Category: North St. Louis

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North St. Louis Old North

Help Transform an Old North Yard in Ten Seconds

by Michael R. Allen

This lot at 13th & North Market is the site of the house of the twenty-fourth mayor of St. Louis, Henry Overstoltz (term, 1876-1881). Since Graham and Viveca Lane started rehabbing the building next door, it has become the couple’s future side yard. Geothermal excavation made the long-time vacant lot even less yard-like, but Graham and Viveca have a shot at turning the situation around right quick.

This yard is a contestant in KSHE’s Great Green Yard contest. The station is picking the top five this week, so our Old North rehabbing friends need you support. Take ten seconds to vote for their project here.

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Downtown North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Northside Regeneration and City Museum Now Neighbors

by Michael R. Allen

The big story this week is that Paul J. McKee Jr.’s Northside Regenation LLC filed a post-trial (well, post-ruling) request for a new trial to Judge Robert Dierker, Jr. The City of St. Louis apparently is joining the request. On July 2nd, Dierker invalidated the two city ordinances that constituted Northside Regeneration’s redevelopment agreement with the City of St. Louis.

Not mentioned in recent news reports is the fact that Northside Regeneration is still buying property for its project.  The most recent purchase brings Northside Regeneration’s holdings directly into downtown. On June 4, the company closed on a nearly $2 million purchase of a large parcel containing a warehouse building located at 1424 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. (The parcel is highlighted on a Geo St. Louis map below.)

If that address is not familiar, its surroundings will be: the parcel is one block north of the City Museum, and for the last few years its parking lot has been home to a changing assortment of fire engines, school buses and even the original cupola of the City Hospital’s Administration Building.

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Adaptive Reuse North St. Louis Old North

14th Street Mall in 1991

by Michael R. Allen

On Thursday, July 29th, the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group and the Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance will cut the ribbon on Crown Square, the new name for the former 14th Street Mall. The public is invited to the celebratory event, which runs as a street party until 8:00 p.m. Indeed, there will be an actual paved street on the two blocks of 14th and Montgomery streets for the first time since 1976.

Not much time passed after the 14th Street Mall grand opening on March 21, 1977 before the street closure started having negative impacts on the businesses of the dense commercial district. Storefronts devolved to lesser uses and ultimately entire buildings went vacant. Within ten years, the 14th Street Mall was a failure, and by the early 1990s was a symbol of the decay of the near north side. No longer.

A look back at photographs taken in 1991 by Cindi Longwisch, then Assistant Director of Landmarks Association of St. Louis, shows dire conditions. That we are celebrating rebirth of the collection of historic buildings 19 years later is nothing short of miraculous. A few of the buildings on 14th Street in the two blocks did not survive the mall years, but most did.

The building at2709 N. 14th Street, shown above, was one that did not survive. However, the buildings to either side have been fully rehabilitated as part of Crown Square.

The Eugene Building at the southwest corner of 14th and Monthgomery has an ornate entrance and extensive colorful catalog terra cotta ornament. The building is now fully rehabilitated as part of Crown Square.

The building across the street from the Eugene Building, at the northwest corner of the intersection, as been extensively rehabilitated by owner Peter Sparks. Work is not yet complete, but the transformation is beautiful.

Demolition of the building at 2715 N. 14th Street was underway with Cindi Longwisch took this shot. The heavily altered one-story building at left, 2713 N. 14th Street, was demolished as part of the Crown Square project.

Categories
Events North St. Louis Old North

Inaugural Exhibit in the Old North Restoration Group Gallery

Featuring the photography of Sean Thomas, Thom Fletcher, Stefene Russell and Michael R. Allen
and the graphic art of neighborhood residents and children, from the Urban Studio

6:00-7:30 PM Thursday, July 15, 2010

The exhibit explores the people and built environment of Old North St. Louis, focusing on the physical transformation as well as the long-time character and traditions of the neighborhood.  Children and adult art looks at what makes Old North the neighborhood it is through drawings, mixed media and photography.

Categories
Housing North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Old North

Community-Driven Development on Northside Continues Despite McKee Ruling

From EcoUrban Homes

CONTACT: Jay Swoboda, 314-231-0400 x4

ST. Louis – Despite the recent ruling against Paul McKee’s plans for a $390 million TIF, strong neighborhood-based development continues to sprout up in many areas covered by McKee’s NorthSide Regeneration Zone. Building on increasing enthusiasm for urban, walkable neighborhoods with a close proximity to downtown, unusually strong development continues to unfold in North St. Louis.

Old North St. Louis Restoration Group, EcoUrban, and Habitat for Humanity St. Louis (currently the largest developer of single-family homes in the region), have all committed to completing projects of significant scope on the Near North Side.

