Preservation Research OfficeFrom Preservation Action
With still no FY 2011 spending bills passed, and the federal government operating on a continuing resolution that was set to expire today, late last night Congress passed yet another resolution extending FY 2010 funding levels until December 18th.
A permanent path for FY 2011 funding levels is still unclear. Between now and the 18th, Congress will continue to argue over several possible scenarios:
From RCGA:
The St Louis design community has a unique opportunity to brainstorm and collaborate. Macy’s downtown location is downsizing its footprint in the Railway Exchange Building, the 1,000,000 square foot former HQ for May Co./Famous Barr. Current owners RKMerlyn Development and Bruce Development are seeking ideas to develop several floors of the building, a space of 100,000 square feet! St Louis has a rich history in creative entrepreneurship, and we are seeking ideas on how this space may be utilized to create a dynamic, collaborative incubator for design ideas. The core may be an incubator for fashion designers, but who do you think could be included in that space to create a rich environment of creativity and collaboration?
The RCGA and Partnership for Downtown will host an “open house” in the space on Wednesday, December 1, from 5 – 8PM so you can get a feel for the history and possibilities of the space. Then on Wednesday, December 8, the Skandalaris Center will host a “Design in St Louis†IdeaBounce®. We invite you to post ideas for the space on www.ideabounce.com. When you do, check off “Design Entrepreneurship†in the industry box, and we will invite you to bounce your idea on December 8. All are welcome to both the open house and IdeaBounce®. On December 8 we will include an “open mic†period for people who may not have posted their idea on www.ideabounce.com, but we encourage you to post to start to connect with the innovators and entrepreneurs who can help you get started.
No need to register for the Open House on December 1, but please do register for the December 8 IdeaBounce® at http://www.ideabounce.com/contact/events.php.
by Michael R. Allen
There have been more than a few changes around the intersection of North Florissant Avenue, 13th Street and Cass Avenue lately. In the past, I have lamented the destruction of the Crunden Library at 14th and Cass and the Brecht Butcher Supply Company buildings on Cass, noted (with a degree of lament) the fiery loss of an old bus maintenance garage on 14th and recently observed the National Register of Historic Places nomination for the old Cass Bank and Trust Company Building at 13th and Cass. Once upon a time, before a change in plans in 2007, I protested the proposed ramp system feeding the Mississippi River Bridge that would have cut right across the intersection and severed downtown from Old North forever.
Oh, and then there is the whole matter of Northside Regeneration! A lot can change a small area in five years’ time. Northside Regeneration, then known as Allston Alliance LC, purchased the old Schnucks store on Cass Avenue and eventually persuaded the Missouri Department of Transportation to route the bridge landing across that site to connect with Tucker Boulevard. Tucker is now being rebuilt by the removal and infill of the Illinois Traction System cut upon which it was built in 1932.
All of those big changes entailed removal of a very small thing, the once-shining Cass Bank sign that faced the northbound interurban trains of the Illinois Traction System. The sign was incandescent, with bulbs placed in channels spelling the bank’s name.
Deposit with us, the sign beckoned to all those yearning for a place to put their hard-earned money. All others could enjoy its bright lights which would have shone in the fall-winter dusk on their ride home from downtown.
The lights went out years ago, after the trains stopped running in 1956, but the Cass Bank sign stood amid the jungle growing from the cut.
Standing behind the current Cass Bank home on North 13th Street, the sign was in the way of the new bridge-to-Tucker connection. And it disappeared earlier this year. Does anyone know what happened to it? Could its pointed wedge have been spared as a reminder of part of the history of a site now flattened into the future?
by Michael R. Allen
Versions of this article were published in Common Ground, Spring 2003 and the already-missed Creative St. Louis, March 2010.
Along the southwest edge of the city of St. Louis, Missouri runs a six-mile curve of what appears to be a river with paved banks. This river is usually dry and rarely filled to even half its capacity. Covered in rip-rap and white stones along this six miles, the banks form a visual boundary of the city limits — although the actual city line is several hundred yards west. Still, the moat-like river creates an effective border between the middle-class parts of the county and city that occupy either side of it. Yet this river actually unites them, because it carries away all of their wasted water and, deep below its channel, their sewage. The river is the River Des Peres, a harnessed channel that was transformed from a natural waterway into a massive civil engineering project in the early twentieth century.
Of course, the River Des Peres is not simply a deep gorge that carries away waste water from the city and its inner suburbs. In fact, it now lies almost completely underground and is not visible at all. In a 1988 booklet published by the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD), the quasi-governmental agency that has controlled the river since 1956, an anonymous author writes that “the rocky banks of the River Des Peres form a landmark which nearly every St. Louisan recognizes, but few understand.” Few Saint Louisans realize that its 18 miles extend along over half of the city’s western edge, covering a drainage area of 115 square miles and serving a population of over 535,000 people. It enters the city at Skinker Boulevard and Vernon Avenue at the University City limits and then winds its way through Forest Park and into the familiar open section that drains into the Mississippi River. Along the way, it carries both storm water and sewage in separate pipes with connections to most major city and inner-suburban trunk sewers. It is the backbone of the St. Louis sewer system.
