Author: Michael R. Allen

Categories
Hyde Park LRA Old North Preservation Board The Hill

Today’s Preservation Board Meeting: Old North and Hyde Park Buildings, But No Southwest Avenue

by Michael R. Allen

UPDATE 12:09 p.m.: The Old North item has been pulled from the agenda.

The final agenda of today’s Preservation Board meeting is online.

The two buildings on Southwest Avenue that this blog covered on November 14 are no longer on the agenda.

However, one of the several city-proposed demolitions in Old North St. Louis remains on the agenda on preliminary review: demolition of the building at 1942-44 Hebert Street. Typically, requests from the Building Division to demolish city-owned buildings appear on the preliminary agendas of the Preservation Board but get denied by the staff of the Cultural Resources Office prior to Board meetings.

On this building, the staff is seeking direction from the Preservation Board rather than making a recommendation. The direction needs to be denial. Last month, a contributing building in the Murphy-Blair Historic District collapsed. Others are vulnerable. In light of the ongoing near north building depletion and possible wave of demolitions for the NorthSide project, preservation in Old North has become very important. The condition of 1942-44 Hebert Street is rough, but certainly not fatal. Perhaps the city can apply the $25,000 paid by the Haven of Grace to demolish building at 2619-21 Hadley Street in Old North toward the stabilization of this fine building on Hebert.

Another item on today’s agenda is the appeal of CRO denial of a demolition permit for the building at 3959 N. 11th Street in Hyde Park. The Preservation Board heard this item in October, and upheld denial. Not sure why the item is back.

As usual, the meeting begins today at 4:00 p.m. on the 12th floor of the building at 105 Locust Street. Citizens may send comments to Preservation Board Secretary Adona Buford at BufordA@stlouiscity.com. Note that in a preliminary review, the Board is not required to review e-mailed comments before making a decision.

Categories
Soulard South St. Louis

Historic Stahl Stables in Soulard For Sale

Now there is a rare opportunity: the chance to purchase the historic Stahl stables at 2414-16 Menard Street in Soulard and an adjacent house at 2412 Menard Street. Rehabilitated in the 1970s to house the St. Louis Architectural Art Company, the spacious stables consist of a rear building dating to 1866 and the front section, which dates to 1891. There are few comparable buildings in Soulard. The sale will benefit the current owner of the property, the non-profit St. Louis Building Arts Foundation. Read more about the buildings in the sale brochure.

Categories
Demolition Downtown Louis Sullivan

How Many Louis Sullivan Buildings Can You See from the Ballpark Village Site?

by Michael R. Allen

There were those who made the audacious claim that demolition of the San Luis Apartments for a parking lot would “open” up views of the Cathedral on Lindell Boulevard. Were there people who said that demolition of the old Busch Stadium would give the public better views of the tops of the works of Louis Sullivan? If so, they were right.

Categories
Historic Preservation North St. Louis Old North Streets

Reconnection in Old North, and a Suggestion for McEagle

by Michael R. Allen

Days that came, years again
Came in here once again
— John Cale, “Big White Cloud”

One of the highlights of this gloomy week has been a look at one of the north side’s biggest development stories: the removal of the failed pedestrian mall on 14th Street in Old North. As part of the $35 million Crown Square project, the city has removed the street closures and is working on reconstructing both the two closed blocks of 14th Street between St. Louis Avenue and Warren Street and the two closed blocks of Montgomery Street between Blair Avenue and 13th Street. While work on the 27 historic buildings being rehabilitated has been underway since September 2007 and is nearing completion, delays forced the actual street work to this fall. The streets should be reopened in the spring.

Already the removal of the mall’s pavement, trees and light posts has opened views around the now-rehabilitated historic buildings. The sense of connection to the surrounding neighborhood slowly lost after the pedestrian mall opened in 1977 has returned. All that awaits are actual sidewalks, street lights and the centerpiece street.


People are already there. Headhunters Salon has remained open on the mall during construction, and Peter Sparks has been working on his building at the northwest corner of Montgomery and 14th. Sparks envisions a gallery and art studios. More recently, residents have moved into many of the units in the buildings on 14th Street. For now, they enter through rear entrances. In the future, the residents will be able to walk up and down 14th Street.

One of the first storefront spaces to be occupied is the new office of the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group at 2700 N. 14th Street. Built in 1925, the one-story commercial building had been robbed of its shaped parapet and clad in enamel panels in 1955. Through design by Rosemann Associates and historic research by Matt Bivens of the Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance (RHCDA), the building has been returned to historic appearance. Inside is both the office of the Restoration group and a large community exhibit and meeting space, shown below.

The office features sliding doors made of slavaged floor boards and a reception desk made of timbers that once were part of the floor system in the building.

The view from that desk shows the fruits of the organization’s hard work. The Restoration Group is a development partner with RHCDA in Crown Square. The community development corporation spent over a decade trying to spur redevelopment of the pedestrian mall area. Now that the redevelopment is almost done, the organization appropriately has moved into a new space in the heart of the project and at the center of the neighborhood. Once the street reopens, the office will be easy to find. Large windows provide a visual connection to neighborhood.

Another north side development story this week involved the formal announcement of a redevelopment agreement for the Northside Regeneration project. That project’s developer, McEagle Properties, has a long way to go before it completes its first $35 million is actual redevelopment. Meanwhile, McEagle needs the support and good will of the north side residents and businesspeople its project aims to serve. Why not open a field office like the new Old North St. Louis Restoration Group office? McEagle’s physical presence has been limited to vacant buildings, orange construction fencing and hired lawn mowing crews. That’s quite a contrast to a pleasant office and community space with big storefront windows, a friendly staff and a welcome mat. Presence in the community doesn’t happen at press conferences, on Twitter or through fancy websites — it happens on the street, where eveyone can find it.