EcoUrban is working with Alderwoman April Ford Griffin, the Regional Housing and Development Corporation (RHCDA), and Community Renewal and Development Inc. to develop eight new single family homes at 25th and Dodier. The homes will be built to the USGBC’s LEED for Homes specifications and feature thoughtful urban design and efficient, green construction. Habitat for Humanity St. Louis, no stranger to LEED certification, is currently completing 17 new homes in Old North St. Louis. These homes feature a modern design and are tracking LEED for Homes Platinum certification. Additionally, Old North St. Louis Restoration Group, will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for the transformational Crown Square Project, a 27-building project spanning eight blocks in the heart of North St. Louis’ commercial district, is slated to be held on July 29th. By any measure, North St. Louis is undergoing tremendous redevelopment.

“We are proud of our commitment in North St. Louis, remarked Kimberly McKinney, CEO of Habitat for Humanity St. Louis. “Since 2008, Habitat for Humanity St. Louis has invested $8.1 million towards new home development on the North Side with $5.5 million committed for 2010.”

“It’s amazing how much positive feedback we’re receiving from the community up here,” said Sal Martinez, Executive Director of Community Renewal and Development Inc. “With a common-sense approach, and a great green projects, it’s easy to draw the attention of leaders and residents committed to making St. Louis a better place for families.”

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Habitat for Humanity Saint Louis is consistently ranked in the top 30 of the leading 100 Habitat affiliates in the country, and is currently the leading housing developer in the St. Louis Metro Area. The Old North St. Louis Restoration Group is a community-based nonprofit organization established to revitalize the physical and social dimensions of the community in a manner that respects its historic, cultural, and urban character. EcoUrban is a developer of efficient, affordable green real estate developments – helping to create sustainable solutions for St. Louis.

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North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Northside Regeneration: The Process is Still the Problem

by Michael R. Allen

Assessing the future of the Northside Regeneration project in light of Judge Robert Dierker, Jr.’s ruling against the project’s redevelopment ordinances is difficult. For one thing, the ruling has suspended the ordinances but left a loophole for reinstatement. Then, Northside Regeneration’s principal Paul J. McKee, Jr. has announced that his company will file a motion to return to Dierker’s courtroom, and that if that motion does not lead to the judge’s reversal, an appeal will follow. City Hall is cryptic but seems to be placing distance between itself and the developer. Statements from the aldermen involved in the ordinances tip no hands.

McKee makes it clear that the project is still a priority to him, and that it is in no way “over” because of Dierker’s ruling. Yet intention and outcome are joined by a process that requires ultimately convergence of the courts, residents, city government and even state government given the tax credits McKee needs to start the project. That process to date has been convoluted and seriously problematic to everyone involved. Without improving the process, no outcome can be certain except that conflict over the direction of the project will continue.

Continue reading “Northside Regeneration: The Process is Still the Problem”
Categories
Brick Theft North St. Louis St. Louis Place

Another Summer for Brick Thieves

by Michael R. Allen

This summer is no different than others in the past few years for brick thieves. On the 2500 block of West Sullivan in St. Louis Place, the south side of the street has been badly ravaged in the last few weeks.  The north face has already been hit hard.  Of course, there are still occupied houses amid this wanton destruction.

Categories
Housing Hyde Park LRA North St. Louis

Slow, Steady Progress in Hyde Park

by Michael R. Allen

Amid ongoing recession, development is continuing in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Irving School LP, owned in part by Duffe Nuernberger, has started work on renovation of fifteen historic buildings scattered across the western side of the neighborhood between North Florissant Avenue, Natural Bridge Road and Glasgow Avenue. The projects utilize state and federal historic rehabilitation and low income housing tax credits.

The elegant house at 3933 N. 25th Street is one block north of Irving School, rehabilitated by the same developers last year.  Long vacant, the house retains a wooden porch with intact fretwork.  The house is adjacent to an  owner-occupied house.

Here is the building at 3906 N. 23rd Street, two blocks east. The venerable two-flat is also a long-vacant building on a block that has lost much of its building stock. Eliot School LP purchased the house from the city’s Land Reutilization Authority.

The affiliated company, Irving School LP, recently completed six new houses on Farrar and 25th streets around Irving School. Above is a new house on N. 25th Street adjacent to existing buildings. While most of these new homes were built on vacant LRA-owned lots, one occupies the site of a historic building demolished by the developers.

The single-family homes offer a rent-to-own option, so the project is not exclusively creating tax-credit affordable rentals. Time will tell if a mix of ownership and rental is created here, but it is important that home ownership is included in the scattered-site development so that past affordable housing mistakes are avoided. Over-concentration of tax-credit rentals can lead to instability. (I do not take similar issue with rental housing in general, because existing market-rate rentals at all price points do not have the potential to unbalance a neighborhood housing economy.)

While I disagreed with last year’s demolition on Farrar Street, I am pleased that it took place in order to make way for a replacement building. That is not often the case in Hyde Park, and speaks to the sensitivity of the approach. The Irving School and Eliot School partnerships have worked with preservation architect Jeff Brambila, whose counsel is evident. Equally important is the fact that the developers are not using eminent domain or aggressively trying to buy out entire blocks. The approach here is slow and steady, and tackles vacant property without creating more of the same.

