Green vitreous brick accents the patternwork in the front parapet of the building at 4101 Alice Avenue in the O'Fallon neighborhood.
The next screening of Bill Streeter’s exciting documentary on St. Louis’ most beloved building material, Brick By Chance and Fortune will take place Tuesday, October 4 at 9:00 p.m. at Off Broadway (3509 Lemp Avenue). Buy tickets here.
The documentary includes interviews with many historians and preservationists familiar to readers of this blog: St. Louis Building Arts Foundation founder Larry Giles, B.E.L.T. author Toby Weiss, Vanishing STL author Paul Hohmann, Missouri Historical Society President Robert Archibald, historian NiNi Harris and Preservation Research Office Director Michael R. Allen.
Looking south down the side of the Cotton Belt Freight Depot.
The Riverfront Times occasionally slips in a “Best Old Building” among its annual “bests.” This year, to our delight, it is the cementitious wonder of the north riverfront, the Cotton Belt Freight Depot. The honor is timely; the city issued the building permit for the 750’ x 30’ transfer depot on October 18, 1911. The five-story warehouse cost $165,000 to build and was completed in 1913. Currently the distinctive building awaits reuse.
Cupples Station Building 7 before the barriers went up.
This week started with the city’s Building Division moving ahead to surround Cupples Station Building 7 at 11th and Spruce with barriers to protect the public from potential collapses. Spruce Street between 10th and 11th streets is partially closed. This jarring reminder of the old warehouse’s rough condition was followed by owner Kevin McGowan’s statements that he will not preserve a building that he has owned — and let deteriorate — since 2004. The building’s condition is not yet dire enough to demand a death sentence, of course.
Spruce Street closed. View east from 11th Street. Cupples Station Building 7 is at right.
McGowan can pursue an emergency demolition permit if he wishes, or he can apply for a standard demolition permit. Either way, according to Mayor Francis Slay, the permit will go to the city’s Cultural Resources Office and likely to a public hearing at the Preservation Board. Preservationists are wondering if this will be a battle similar to that waged on behalf of the Century Building, of if McGowan will be led to the light of second chance emanating from a certain flying saucer. Either way, the fate of Cupples Station Building 7 will be a serious civic question, and the Mayor’s investment in the question is coming early.
Cupples Station Building 7 at right.
What is at stake is not simply a fine warehouse with gloriously sculptural masonry details, designed by the esteemed local firm of Eames & Young and completed in 1907. The quality of the remaining built environment of Cupples Station, diminished now to nine buildings, lies in the balance. So does the pedestrian quality of downtown south of Walnut Street. This area has long been isolated from the humane scale of north downtown, due to the Gateway Mall and the presence of several hostile 1980s skyscrapers on Market and Chestnut streets. Both the new Busch Stadium and Citygarden have softened the transition from parts of downtown that are pleasant to walk and this neglected zone, and rehabilitation projects at Cupples have populated the area with office workers and a few restaurants and bars. Now is not the moment to reverse that momentum.
View southwest toward Cupples Building 7. The Robert A. Young Federal Building, currently undergoing major rehabilitation, is in the background.
Furthermore, the block of Spruce on which Cupples 7 sits is the last place where there are Cupples warehouses present on both sides of the street. Until very recently, when another Cupples warehouse was foolishly lost in 2004, both faces of the block had two majestic red-brick buildings apiece. Even without one, the set is impressive, as is the visual line of brick on the south side leading to Busch Stadium’s Cupples homage.
Detail on north elevation of Cupples Station Building 7.
On the western end of the block, Building 7 and its earlier neighbor across the street, built in 1900, anchor the corners. Here the genius of Eames & Young’s plan is evident in the convergence of scale, height and materiality contrasted ever-gently with variations in window proportions, cornice profiles and bay divisions. These buildings make a fine set in which no one of them is identical to any other. That variety is irreplaceable, and currently the backbone of any hope there is to build out south downtown with more architecture of this quality. Cupples Station Building 7 must be saved.
View east down Spruce Street toward Busch Stadium. Cupples Station Building 7 is at right.
I shot this short video from the roof of the parking garage south of Cupples Station Building 7. While the view doesn’t show the extent of damage, it provides a sense of the interior condition. All of this could have been prevented by temporary roofing.
From Kara Bowlin, Press Secretary, Office of the Mayor
Starting Tuesday, access to the area around 11th and Spruce Downtown will be limited because portions of the historic Cupples 7 building have become structurally unsound. The City will restrict access to the building to make sure no one gets hurt.
City engineers have determined that the building is unstable enough that the City will close 11th Street from Spruce to Poplar and half a block of Spruce east of 11th Street on Tuesday after the morning rush.
Cupples 7 was built in 1907. The City routinely inspects it and has repeatedly cited the owner because of its deteriorating condition. Severe damage to the building’s roof has exposed the interior of the building to the elements. But, representatives from Ballpark Lofts III LLC, the building’s owner, say it does not have enough money to make the needed repairs to shore up the building. So far, no one has stepped forward with enough money and a plan to protect the structure.
“Building inspectors regularly inspect the building,†said Building Commissioner Frank Oswald. “It’s our job to protect our City’s residents and visitors from unsafe buildings. Unfortunately, we no longer feel confident in this building’s structural integrity. To the untrained eye, the building seems stable at the street level – but years of a severely damaged roof have taken a toll on its stability.â€
Cupples 7 is one of nine Cupples buildings. It is one of only two Cupples buildings that has not yet been renovated – and is the only Cupples building without a renovation plan in place.
Any proposed repair or demolition of this building, a designated City Landmark and in a National Register Historic District, will be subject to review by the Cultural Resources Office.