Categories
Art Events

Theodore Link Exhibit Runs Through January 8th

Rare are those photographs of architecture that truly inform the viewer about a building’s details. Most architectural photography — even excellent architectural photography — memorializes a beautiful building in whole or part without revealing anything particularly magical. Since architecture is a three-dimensional art, its representation can literally be very flat. Not so with Gary R. Tetley’s images of the architecture of Theordore C. Link, currently on display at Landmarks Association of St. Louis‘ Carolyn Hewes Toft Gallery.

The dynamic image shown here in miniature captures a view of the Mississippi State Capitol. Others in the exhibit present views of the Second Presbyterian Church, Union Station, the Barr Branch Library and Link buildings from other parts of the nation. All are clearly labeled to reconcile the photography with the buildings one must really see in person to know well. Tetley’s photographs are vivid in their color, popping with the energy he finds in the design of one of St. Louis’ most interesting architects.

The exhibit runs through January 8 at the Gallery, 911 Washington Avenue #170 in the Lammert Building. Alas, gallery hours are only 9:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, requiring time off from work for a proper viewing. (I’d recommend spending a good length of time at the exhibit.) See it soon.

Categories
Adaptive Reuse Downtown

Paradowski’s Cool New Home

For the past year, Paradowski Creative has been working on rehabilitation of the old Missouri Electric Light and Power Company building at 1906 Locust Street. The power plant, most recently used as a show room and warehouse for a restaurant fixture company, will be reborn as a home fitting for one of the city’s top creative agencies. Paradowski has been posting photographs of the progess on Flickr; see them here. Read the National Register of Historic Places nomination for the buildings here.

Categories
Historic Preservation Public Policy

Great Lakes Urban Exchange Looks at Building Rehabilitation

by Michael R. Allen

This month, the Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE) has turned its attention toward the role that building rehabilitation plays in renewing the Rust Belt. Perhaps not surprising is that GLUE co-founder Sarah Szurpicki was inspired to examine the policies that shape rehabilitation after a recent visit to St. Louis.

Readers not familiar with GLUE should peruse the organization’s excellent website, which features a blog that chronicles efforts across the larger Great Lakes region — large enough to include St. Louis — to promote economic and cultural development, public policy change and inter-city dialogue.

GLUE’s mission statement starts with the goal “to bolster regional identity amongst older industrial urban centers in the American Great Lakes region by connecting the people who love them to each other.” Second is “to advocate for policies that promote sustainable and equitable growth for Great Lakes cities.” Clearly, in St. Louis we see how rehabilitation serves both of these goals.

As part of the feature on rehabilitation, Sarah interviewed me on historic preservation efforts in St. Louis, Missouri’s model historic rehabilitation tax credit and federal legislation that would make existing rehabilitation tax credits more useful to older cities. That interview can be found here.

Categories
Brick Theft Historic Preservation North St. Louis Northside Regeneration St. Louis Place

Depletion, West Sullivan Avenue

by Michael R. Allen

The north face of the 2500 block of West Sullivan Avenue in St. Louis Place, May 2008.

The same view, October 2009.


Out of this row of eleven small shaped-parapet brick houses, six have been destroyed by brick thieves in the last two years. Seven are owned by McEagle affiliates. These houses are within the footprint of one of the “employment centers” in the NorthSide project. The row would have been eligible for listing as a small historic district. Perhaps the ultimate fate under the redevelopment plan would have been demolition, but the availaibility of histoic tax credits here might have spared the row and its remaining residents’ quality of life.

Categories
Preservation Board Storefront Addition The Hill

Two Buildings on Southwest Avenue Threatened

by Michael R. Allen

In August, the owners of the historic Hill restaurant Favazza’s applied to demolish two buildings to the west of the restaurant’s building. These buildings are located at 5209 (right in the photograph above) and 5211-13 (left) Southwest Avenue. These are finely-detailed brick buildings that help define the street wall. Of course, the residential building at 5211-13 Southwest Avenue sports a fine storefront addition that extends the building to the sidewalk line. The original section appears on the 1903 Sanborn fire insurance map as one of the few brick buildings in the largely undeveloped area.

Although not in any historic district, the buildings are within the 10th Ward Preservation Review district. The city’s Cultural Resources Office has denied the demolition permits. The owners of the buildings have appealed. The proposed new use is unknown to this writer.

The Preservation Board will consider the appeal at its monthly meeting on November 23 at 4:00 p.m. (The meeting takes place downtown at 1015 Locust Street, 12th floor.)

Citizens can testify on the matter at the meeting or send comments to:

Preservation Board c/o
Adonna Buford, Secretary
1015 Locust Street, Suite 1100
St. Louis, MO 63101

Alderman Joseph Vollmer
Board of Aldermen
Room 230
City Hall
1200 Market Street
St. Louis, MO 63103

Categories
Demolition LRA North St. Louis The Ville

Time Passing on Cote Brilliante

by Michael R. Allen

3901 (right) and 3909 Cote Brilliante Avenue in July 2008. This is at the northwest corner of Cote Brilliante’s intersection with Vandeventer Avenue.


The same scene in November 2009.



3909 Cote Brilliante, owned by the city’s Land Reutilization Authority, was wrecked in August 2008. 3901 Cote Brilliante remains owned by Kathleen and Leslie Ann Cannon.