Potential Additional National Register Designations

Due to this development, Alderman Freeman Bosley (D-3rd) has appropriated funding to survey parts of the Hyde Park neighborhood excluded from the original certified local historic district‘s boundaries. In March, the Riverview-West Florissant Development Corporation issued a request for proposals for survey and any possible National Register of Historic Places nominations. Landmarks Association of St. Louis submitted the winning bid and will be conducting the work.

The areas to be surveyed are:

Area bounded by I-70 on the east, Angelrodt Street on the north, Branch Street on the west and Buchanan Street on the south.

Area bounded by Glasgow Avenue on the west/north, alley east of Vest Street on the east and Natural Bridge Avenue on the south.

Area bounded by Angelica Street on the south, Florissant Avenue on the east and Glasgow Avenue on the west/north.

The creation of such districts will allow developers to leverage tax credits programs for rehabilitation. Additionally, the designations could protect against demolition. While the Third Ward is a preservation review district, one of the arguments employed in favor of demolishing the house on Farrar Street was that it fell across the alley from the historic district boundaries.

Categories
Fire JeffVanderLou Martin Luther King Drive North St. Louis

3850 Martin Luther King, Destroyed by Fire Today

by Michael R. Allen

Here is a photograph from December 2009 showing the two-story commercial building at 3850 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive that was destroyed by fire this afternoon (at left here).  The building and its neighbors dated to the 19th century but were damaged in the tornado of 1927.  After the tornado, the owners rebuilt the front elevations in modern white bakery brick with green glazed brick accents.

Categories
Housing North St. Louis Penrose

Rebuilding Two Blocks in Penrose

by Michael R. Allen

On Saturday, June 26, two blocks of north St. Louis’ Penrose neighborhood were abuzz with rehabilitation work — 15 homes’ and 300 volunteers’ worth of rehabilitation, to be exact.  The 4000 and 4100 blocks of North Taylor Avenue, scene of the action, are lined by mostly one-story brick homes enjoying the same setback line.  A few gambrel-roofed one-and-a-half story homes are peppered in with one-story shaped-parapet and bungalow houses from the first decades of the twentieth century.  At the south end, the street closes at a robust two-story brick fire station — its boxy, flat-roofed form contrasting with the gentle residential setting around it.

This lovely neighborhood setting, however, has its problems.  Every one hundred year old house that has been continually occupied needs repairs, but often accumulated repairs bring costs beyond the reach of residents on modest incomes.  City home repair money is in short supply.  People want to remain in their houses and in their neighborhood.  What to do?

Alderman Antonio French (D-21st), who represents the Penrose and adjacent O’Fallon neighborhoods, is working on a solution.  This year, he has brought in Rebuilding Together St. Louis to bring home repair to residents.  Saturday’s repair blitz was the second of six planned this year.  The operation is simple: residents identify crucial repairs, including structural problems, and apply to be part of the weekend blitz.  Rebuilding Together assesses the problems and, if needed, brings in professionals to prep work that can be completed by general volunteers.  Rebuilding Together coordinates materials donations and volunteer labor.  Then, on the weekend, volunteers and residents work together to get repairs done with amazing speed.

Here is one crew consisting of volunteers from the Boeing Company and the owners and residents of the house that received extensive interior repairs.

Alderman French is funding architectural survey of Penrose to create a historic district. That designation, which is more than a year away, will bring tax credits to rehabilitation work. However, some buildings needs immediate assistance, like the house at the corner of Taylor and Margaretta avenues. The sturdy bungalow has been vacant and owned by the city’s Land Reutilization Authority for years. Alderman French put it into Saturday’s blitz program. Volunteers removed loads of trash, removed failed roofing and began gutting the interior. In coming weeks, the house will be fully rehabilitated. French is leveraging Rebuilding Together’s presence to turn around a derelict, city-owned property.

This house on the 4100 block of North Taylor received a new roof Saturday. The old roof was torn off, sheathing and joists replaced as needed, and the new flat roof completed — all in a day.

Not all work was as daunting as entirely new roofs, of course. One of the great things about the program is that it responds to needs big and small. The coordinated work schedule means that residents of a block experience an inspiring day where the block’s condition is uplifted at once.

The Rebuilding Together program in the 21st Ward is an excellent model for neighborhood preservation. For one thing, once homes go vacant, their reuse becomes very, very expensive. Tax credit projects are complicated to put together, and are only meaningful amid other more extensive stabilization efforts. Big projects like Crown Square and Dick Gregory Place involve dozens of buildings, not hundreds. And we have thousands of buildings at risk of going vacant through deferred maintenance and the cost of upkeep.

The Rebuilding Together program won’t save all of them, but it is an excellent way to leverage private donations to stabilize neighborhoods and even tackle city-owned property. We need to expand this program to keep existing buildings in use and residents in their neighborhoods. The 21st ward program really is a holistic historic preservation program. Coupling the home repair program with historic district designation puts the widest number of rehabilitation solutions on the table as is possible.

By the way, Rebuilding Together is always looking for volunteers. Find out more on the organization’s web site.