Category: Downtown

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Architects Architecture Demolition Downtown Forest Park Southeast Historic Preservation LRA Missouri St. Louis Board of Aldermen

Odds and Ends

by Michael R. Allen

MCPHEETERS WAREHOUSES NEARLY GONE: The McPheeters Warehouses on Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard, subject of a Vital Voice column of mine published in June, are nearly gone. Demolition started two weeks ago, and now the one-story cold storage warehouse and most of the center building are gone.

SHANK SONS HONOR ISADORE: Peter and Stephen Shank have published Firbeams, a lovely website featuring the residential architecture of father Isadore Shank.

KIEL PROGRESS: In the St. Louis Beacon, Charlene Prost reports on progress in the plan by SCP Worldwide and McEagle Properties to re-open the Kiel Opera House.

VACANT BUILDING INITIATIVE: As featured in a story on KSDK TV this week, Alderman Kacie Starr Triplett (D-6th) has introduced Board Bill 174, which would require owners of vacant buildings to pay an annual registration fee, carry liability insurance and secure all openings, among other requirements. Church and nonprofit property is exempt, but Land Reutilization Authority property is not. More later.

STATEWIDE PRESERVATION CONFERENCE SEPTEMBER 10-13 IN ST. CHARLES: The 2008 Annual Statewide Preservation Conference begins on Wednesday, September 10 in St. Charles. I am co-presenting a workshop with Jan Cameron of the St. Louis Cultural Resources Office entitled “Vernacular Architecture from the Stone Age to the Space Age.” Details here.

DRURY WANTS TO DO WHAT?: At Vanishing STL, Paul Hohmann reports on a bizarre plan by Drury Hotels to demolish the northwest corner of the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood for a new hotel. The plan threatens the Lambskin Temple and many historic homes. Drury will present the plans tonight at the Gibson Heights Neighborhood Association meeting, 7:00 p.m. at 1034 S. Kingshighway.

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Architecture Demolition Downtown

Your Building Here?

by Michael R. Allen

When the two old stucco-covered buildings at the southwest corner of Washington Avenue and 14th Street fell late last fall, few would have guessed that the site created would be an empty, open pit this summer. The buildings fell for the proposed SkyHouse project (see “SkyHouse Raising Issues,” April 29, 2007). That project seemed like a sure thing. Now, the project is dead in the water, and the site is the subject of rumors of foreclosure. We may not see a new proposal for a 22-story building on the site, but hopefully this site doesn’t become the Bottle District of Washington Avenue — just the Ballpark Village.

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Downtown Green Space JNEM Media Parks

Post-Dispatch Editorializes on Arch Grounds

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch today editorializes on the discussion about the Arch grounds in an oddly-named article entitled “Top Shelf.” What’s most interesting is that alongside the Danforth plans the editorial discusses the merit of Rick Bonasch’s plan for remaking Memorial Drive, with nods to Steve Patterson and myself (at least in the online version). Once more, grassroots urbanism trickles up. Usually, the ideas get the nod without their source named.

The best part about the editorial is that while welcoming Danforth’s leadership it also calls for inclusion of different vision: “In short, there’s still time for sharp thinkers and innovative ideas. But they must get into the process. And they should be welcomed.”

We must be doing something right.

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Downtown Green Space JNEM Parks Planning Streets

Time to Revise Memorial Drive

In my latest commentary for KWMU, I join what is becoming a bandwagon call: “Time to Revise Memorial Drive”.

Kudos to Rick Bonasch, whose STL Rising blog post “The Case for a New Memorial Drive” served as my inspiration.

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Architecture Downtown Historic Preservation

Gill Building Gets Its Due


The fate of the diminutive Gill Building at the southeast corner of Seventh and Olive streets downtown has been in question in the past few years. Originally built in 1910 and designed by St. Louis architect and builder Moritz Eyssell (but previously attributed to Kansas City architect Louis Curtiss, whose Boley Block is almost certainly the inspiration for this design), the building was part of a grouping of white Winkle terra cotta-faced building on the 600 block of Olive Street. Across the street remains the massive Railway Exchange Building, but gone are the Tower Building, the Erker’s Building and one other commercial building that comprised the district. In 1978, these buildings were included in the National register of Historic Places as the Olive Street Terra Cotta Historic District. At that point, the massive Famous-Barr parking garage already dwarfed the Gill Building.


Jack Randall owned the Gill Building for years, maintaining an apartment on the upper floors. In 2002, May Department Stores abruptly closed Randall’s access to the fire escape in the parking garage (the only fire escape for the building, since the footprint doesn’t allow for an internal one) and started a protracted legal battle. Randall abandoned the building and put it up for sale. When May sold its assets to Federated Department Stores, I expected a new deal for the building — and that’s what came.

Mark Pitliangas, who has developed a specialty in rehabbing the narrow buildings of Olive Street (including the Eastman-Kodak Building), purchased the Gill Building earlier this year and has just completed a full exterior renovation. The white terra cotta glistens, the window sash and casements are painted and the first two floors (long since altered) are attractive. Interior work continues, with the lower floors slated for retail and the upper floors for offices. (Office and retail projects seem stable downtown amid fluctuating financing.)

