Category: Events

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Architecture Events Green Media

Greening the Heartland Documented

The 2008 Greening the Heartland conference is over. Yesterday marked the end of the three-day conference on sustainable practices in Midwestern architecture and urban design, held at America’s Center in St. Louis.

Yet the conference still exists, at least online. A crack team of local bloggers documented the conference experience through videos, interviews with conference organizers, photographs of events, posts about green success stories and so forth. Thanks to their efforts, those who couldn’t fly across the country or pay the registration fee can immerse themselves in the conference online. (No gasoline for travel or paper for printing required!)

Read the blog here.

Categories
Agriculture Events Mississippi River North St. Louis St. Louis Place

St. Louis Place Alive With Thursday Night Concerts

by Michael R. Allen


Headliner Kim Massie thrilled the large crowd at the Thursday kick-off of the Whitaker Foundation/Grace Hill Urban Evening Series at St. Louis Place Park in north St. Louis. Massie’s blues-oriented programs deviated for a crowd-pleasing cover of Gretchen Wilson’s “Redneck Woman,” showing that music can knock down any supposed cultural divide. Gene Dobbs Bradford & Blues Inquisition opened.

This is the year for the series at St. Louis Place. St. Louis Place, laid out in 1850, is one of the city’s oldest and most beautiful public parks. The music energized the neighborhood, with residents of Rauschenbach and 21st streets flanking the park hanging out on front stoops to get an earful of tunes.

Concerts run each Thursday at 7:00 p.m. in St. Louis Place through July 24; full schedule here.

The joy of Thursday night came on the heels of national publicity for the neighborhood to the east, Old North St. Louis. The acclaimed conservation group the Natural Resources Defense Council’s blog featured a laudatory entry by its Kaid Benfield, director of the council’s Smart Growth program. Benfield’s post “Of the community, by the community, and for the community: the rebirth of Old North Saint Louis” celebrates the community-driven resurgence of downtown’s northern neighbor.

Meanwhile, the North City Farmers’ Market featuring produce from St. Louis Place’s New Roots Urban Farm, started on Saturday, June 7 and runs through October 25. Each Saturday from 9 a.m. until noon, people can purchase fresh food and enjoy cooking demonstrations at the intersection of 14th and St. Louis in Old North.

On top of all of this, the Mississippi River flooding has avoided the popular North Riverfront Trail, which remains open and accessible east of Old North.

Residents of the near north side are having a great summer — good music, the world’s coolest urban trail, a farmer’s market and awesome music usher in a pleasant season.

(Photographs by Lynn Josse.)

Categories
Events North St. Louis

Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing Celebration Saturday

Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing CELEBRATION!

Saturday May 24th 12-5pm
Missouri’s First Nationally Recognized Underground Railroad Site, by the Riverfront Trail on the banks of the Mississippi River.

Gospel Music, Art Exhibit, Food Vendors, Historical Exhibits, OtherCultural Acts

“A Tale of an Urban Slave Escape,” a fully-costumed 1855 reenactment at 3pm.

Directions: Take I-70 to Grand Ave, go East toward the Mississippi River to HallSt., continue 1/4 mile to Prairie St., look for a large RiverfrontTrail sign, turn right on Prairie St. to parking area.

This event is organized by the Grace Hill Settlement House. For more information, contact Doug Eller 314-584-6703.

Categories
Events

Get on the Grid! Benefit Show Next Saturday

by Michael R. Allen

Although we are all exhausted as Historic Preservation Week winds down, let’s set sights on an important event next weekend.

Next Saturday, May 24 at 7:00 p.m. at Shaw’s Gallery (4065 Shaw at Thurman) is the Get on the Grid! benefit show for the St. Louis Building Arts Foundation. A $7 cover change and cash bar will go straight to helping the Foundation raise the money it needs to connect its facility to the electric grid.

