Categories
Historic Preservation Oklahoma

The Tulsa Foundation for Architecture Inspires

by Michael R. Allen

Last month, we visited Tulsa on what was planned as a vacation. Somehow we ended up often rising earlier and looking at more buildings per day than we ever do back home. These things happen, I suppose. I am just glad that our exploring led us to the inspiring Tulsa Foundation for Architecture (TFA; blog here). TFA is a small, young organization that has already built an array of program activities that would be daunting even for a more established organization. Founded by the Eastern Oklahoma chapter of the American Institute for Architects in 1995 — a mere fifteen years ago — TFA is a strong advocate for preservation, a force for education through tours and events, publisher of books, sponsor of “>Modern Tulsa convener of conferences and — most impressively — steward of a massive archive on Tulsa’s architectural history. Oh, and TFA collects architectural artifacts too!

TFA’s office is in the basement of the Kennedy Building in downtown Tulsa. Archivist Derek Lee kindly guided us through our surprise visit one morning. The staff members’ two desks are in corners, with most of the space devoted to metal shelving and flat files housing some 35,000 drawings from major architectural firms’ offices. The windows to the corridor are filled with colorful artifacts, including polychomatic terra cotta with Art Deco motifs. It’s as if a smaller version of the St. Louis Building Arts Foundation and the Landmarks Association of St. Louis were joined together.

TFA’s mix is exciting and successful: the organization is buying a building that will increase space and, most importantly, visibility. Plus, the National Historic Records Advisory Bureau has proclaimed TFA as a model archival organization.

However, TFA’s biggest accomplishment stands outside of its office: the restored Meadow Gold sign on 11th Avenue, which was Route 66 in Tulsa. Located near downtown, the 1930s-era sign faced an uncertain future for many years. TFA obtained a grant for restoration from the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor in 2004, but the sign and the building atop which it sat were privately owned. When the owner planned demolition, TFA worked with the City of Tulsa to save and reconstruct the sign.

TFA’s work to actually save the sign accompanied a survey of 259 neon signs in the Tulsa area. This survey resulted in the just-published booklet Vintage Tulsa Neon Signs, a brief and colorful introduction to a threatened resource. This booklet joins TFA’s reprint of the exhaustive and lovely Tulsa Art Deco by Carol Newton Gambino and David Halpern as a powerful educational tool. We salute our busy colleagues in Tulsa and await good news of their future endeavors!

Categories
Historic Preservation Public Policy

Status Quo For Federal Preservation Funding

From Preservation Action

On Thursday of this week, before adjourning for the midterm elections, Congress passed a stopgap funding measure to keep the federal government operating until December 3rd. The 2010 Fiscal Year ended at midnight yesterday. As was expected, funding was extended, with a few exceptions, at FY 2010 levels.

The passage of the measure, usually referred to as a Continuing Resolution or “CR,” puts off what are expected to be particularly hostile spending decisions until after the midterm elections. However, while the Democrats are saying they plan on settling FY 2011 appropriations bills during the lame duck session (the period between the midterm elections and the beginning of the new legislative year), Republicans are hoping to further delay spending decisions until the next Congress when they may have control of one or both chambers.

With funding in the Administration’s proposed FY 2011 budget eliminated for Save America’s Treasures and Preserve America, and cut in half for National Heritage Areas, an extension at FY2010 levels is positive for preservationists. While Congress has been receptive to the notion of retaining funding for these programs in their subsequent spending bills, to date neither chamber has passed such a bill or given an indication of what the funding levels would look like.

Lame Duck Likely To Be Lame For Preservationists

With Congress adjourned after passing little more than the CR, and a full slate of spending bills that will need to be dealt with for FY 2011 upon their return on November 15th after contentious midterm elections, the jury is out on what else they will be able to focus on. Sources are telling us that the likelihood of the Senate taking up an energy bill, such as either S. 3663 or or H.R. 3534 (the CLEAR Act), are very slim. While the former contains full-funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the latter contains both full funding for the LWCF and the Historic Preservation Fund. Preservation Action and its partners have been advocating for the Senate passage of the CLEAR Act for several months.

In addition to appropriations, likely candidates for consideration are the extensions to the Bush era tax cuts, and “New Start,” a new arms control treaty with Russia. Any introduced bills that do not get signed into law before the end of 111th Congress will die and would have to be reintroduced in the 112th Congress, which begins January 3, 2011.

Categories
Art Events

Exhibits Starting Tonight at the Sheldon

The Sheldon Art Galleries will unveil several fantastic exhibits tonight from 5:00 p.m. through 7:00 p.m. Two of these exhibits will be of great interest to readers of this blog.