The end result will be a consolation to those who have admired the graceful building. Delicate modernism — the curtain wall, the abstract ornament that avoids classicism — and the striking color create a building whose architectural power is greatly out of proportion with its small size. The Railway Exchange Building holds the eye, surely, but when you some upon this block the Gill Building gets the first glance.

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Downtown Historic Preservation

Opportunity on Locust Street


The building at 1008 Locust street that most recently housed Blustein’s Bridal Shop is for sale. Owned by Alverne Associates LC, which owns the beleaguered Alverne Building to the west, the building has been empty since 2004 when the bridal shop relocated to St. Charles. The commercial building is one of the last buildings in this part of downtown unclaimed by a serious developer. With its striking arcades, finely detailed terra cotta spandrels between the second and third floor and elegant contrasting stonework, the building is an outstanding composition in the Romanesque Revival style. The building dates to 1886, making it earlier than almost all of its neighbors and a virtual contemporary of the Old Post Office. Unfortunately, the building has never been listed in the National Register of Historic Places although it would have contributed to a downtown historic district axed in 1978.

Fortune has turned favorable for this block since 2004: Craig Heller’s LoftWorks completed rehabilitation of the Delany Building at 10th and Locust, and has just announced that Left Bank Books may soon occupy its ground floor; LoftWorks is wrapping up work at the Syndicate Trust Building, which will create retail activity one block east; the long-suffering Farm and Home Building across the street is slated to be rehabbed for office space by LoftWorks; the Roberts Brothers are mulling over plans for a Hotel Indigo one block east at 917 Locust. This building won’t sit on the market too long. Perhaps reuse of this building will spur a creative solution for the Alverne…

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Downtown

View of the Fireworks

From where will you be watching the downtown fireworks tonight?

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Downtown Green Space JNEM

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Trust Incorporated

by Michael R. Allen

In their May 8 statement on their conclusions about what should be done to improve the Arch grounds, Memorial Drive and the downtown riverfront, Walter Metcalfe, Peter Raven and Robert Archibald laid out an agenda for year-round attractions and a new museum on the grounds, a lid over I-70, increased number of visitors to the Arch grounds, an international design competition and a 2015 deadline for the goals. Some of those goals are laudable and consensus-builders, like improving access and attendance. Others, like the museum plan and the semantics of “attractions,” are quite controversial.

To this end, the trio of mayoral-appointed advisers suggested establishing “a regional not-for-profit trust should be organized to raise funds for, operate
and maintain the new destination attraction.”

Although the National Park Service’s public comment period on the Arch grounds had not yet commenced, on June 11, Metcalfe, Archibald and Raven incorporated the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Trust. Incorporation documents (available here) state the goals of the corporation as those stated in the May 8 letter. The corporation’s directors are exclusively the three advisers; the Danforth Foundation has no representation.

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Downtown Green Space JNEM

Public Meetings Announced for Memorial Planning Effort

From the National Park Service:

Two open house style meetings will be held in St. Louis on June 25 and July 1 to give interested individuals and organizations an opportunity to learn about and comment on preliminary alternatives for the future management of the Gateway Arch and Old Courthouse (Jefferson National Expansion Memorial). The existing management plan has been in place since 1964 and is in need of updating; therefore, a General Management Plan (GMP) to help guide National Park Service (NPS) management of the memorial for the next 15-20 years will be developed from the preliminary alternatives over the course of the next 18-24 months. The two public meetings are scheduled for Wednesday, June 25, 5-8 p.m., in the Trolley Room of the Dennis and Judith Jones Visitor and Education Center (the historic Lindell Pavilion) in Forest Park; and Tuesday, July 1, 3-6:30 p.m., in the Old Courthouse, 11 North Fourth Street.

Preliminary alternatives have been developed by the NPS planning team, taking into consideration previous studies and plans developed by the NPS, the City of St. Louis, and other private and public organizations. These preliminary alternatives have their foundation in the purpose and significance of the Memorial as stated in the executive order that established the Memorial. The five alternatives identified to date are: Alternative 1, no action (provided as a baseline against which the other alternatives are assessed); Alternative 2, Connections; Alternative 3, Expanded Programming; Alternative 4, Portals; and Alternative 5, Park into the City.

“These preliminary alternatives will be refined and modified as the planning process continues,” said Tom Bradley, Superintendent of the Memorial, “then a preferred alternative will be identified. It may be an existing alternative, it may be a combination of alternatives, or it may incorporate new ideas brought to light during the open house meetings. The preferred alternative, then, will form the basis of the GMP for the Memorial.”

Requests to be added to the project mailing list should be sent by mail to Superintendent, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, 11 North 4th Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63102; by telephone to 314-655-1600; or by e-mail. A newsletter will be issued within the next 30 days which will outline in greater detail the identified potential management options for public review and comment. Notification of subsequent public meetings will be made through local, regional, and national media; newsletters and public meeting schedules will also be published online at www.nps.gov/JEFF.

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Downtown

Bowling Museum Leaving St. Louis

by Michael R. Allen

KMOX is reporting that the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame is leaving St. Louis by the end of this year for a new home in Arlington, Texas. The attraction was the only part of Ballpark Village that could not be characterized as an eyesore. Its departure out of the development quagmire there is no surprise, but its move out of St. Louis is a stunning blow to a city that once took its bowling seriously. There’s something sad about losing any national museum — especially since we have so few. Meanwhile the only regulation-sized bowling lanes that remain open within the city limits are operated by churches.