The back story: The Foundation is the organization set up by Larry Giles to administer, conserve and interpret his collections of over 300,000 architectural artifacts and 100,000 books, trade journals, photographs and drawings. In 2005, the Foundation purchased a 12.5-acre, 14-building former steel foundry in Sauget, Illinois near downtown (the old home of Sterling Steel Casting) where the collections are being consolidated. Meantime, Larry was able to make his library available to researchers by appointment in a rented space in St. Louis.

As work at the foundry progressed, financial needs dictated moving the unique library to Sauget. Trouble is, the money for completing the library space was not in place and the library is now again in storage. The first need is completing the electrical service at the foundry so that lighting and climate controls are possible. Hence, the need for the show.

Yes, there are many worthy causes but none with an appeal so direct and compelling as this. Get on the grid. Pay at the door and the Foundation might hook up the power. With power, researchers can again access one of the nation’s most important collections of literature and documents related to architectural materials. Good research will lead to information we need to restore historic buildings, interpret and defend those we have and inspire people to care about our built heritage.

Your seven dollars will go a long way, but the starting point is clear.

Those who can’t attend can send donations to:
St. Louis Building Arts Foundation
2412 Menard Street
St. Louis, MO 63104

Categories
Events Historic Preservation Soulard South St. Louis

Saturday: Tour of South Soulard and DeMenil House, Big Book Sale

The Rehabbers Club brings you an exciting Saturday:

Saturday, May 17
9:30 a.m.
Start at 900 Utah Street

This month’s meeting focuses on south Soulard and eastern Benton Park/Marine Villa, historically part of the same development pattern but separated by the construction
of I-55.

Meet at 9:30 a.m. at 900 Utah (at S. 9th Street, south of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery). We will visit Ray and Maureen Kenski and hear about their long road to opening up a B&B in this gut-rehabbed former multi-family building. It’s one of several buildings in the area recently rehabbed by local developer Kraig Schnitzmeier. His project across the street at 3306 S. 9th just won one of Landmarks Association’s Eleven Most Enhanced Awards, and we’ll have the opportunity to hear Kraig talk about the transformation of this derelict property into a
stunning home.

3306 S. 9th Street. Photo courtesy of Kraig Schnitzmeier.
Our next stop will be a special Preservation Week visit to the Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion (open to us at no charge). DeMenil board member Bill Hart will tell the story of the dramatic rescue and restoration of the mansion 40 years ago and give a special tour highlighting its ongoing rehabilitation challenges. We’ll also have the opportunity to view rarely seen photographs of the blocks to the east, demolished for I-55, which demonstrate the continuity of the urban grid before the neighborhood were severed by highway construction.

Our final stop on the tour will be “The Simon Complex”, as it is sometimes called, on the 1900 block of Cherokee Street. Ray Simon’s project started in the late 1980s and continues today, in the process creating a shaded, secluded courtyard shared by businesses and residents of the antebellum front buildings and the 1890s alley house. This type of semi-private space was once common in the City, but prohibitions against alley dwellings reduced their number considerably. The mix of commercial and residential uses, private and shared space is uniquely urban and
completely magical. Don’t miss it.

The final stop is also (by no coincidence) the site of the Rehabbers Club Used Book Sale, which benefits the Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion. This year we have a strong collection of books including rehabbing, architecture, local interest, gardening, decorating, and tons of fiction. There are also many really nice supplies (mostly of the handled flex-file variety) for your home office. If you can’t make the tour, stop by the sale at 1912 Cherokee from 10-4 Saturday or 12-4 Sunday.

Categories
Downtown Events Urbanism

Tomorrow Night: Development Challenges & Rewards Discussion

DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES AND REWARDS

Tuesday, May 13, 2008
7:00 p.m.
The Laurel Sales Office, 625 Washington Avenue

As part of Historic Preservation Week, ReVitalize St. Louis, the Rehabbers Club and Landmarks Association of St. Louis sponsor a panel including Jay Swoboda of EcoUrban Homes and Brady Capital and Stephen Acree of the the Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance, whose work has included many historic rehabilitation projects. Panelists will discuss their careers in St. Louis, the challenges they have faced and the current state of the city’s real estate market. Question and answer session to follow — bring your questions! Free.