Designing the City: An American Vision
October 1, 2010 – January 15, 2011

Drawn from the Bank of America collection, this exhibition offers a unique opportunity to see some of the great architectural works built across America and the cities for which they are an integral part. Photographers included are Berenice Abbott: Harold Allen; Bill Hedrich, Ken Hedrich and Hube Henry of the Hedrich-Blessing Studio; Richard Nickel; and John Szarkowski. It is through photographs that most of us have come to know major works of architecture. Our experience of great architecture is often not at the building’s actual site, but rather through a two-dimensional photographic rendering of it. In fact, for many buildings, photographs are all that remain. The term, “architectural photography” is widely used and generally understood to describe pictures through which the photographer documents and depicts a building in factual terms. However the artists featured in this exhibition have taken architectural photography beyond its informative purpose and have shown us the importance of architecture in the definition of the urban American landscape.

Group f.64 & the Modernist Vision: Photographs by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke, and Brett Weston
October 1, 2010 – January 15, 2011

Seminal works by renowned photographers Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke, and Brett Weston, including several spectacular large-scale prints by Ansel Adams — among them Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941 — as well as Edward Weston’s iconic Pepper, 1930, and examples of Imogen Cunningham’s beautiful and sculptural flower closeups are shown in this exhibition alongside rarely seen works by the artists, all drawn from the Bank of America collection.

Founded in 1934 by Willard Van Dyke and Ansel Adams, the informal Group f.64 were devoted to exhibiting and promoting a new direction in photography. The group was established as a response to Pictorialism, a popular movement on the West Coast, which favored painterly, hand-manipulated, soft-focus prints, often made on textured papers. Feeling that photography’s greatest strength was its ability to create images with precise sharpness, Group f.64 adhered to a philosophy that photography is only valid when it is “straight,” or unaltered. The term f.64 refers to the smallest aperture setting on a large format camera, which allows for the greatest depth of field and sharpest image.

Categories
Events

Short Tours of the Industrial North Riverfront at Open Streets

Tour starts near the St. Louis Cold Storage and Refrigeration Company Warehouse at Lewis & O’Fallon Streets (1901; Widmann, Walsh & Boisselier)

Architectural Tour of the Industrial North Riverfront
Saturday, October 9 (part of Open Streets)
Short walking tours every half hour, 10 a.m. – Noon
Meet around the North Riverfront Trail entrance on Lewis Street

The Preservation Research Office is pleased to join the City of St. Louis for the next Open Streets Day. Architectural historians Lynn Josse, author of the National Register of Historic Places nomination for the district, and Michael R. Allen will lead guided tours of the industrial world of the north riverfront around the trail head. See the St. Louis Cold Storage warehouse, the massive Ashley Street Power House, a charming former bath house renovated using green technology, the birthplace of graniteware and other sites. Tours approximately 20 minutes. Informational flier will be distributed.

Categories
Brick Theft JeffVanderLou North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Brick Thieves Go To Church

by Michael R. Allen

Brick theft is an act that is neither novel nor particularly likely to spur strong response in St. Louis. Malcolm Gay’s excellent recent New York Times article on brick theft in St. Louis reported to the nation what has become a sad backdrop to life in distressed neighborhoods of the city for decades. In the thirty odd years that illegal destruction of brick buildings has hit the city, especially the north side, few efforts have been made to increase legal penalties for the action. There is outrage in the streets, but the dealers who buy stolen brick still sleep peacefully in their own homes when sun sets.

Once when I wrote about brick theft in this blog, I received a thoughtful comment that likened brick thieves to fungi that consume fallen trees in the forest. The commenter suggested that an organic and harmless transaction occurs when a supposed useless old brick building is picked apart by thieves that often set the buildings afire first and leave a dangerous pit behind. Gay’s article let us know that the arson that precedes brick theft has collateral damage that cannot be rationalized under a theory of urban material reclamation. The notion that thieves are recycling neglected material is belied by the fact that their methods are far from systematic, and so much useful material is left to be placed in landfills. Demolition contractors — who lose hours of paid work to the thieves — may be the fungi that tackles the city’s building stock, but brick thieves are more akin to the loggers that rob forests of their most valuable wood, leave behind a damaged ecosystem that others must mend.

I thought about the comment on brick theft when I examined what remains of the North Galilee Missionary Baptist Church at 2940 Montgomery Avenue in JeffVanderLou, now owned by Northside Regeneration LLC. The brick church, built in 1900, recently was cleaned of its side walls by thieves who have systematically worked the surrounding buildings as well. There seems to be no compunction halting the destruction of a historic house of worship.

North Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, April 2009

North Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, August 2010

There would be many who would argue that this old church was a useless remnant of a lost neighborhood, and that its gruesome demolition mandates no more than a passing word or a Flickr photograph. They are wrong. The church served its function for over 100 years, only going vacant a little over three years ago. While the building had been altered beyond the criteria of architectural integrity required for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, it remained the embodiment of decades of African-American worship and community life. Churches are their people, but church buildings are stores of memory worthy of our care. The North Galilee Missionary Baptist Church building deserved a more dignified end, and the brick thieves and their clients ought to suffer significant penalty. The New York Times article should not be shaken off as “bad press” but taken as a call to action.