Very few residents recognize that the River Des Peres became the backbone of the St. Louis sewer system by having its natural state completely rebuilt so that none of its original features remain. No living person likely remembers the days when all of it was an open and wild, albeit polluted, waterway that St. Louisans happened to dump sewage into. And few accounts describe its earlier incarnation as a pure waterway far from the French settlements on the Mississippi River. In those days, the idea of the River Des Peres becoming one of the largest regional civil engineering projects in the Midwest would have seemed strange. Yet St. Louisans slowly converted the small river into their largest sewer over the course of more than a hundred years, so most of the changes were hardly noticed until the river was already irreversibly controlled by engineers looking to drain unwanted materials from the young city of St. Louis.
by Michael R. Allen
One can almost smell the jet fuel exhaust in this vivid night time postcard view of the Lambert Airport Main Terminal Building from 1968. Streaks of red record the passage of jets on their way to and from what was then a hub for passenger travel. Behind all of the hustle and bustle, then as now, was modern architecture’s first American airport terminal masterpiece.
Completed in 1956, Lambert’s terminal and its thin-shell concrete domes designed by Minoru Yamasaki of Hellmuth Yamasaki and Leinweber became the forerunner of jet-set terminal style. At John F. Kennedy and Dulles, Eero Saarinen would carry this high standard forward. Other architects joined the pursuit to create enobling, structurally progressive modern terminals until the drama — and peculiar bliss — of airline travel would be mushed into a middling realm of tepid architecture, placeless chain-shop concourses, discount carriers and clumsy, invasive security procedures. But in St. Louis, at least we still come and go at Lambert, where the sublime remains part of the spatial experience. Happy travels this weekend!
by Michael R. Allen
From left: 4225 Arco, 4223 Arco, 4221 Arco and 4217 Arco.
Yesterday, the Preservation Board voted unanimously to accept the Cultural Resources Office (CRO) staff recommendation to approve demolition of the one-story brick houses at 4223 and 4225 Arco Avenue and deny demolition of those at 4217 and 4221 Arco. CRO Preservation Administrator Jan Cameron testified that the structural failures of the side and rear walls of 4223 and 4225 Arco justified their demolition, but that the other houses are sound. Jim Morrison from Restoration St. Louis, the owner, argued for demolition of all four — a position endorsed by Alderman Joe Roddy (D-17th) and Park Central Development Corporation. Landmarks Association of St. Louis Assistant Director Andrew Weil stood against Restoration St. Louis’ proposal and spoke in favor of the CRO staff recommendation.
The group of houses is almost intact, save the sister house at 4219 Arco pushed to an early death without a building permit recently. All of the houses on this block are contributing resources to the Forest Park Southeast Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. According to the nomination, 4217, 4221 and 4223 are presumed to date to 1908 but 4225 dates to 1903. The nomination’s authors did not locate builders or architects for the houses.
Governor Jay Nixon’s Tax Credit Review Commission has approved the recommendation that the Missouri State Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit’s annual cap be lowered from around $161 million to $75 million. Other changes included in the final recommendations are disallowing combination of the historic tax credit with the Neighborhood Preservation and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit.
The Missouri Coalition for Historic Preservation and Economic Development has posted an article that outlines how these recommendations ended up being passed after the Subcommittee on Historic Tax Credits made completely different recommendations. Read that article here.
Yesterday at Architecture St. Louis, my colleague Toby Weiss gave a wonderful talk on mid-century modern preservation in St. Louis. Reminding us of the who, what, when, where and why of the recent past, Toby inspired the crowd. Here are two clips, with apologies for the hand of this amateur videographer. – M.R.A.
by Michael R. Allen
Tomorrow the St. Louis Preservation Board will consider the demolition of four houses on Arco Avenue, located at 4217, 4221, 4223 and 4225 Arco Avenue. The owner and applicant is Restoration St. Louis, a company whose commitment to historic preservation is strong and well-known. The Cultural Resources Office recommends that the Preservation Board allow demolition of the damaged houses at 4223 and 4225 Arco but deny demolition of the other two, which despite decay are sound.
All are contributing resources to the Forest Park Southeast Historic District, which is why their demolition can go before the Preservation Board. I made the following video of the current condition:
Alex Ihnen posted an article on these houses on urbanSTL, and in an update stated that he feels they are “goners.” The Forest Park Southeast neighborhood association has endorsed demolition of all of the houses. Yet the Cultural Resources Office’s professional staff thinks that the eastern two are not, which is a reasonable assertion. Tomorrow’s Preservation Board meeting — held at 4:00 p.m. in the 12th floor conference room at 1015 Locust Street — should be interesting.
by Michael R. Allen
Brick thieves have attacked the house at 1925 St. Louis Avenue in St. Louis Place in recent weeks. Read more about this block here.
Yesterday the St. Louis Board of Adjustment revoked the occupancy permit for Unlimited Bricks, a brick yard located at 2600 University Avenue. Police had suspected that the yard has received stolen bricks taken from abandoned buildings in the area, which violates the city’s brick ordinance. Unlimited Bricks conducts business and storage outdoors in a chain-link fenced yard that neighborhood residents describe as unsightly.
The Secretary of State’s database lists no registered company or fictitious registration by the name of “Unlimited Bricks.” According to the Assessor, Charles Rosene owns the parcel at 2600 University Avenue as well as large fenced parcels to the north and south where there is open storage of demolition equipment and salvaged materials.