This year’s Lewis Place Festival took place on Saturday, September 17, and commemorated the community’s perseverance against the tornado damage that struck on New Year’s Eve last year. The Festival is sponsored by Lewis Place Historical Preservation, one of the city’s most committed neighborhood organizations.
This year, Lewis Place Historical Preservation gave out Distinguished Service awards to Centennial Christian Church, Alderman Terry Kennedy (D-18th), Preservation Research Office Director Michael Allen, Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Missouri and Nile Trice for their efforts to help Lewis Place secure funding and assistance to deal with the tornado. Nile Trice’s efforts deserve special commendation; the 13-year-old raised $1,600 for tornado relief at her birthday party and plans to use her birthday parties as fundraisers for worth causes for years to come. We were honored to be part of efforts that include this inspiring young lady.
Ngoma in Motion opened the festivities.The Centennial Christian Church Choir performing "Lift Every Voice and Sing."Bungalows on the 4700 block of Lewis Place.Food, drink and entertainment were abundant at this year's festival.
I found this neat little video in which inimitable Tim Samuelson explains the design principles of the Chicago School in under 90 seconds, using Chicago’s Marquette Building (1895, Holabird & Roche) as an example.
The video is part of a series produced by the MacArthur Foundation in 2009 that celebrate the restoration of the Marquette Building — work that included reconstruction of the lost cornice. Watch the videos here.
Despite the rain and cold, a small group of students, news outlets, and supporters — including the building’s original architect, Richard Henmi — gathered at the former Del Taco saucer this afternoon to hear current plans for the building from developer Rick Yackey and Alderwoman Marlene Davis. The news was good – with the help of Klitzing Welsh Associates, an architectural firm specializing in historic rehabilitation (including the mid-century modern Washington Avenue Apartments at Tucker and Washington), Yackey will restore the saucer back to its historic 1967 appearance to accommodate two national tenants.
While reluctant to state which ones, the developer said he is in negotiation with chains of a far “higher caliber” than the building’s former occupant, but which would include “food and coffee” amongst their offerings. Simple renderings showed the saucer’s original rounded storefront restored in place of the current drive-thru to expand the interior to 4,800 square feet. Yackey also plans to rework the surrounding, which will hopefully include improving access from Grand Avenue and Forest Park Boulevard. And while the renderings failed to show outdoor seating beneath the saucer’s cantilevered roof, he said that a patio is definitely part of the plan.
Yackey is seeking Missouri historic rehabilitation tax credits for the project so all renovation plans will go through the State Historic Preservation Office. This means the building will be in good hands, and that all alterations made to its exterior will be in keeping with its historic appearance. These will surely include the now painted-over clerestory windows wrapping around the saucer’s rear which are not reflected in current renderings. Apart from this temporary oversight, we can hope to see a restored and fully occupied saucer next year — ideally, according to Yackey, by March 2012 when the new Grand Avenue bridge is set to open.
South elevation drawing by Schwarz & Van Hoefen, 1966.
When asked, architect Richard Henmi, who designed the saucer in the mid-1960s while an associate with the firm of Schwarz & Van Hoefen, replied, “I think it’s good. I like it. It pretty much keeps the original intent of the building.†In light of renderings which essentially show the saucer returned to the same striking design he envisioned almost fifty years ago, there wasn’t much more for him to say. But hopefully, come next year, we’ll all being saying much more than that as we’re riding our bikes, walking our dogs, and strolling our kids to have lunch and cup of coffee at the coolest mid-century modern patio this side of the Mississippi. And for St. Louis, that’s saying a lot.
The listing price for the Art Deco Avalon Theater at 4225 S. Kingshighway has dropped to $249,900. View the listing here.
Suffering from deterioration since closing in 1999, the 647-seat Avalon is one of the city’s few remaining neighborhood single-screen theaters and part of our early modern past. The Avalon was built in 1937 and designed by A.F. and Arthur Stauder, a prolific father-and-son firm that designed many modern churches in St. Louis (St. Gabriel the Archangel, St. Nicholas).
We are getting closer to knowing what the flying saucer will look like in its new life. On Wednesday, September 14 at 6:00 p.m., in front of the beloved building itself, at 212 S. Grand Boulevard, developer Rick Yackey will hold a press conference. Yackey is expected unveil the awaited renderings of what the former rehabilitated Phillips 66 gas station at Council Plaza will look like in its new life as a retail building.
We can expect an adaptive reuse plan that includes an addition to the building that adds enough space to create two spaces for tenants. Perhaps we will even get a slice of information about the new tenants. Hopefully the plan includes making the corner of Forest Park Boulevard and Grand Avenue, which lacks sidewalks at its intersection, more pedestrian friendly and safer for residents of Council Plaza to use.
At the least, we will see the concept for reviving one of the city’s most beloved mid-century landmarks. Rick Yackey has embraced one of the region’s largest preservation upswells in recent years. A renewed flying saucer not only will provide an example of successful adaptation of a difficult purpose-built building, but testament to the power of public engagement of the built environment.
From Kara Bowlin, Press Secretary, Office of the Mayor
Despite the rain and cold, a small group of students, news outlets, and supporters — including the building’s original architect, Richard Henmi — gathered at the former Del Taco saucer this afternoon to hear current plans for the building from developer Rick Yackey and Alderwoman Marlene Davis. The news was good – with the help of Klitzing Welsh Associates, an architectural firm specializing in historic rehabilitation (including the mid-century modern Washington Avenue Apartments at Tucker and Washington), Yackey will restore the saucer back to its historic 1967 appearance to accommodate two national tenants.
