Categories
Demolition Midtown

Electrical, Water Services Pulled on Locust Street Livery Stable

by Michael R. Allen

Workers have removed the water and electrical services to the historic livery stable at 3401 Locust Street owned by St. Louis University. A demolition permit has not yet been issued.

According to sources, two of the biggest development players in the “Automobile Row” area on Locust and Olive Streets have made offers to buy the livery stable in the past. The first came when the building was last offered for sale, and the second after the university purchased it.

The building is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and for state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits. Both potential developers were examining conversion to housing, office and retail spaces.

Meanwhile, north of the stable are large surface lots that could be sites for multi-level parking garages to serve both the St. Louis University arena and the Locust Street business district.

Categories
Media North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

McKee’s North St. Louis Project Makes Front Page of Sunday Post-Dispatch, Above the Fold

by Michael R. Allen

A tax-credit bill for one man? – Virginia Young and Jake Wagman (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 17) [DEFUNCT LINK]

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch makes up for its rather late coverage of Paul McKee’s acquisitions in north St. Louis with a well-written in-depth story that appears above the fold on the front page of Sunday’s paper. Online, there is additional material including a great Flash graphic showing the flow of campaign contributions and in-kind gifts from McKee to a host of Missouri politicians, from Matt Blunt to Lewis Reed.

Despite significant coverage from other media outlets ranging from the Riverfront Times (the first major media outlet to cover the story, thanks to reporter Randall Roberts), Pub Def, KWMU, KDHX’s “The Wire” program and KMOV Channel 4 TV news, this issue has not received the huge major publicity it deserves. Here it is, at long last — and before Governor Blunt’s decision on the economic development bill in which the tax credit program sought by McKee is embedded.

Categories
Demolition Historic Preservation Midtown

Livery Stable Catches Attention of KSDK News

by Michael R. Allen

Yesterday KSDK Channel 5 aired a story on St. Louis University’s demolition of the historic livery stable on Locust Street. Reporter Mike Owens did a great job laying out the potential for reuse of the building in light of the university’s claims that the building must be demolished for parking. Watch the story here.

Categories
Downtown Green Space Northside Regeneration

City Officials Making Best of Dirty Situation

by Harland Bartholomew, Jr.

ST. LOUIS — In an unexpected move, dirt for both the construction of the Mississippi River island and the mound at the western terminus of the Gateway Mall arrived early. Out of town crews trucked in more of the brown matter than St. Louis had seen in years, although construction of the new civic destinations is years away.

To deal with a possible dilemma, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay ordered the dirt spread across 75 non-contiguous acres of north St. Louis for storage. Slay thinks that the dirt companies may be eligible for a proposed land assemblage tax credit designed to smother areas like north St. Louis.

“We’re a unique city, with unique problem — too much dirt,” quipped Slay. The mayor says that other cities have actually noted dirt shortages in recent years.

St. Louis Planning Director Rollin Stanley said that St. Louisans have nothing to fear from the new dirt.

“Other cities have recognized that dirt provides the sort of 24-hour excitement that creates destinations,” Stanley said. “Dirt is literally always around, even in the middle of the night.”

Stanley added that the dirt would only be temporarily stored in north St. Louis.

“The temperatures in Hades are lowering, indicating that construction of the island and the mound could start at any moment.”

One person unhappy with the move is developer Paul J. McKee, Jr., who expressed interest in being the only recipient of the state tax credit.

“We do not have enough dirt in north St. Louis to construct an island in the Mississippi River,” read a written statement from McKee. “However, we are interested in seeking other parties who own dirt so that we can partner on making things with our dirt. We regret that the nameless and faceless dirt movers have changed the nature of my project so I cannot continue as an assembler of dirt.”

Slay suggests that competition for the tax credit is a good thing.

“Every city in America would love to have two large-scale plans for spreading dirt over economically distressed areas. Think of this as a blessing.”

On a related front, Philadelphia is donating a Starbucks kiosk from a downtown park to the St. Louis Gateway Mall effort.

“The last newspaper article calling the kiosk innovative was published in 1999,” said Philadelphia Parks Director Sara Collins.

###

Categories
Historic Preservation Midtown Uncategorized

Envisioning the Livery Stable Renovation

Architect James Wehmueller submitted this rendering of a possible renovation based on the photograph below.

Categories
Fire Midtown

If the Anarchists Did Not Exist, We Would Invent Them (Oh, Wait, We Did!)

by Michael R. Allen

In the wake of this week’s fire at the Villas of St. Louis site, many pundits are once again raising the tired claim that local anarchists may be responsible for the fires. (Another equally dubious strand of thought blames labor unions.) No doubt that the fire is an arson, like the fires that plagues job sites in the city last year. However, the notion that local anarchists are responsible for the fire is baseless.

