest corner of Aldine and Deer avenues collapsed. The building is owned by shadowy speculator Urban Assets LLC.
At long last, there has been some stabilization work underway the James Clemens, Jr. House. In the last two months, crews working for Northside Regeneration LLC have removed debris, removed all asbestos, lead and PCBs and undertaken some structural stabilization work. This project unfortunately timed with the year-end announcement that Northside Regeneration’s buyer could not close on purchasing the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC)-issued tax-exempt bonds for the Clemens House. Those bonds were available through stimulus funding and could not carry over to 2011.
The James Clemens, Jr. House could remain at square one — except that the work done now advances it beyond its starting point nearly six years ago when Paul J. McKee Jr.’s Blairmont Associates LLC purchased the historic building. Now, McKee and his partner Robert Wood have invested money into the property, and the condition has started to improve. What comes next is uncertain, but McKee and Wood vow to pursue financing in 2011. Unfortunately that will mean waiting until September to re-apply for MHDC financing.
The most stunning part of the work done to date is the removal of the roof on the wing of the chapel wing, which was built by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1896. Not only has most of the roof structure been removed, but also five bays of the wall itself above the first floor are now removed as well. Of course, since a collapse in May 2008, three bays had already collapsed.
The sight of the Clemens House lawn littered with parts of the massive trusses, laden with impressive historic hardware, sent this author looking for answers as to the methodology of the stabilization work. Lafser & Associates is the consulting firm working on historic preservation issues for Northside Regeneration. Fred Lafser, president of the company, described the work to this author recently.
“Large roof trusses, saturated with water and frozen, weighing 4 tons each, had fallen against the east wall, taking a portion of the roof and wall with them. In recent weeks, the pressure had caused a portion of the east wall on the second floor to separate 12 inches from the south (façade) wall,” said Lafser. “A number of other trusses were likely to fall in the next few weeks due to the expansion during the freezing and thawing cycles.”
According to Lafser, removal of the trusses safely was extremely difficult. The trusses has to be cut out from distances and staged slowly to prevent damage to the rest of the building. Unfortunately the removal of the trusses is the only planned work on the chapel until full financing is in place. The developers are committed to making emergency repairs, however.
Fred Lafser sent photographs that show the chapel work from the interior. The first photograph shows that the bowing of the western wall of the chapel is also advanced. Removal of the trusses will prevent sudden collapse. Still, part of the wall will have to be dismantled and rebuilt later.
Photograph provided by Lafser & Associates.Photograph provided by Lafser & Associates.
Other work performed now included insertion of sistering structural members at weak columns and joists and complete board-up of openings. The photograph below shows that the rear (north) elevation of the chapel remains sound.
The eastern elevation of the dormitory wing has long had masonry issues. The dormitory wing itself is a hybrid building, with its original two-story western portion being the Clemens House’s servants wing. The top two floors and the eastern section were built as dormitory for the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1887, two years after they purchased the property for use as a convent. The dormitory originally had a two-story gallery porch on the east, set into the wall inside of massive segmental arched openings. These openings are now infilled with brick. The wall has some weak spots addressed by the stabilization work.
While the James Clemens, Jr. House is not fully stabilized after this recent work spree, it is definitely in a safer condition than it has been in over a decade. Northside Regeneration is now the first party to spend money on stabilizing the Clemens House since the Universal Vietnamese Buddhist Association abandoned their work in 2004 — a fact that few would have predicted back when talk of “Blairmont” first surfaced. Full rehabilitation also seemed a remote prospect then, but now it seems a logical next step.
Friday February 11, 2011
