by Michael R. Allen
According to Martin Van Der Werf’s column in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, plans for the park just north of the Old Post Office on Locust Street are stalled to point of finally frustrating developers and Downtown Now! topper Tom Reeves. Perhaps the inability to put in this useless park will convince people that this site is ideal for high-density development, not a stale piece of green space. The Old Post Office is surrounded by dense architectural fabric on its east and south sides, and by a huge parking garage on its west. Why not mitigate the parking garage’s ugliness and complement the remaining architectural fabric by developing this site with tall modern buildings?
The Roberts brothers want to build a glassy tower addition to the Mayfair. They could push it up to Locust, providing a lower connecting portion between the Mayfair and the new building that would make for a more pleasant transition. Another developer could acquire and build upon the western end of the site. Why squander the opportunity? Downtown has far too much open space, and needs greater density.
UPDATE: From a thread on the Urban St. Louis forum: “They should develop the plot of land the park will be on and build an underground plaza, beneath the parking garage.”