UPDATE: Developer Will Liebermann, a developer who has done several projects on and around Cherokee Street, has joined the panel.

Categories
Events Historic Preservation

Preservation Week Begins This Friday

Landmarks Association of St. Louis kicks off this year’s Preservation Week on Friday with a ribbon cutting at 3:30 p.m. LoftWorks’ Ludwig Lofts at 1004-6 Olive Street downtown. This event includes an open house until 6:00 p.m. From there, the week progresses with house tours in old North St. Louis, Skinker-DeBalivere and the Central West End; a walking tour in St. Louis Place led by yours truly; the Eleven Most Enhanced Places awards ceremony; bowling at Saratoga Lanes; a trivia night hosted by Patrick Murphy; a book sale to benefit the Chatillon-DeMenil House; and more.

I will feature some of the events here, but the full calendar is available on Landmarks’ website.

Categories
Events Historic Preservation Media

Your Community’s History, Your Community’s Future: Free Workshops

Lynn Josse, Andrew Hurley, Esley Hamilton, Andrew Weil, Kris Zapalac and Michael Allen will be presenters at two upcoming free neighborhood history workshops described below.

This morning, St. Louis on the Air featured a discussion about neighborhood history with host Don Marsh, Lynn Josse, Andrew Weil and myself. Listen to that show here.

Your Community’s History, Your Community’s Future

Join your neighbors to learn about tools to explore the history of your neighborhood, and how to use that history to strengthen your community. Local experts will share their experiences in using neighborhood history to promote involvement and investment in St. Louis communities. The workshop will include a discussion of successful history projects developed by St. Louis area communities, resources available to research your neighborhood’s history, and government programs and incentives to encourage preservation. Neighborhood history workshops will be offered on two dates, with slightly different information targeted towards residents of St. Louis City and St. Louis County. These workshops are free and open to the public. For more information, call (314) 516-4748 or e-mail lubischerk@umsl.edu

To download a flyer visit this page.

St. Louis City
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
6:30-9:00 p.m.
St. Louis Public Library Carpenter Branch (3309 S. Grand Ave.)

St. Louis County
Thursday, May 8, 2008
6:30-9:00p.m.
126 J.C. Penney Conference Center, University of Missouri–St. Louis (One
University Blvd.)

Neighborhood History Workshops are sponsored by the Community Partnership Project of UM–St. Louis, working in cooperation with University of Missouri Extension, and by Landmarks Association of St. Louis Inc. This project is funded, in part, by the Urban Extension Program, a joint project of the University of Missouri Extension and the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

Categories
Events Housing LRA

Big Big Tour In a Buyers’ Market, This Sunday

For real estate, we have a buyers’ market at the moment. Why not go shopping?

If you are looking for real estate to buy, rehab or just admire, the free annual city housing tour known as the Big Big Tour is back this Sunday, March 30. Founded by Marti Frumhoff, the tour is actually a coordinated open house day for properties available in the city of St. Louis. People start at Central Reform Congregation between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., where they get the map of open houses and peruse the Homebuyers’ Fair that includes booths and information from mortgage brokers, neighborhood organizations and real estate businesses. This year’s Homebuyer’s Fair will include a booth where Old North resident Barbara Manzara will have information on how to purchase real estate from the city’s Land Reutilization Authority. That alone is worth a visit — but so are the dozens of houses you can inspect and, yes, even buy on Sunday.

Categories
Art Events

Obscure Postcards

Obscure Postcards presents local photographers Brett Beckemeyer and Alan Palmer with photographs from around the world. Themes focusing on urban formation, urban decay, and the built environment unite a variety of photographic vantage points ranging from the photojournalistic to the abstract. Bangkok, Chicago, Montreal, Tokyo, and Quebec are among the cities represented in the respective works.

Opening reception will be held Friday, March 14th from 7-10 p.m. at the Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts @ 3151 Cherokee Street.