Categories
Events

Bellefontaine Cemetery Bike Tour

Bike the Belle!
Saturday, October 2 · 10:00am – 11:30am
Bellefontaine Cemetery – 4947 West Florissant Ave

Join Metropolis St. Louis for a 4 mile bike ride through historic Bellefontaine Cemetery.

Founded in 1849, the cemetery includes the graves and tombs of many notable St. Louisans such as Adolphus Busch and General William Clark.

** We will also have the opportunity to go inside the Wainwright Tomb and the Lemp Family Tomb.

Meet at the main entrance on W. Florissant Ave, park anywhere along the street. Take Hwy 70 to W. Florissant, do it.
FREE! Just bring your bike. Walkers are also welcome.

Visit http://www.mstl.org/ for more information and http://www.bellefontainecemetery.org/ for information on the cemetery.

Categories
Hyde Park North St. Louis Old North

Renewal Continues in Old North and Hyde Park

by Michael R. Allen

Today was a lovely day on the near north side of our fair city. At 14th Street in Old North, the two-block former pedestrian mall now has a paved street, full sidewalks and street signs.  With the addition of street lights, all will be set for the final opening of 14th Street in the heart of the neighborhood.

Up in Hyde Park, as I attended a meeting I heard the clamor of tools around 19th and Mallinckrodt streets. The sounds were unmistakable, and plainly beautiful to hear. They came from two buildings on each side of 19th street in block south of the park. Eliot School LP is rehabilitating these 19th century brick buildings for housing. The long-vacant single family home shown here will hold multiple families.

Another vacant four-family will remain in service as a multi-family building, maintaining the residential density that enlivened Hyde Park in the past. Nearby, Salisbury Avenue is getting new sidewalks and street lights. The Salisbury project is in full swing as well, causing traffic to back up around the entrance to the McKinley Bridge. Let no one mistake the sidewalk work for anything other than a catalyst for future growth. Salisbury offers potential for infill construction and rejuvenated mixed-use buildings. Apartments in solely residential buildings are a great part of neighborhood life, but not the only one. The buildings being rehabbed now will someday join a wave of mixed-use buildings old and new on one of the north side’s most humanely-scaled commercial streets.  Both 14th Street and Salisbury are central to neighborhood economy, and while much has been renewed around them their historic function — facilitating exchange through commerce –  is fragile.

Categories
Historic Preservation Public Policy

Preservation Appropriations Dance Continues in Senate

From Preservation Action

As we have been reporting for months, there has been very little progress to date on FY 2011 spending bills. With a polarized Congress gearing up for a major mid-term election season in which polls indicate that Republicans could take control of the House, few legislators have been willing to push for spending bills that could further agitate constituents concerned about federal spending.

While the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies approved a draft $32.2 billion spending bill in July (the numbers for which have been kept secret, although committee members are saying funding for critical historic preservation programs that were proposed for cuts by the administration has been restored), the Senate subcommittee has yet to hold a hearing citing irreconcilable differences on additional spending and on climate change regulations.

Even if the Senate Appropriations Committee would approve a bill, neither the full House nor Senate will be able to take up any spending bill before the end of the fiscal year on September 30th.

In order to keep the Government in business, Congress will have to pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) next week. Recognizing Republican opposition to increased spending, Democratic leaders are trying to limit the measure to current FY 2010 funding levels, although there is significant pressure to include funding for some new programs. Sources say the CR will most likely extend funding until December, well after the elections.

Once Congress returns post-election, there could either be an attempt to create an omnibus spending bill that includes many or all individual spending bills, or an extension of FY 2010 levels through all of FY 2011.

Preservation Action is the national lobbying organization for historic preservation policy. Individuals can join and support its work for only $20; learn more at www.preservationaction.org

Categories
Art

St. Louis Brick Film Nearing Completion

Bill Streeter is moving to the finish line for Brick By Chance and Fortune, his documentary on St. Louis brick. The completion date is scheduled to be October 15 for a premiere at the St. Louis International Film Festival in November.

This month’s issue of St. Louis Magazine included an article on the project by Stefene Russell (who as an Old North resident and Old North St.Louis Restoration Group board member is no stranger to the life and death of local brick); read “Bric(k)olage” to get the story on Bill’s wonderful project. Then watch the trailer here.

Categories
Events Green Space JNEM

Cinema St. Louis Presents “The Gateway Arch” Tomorrow

The Gateway Arch: A Reflection of America
Friday, September 24, 2010 at 7:30 p.m
Old North Crown Gallery, 2700 N. 14th Street
FREE

The September Old North film series offering is a screening of the award-winning documentary, “The Gateway Arch: A Reflection of America.” Earlier on the same day as the screening, the jury will officially introduce the winner of the competition to re-design the Arch grounds. The film, narrated by Kevin Kline and directed by Scott Huegerich and Bob Miano, explores the iconic, internationally recognized monument that has come to signify and define St. Louis. The film will be followed by a Q & A with co-directors Miano and Huegerich.

More information on the Cinema St. Louis website.