Local anarchists have no history of perpetrating violence, and have so many different opinions about what anarchy looks like that it’s hard to even categorize the self-professed ones together. They are far more likely to hand one a ‘zine on the joys of polyamory than teach the lessons of making a bomb. Certainly some anarchists that I know romanticize violence. After all, the idea of abandoning civil government in its entirety is an indirect endorsement of force and competition. A few local anarchists may have found the arsons last summer warranted because they proved the ham-fisted theory that all private urban development is gentrification. However, beyond one infamous ‘zine and a handful of semi-anonymous comments left on the local Indymedia site, the public anarchist endorsement of the arsons was almost non-existent. Unless one has inside information — and I doubt that the commenters on Urban St. Louis have been to the latest Colibri solstice party — the claim that “the anarchists” endorsed or committed the arsons is reckless.

The St. Louis police department has issued no evidence suggesting that anarchists or other political dissidents were involved in the fire. No anarchists have taken credit for the fires, which is what a shrewd political movement would do after perpetrating a major arson. There is absolutely no public evidence supporting the claims being volleyed online. The worst offense committed by the anarchists is perhaps a facile stance on urban development, but otherwise there is nothing on “them.”

Perhaps there is a bit of romanticizing coming from the accusers. The idea of semi-secret “terrorists in our own midst” who hold fundamentalist (political) beliefs is not a new phenomenon nowadays. Narratives of heroic developers rebuilding a city being plagued by a strange internal enemy would make for good cinema — and good rhetoric for anyone who wants to ascribe to development a moral dimension. As philosopher Slavoj Zizek said in a 1994 interview, “You formulate your identity on the fantasy that the Other is the one who automatically wants to steal from you.”

Categories
Demolition Historic Preservation Midtown

St. Louis University Ready to Wreck Another Beautiful Building

by Michael R. Allen

The brick former livery stable at the northwest corner of Locust and Josephine Baker (formerly Channing) stands out as an expressive masonry building that serves as the western anchor of the commercial district on Locust Street that is typified by a streetscape of two-story commercial buildings. West of this building are the taller, more monumental buildings of Midtown. This building’s presence eases the harshness of the transition between the two architecturally distinct areas.

R.W. Crittenden built the first section of the two-story brick Romanesque Revival livery stable in 1885, with additions in 1888 and 1889 as well as a major remodeling in 1902 by architect Otto Wilhelmi. In 19th and early 20th century St. Louis, the livery stable was a place where horse owners boarded their horses for a fee to keep their boarding away from genteel residential streets or to store their horses while they enjoyed a day in the central city. (Another related and prevalent building type was the carriage repository.)

Located on the section of Locust Street known as “Automobile Row” because of its 20th century association with automobile distributorships, dealerships and repair shops, the building’s use by the 1920s as the salesroom of the Salisbury Motor Company comes as no surprise. In recent years, the building has been used for storage, with its windows filled in and its street elevations painted white. A spate of recent historic renovation projects on Automobile Row make it a likely candidate for reuse. Apparently, there have been many suitors in recent years although St. Louis University won out when the building was for sale in 2004.

The university plans to demolish the building for parking related to its new arena located four blocks south. On May 31, 2007, St. Louis University applied for a demolition permit. The old livery stable enjoys no protection, since it lacks both official landmark status and preservation review (the 19th Ward opts out of preservation review). Alderwoman Marlene Davis (D-19th) has introduced a bill to vacate the alley between the livery stable and a parking lot to the north.

In response to the proposed demolition, Landmarks Association of St. Louis included the building on its 2007 Eleven Most Endangered Buildings List. There is much to admire in the building’s robust form, adaptable interior and articulated brickwork. Surely a better future than demolition is possible.

Categories
Historic Preservation

Landmarks Association’s 2007 Eleven Most Endangered Buildings List

The Landmarks Association of St. Louis has announced its 2007 Eleven Most Endangered Buildings List. Selected by a committee, the list highlights buildings in the city of St. Louis in desperate need of intervention. While not conclusive, the list is a bellwether of current preservation battles — and can be sadly accurate at predicting those buildings that are lost.

This year’s list retains several buildings from last year’s list:

– Mullanphy Emigrant Home (1609 N.14th Street)
– Mullanphy Tenement (2118 Mullanphy Street)
– Givens Row (2903-7 Delmar Boulevard)
– Bethlehem Lutheran Church (2153 Salisbury)
– James Clemens House (1849 Cass Avenue)
– Carr School (1421 Carr Street)
– Wellston Station (6111 Martin Luther King Drive)

Additions to this year’s list are:

– Bohemian Hill Houses (Between Tucker and 13th Street south of Lafayette Avenue)
– Einstmann House (2347 Virginia Avenue)
– Crittenden Livery Stable (3401 Locust Street)

Categories
Brick Theft Media North St. Louis

NPR Covers St. Louis Brick Rustling

by Michael R. Allen

KWMU’s Matt Sepic is back with another built environment story, this time for NPR’s national “Marketplace” program. “Brick rustling on the rise in St. Louis” provides an overview of the problem plaguing parts of the city where there is more masonry than money — but brick yards offer a tempting conversion rate. The story features interviews with salvage specialist Larry Giles, brick dealer Bud Boldt and myself.

Categories
Infrastructure South St. Louis

Chippewa and Kingshighway Getting Slammed

The intersection of Chippewa and Kingshighway — recently the subject of a streetscape program — received some coverage from the blogs last week:

Not Pretty (Brick City, June 6)

When I Awakened, I was Mistaken… (A Six Pack of Zima and a Van, June 6)