Park East Freeway to McKinley Boulevard

A Milwaukee case study in freeway removal....

Freeway razing sets stage for $250 million in development

Former Milwaukee mayor John Norquist editorial re. cost savings and benefits of replacing downtown interstate with new boulevard

Congress for New Urbanism summary

Man, this looks familiar...

Fountain Square

The plaza across from the Old Post Office is nearly complete. The project spans the south side of the block between 8th and 9th Streets. The plaza shares the block with the Roberts' Orpheum and Tower projects. The plaza has a sleek design, with modern lighting and an impressive water feature.

At the east end of a giant flat metal projection screen is a 4-story fountain. Well, it's more like a 4-story waterfall. Water pours down the side of a round metal surface and then drops four floors straight down into a stone pool.

The falling water makes the loud, continuous crashing sound you'd expect from a sizable waterfall. I'm guessing here, but this is probably the tallest waterfall in the midwest.

Both the sight and sound are impressive. I wonder if it will be lit up with colorful lighting at night? Passersby were stopping on the sidewalk to take it all in.

STL to star in Hollywood movie

The news is reporting that Sutton Avenue in Maplewood is closed to traffic today for the filming of George Clooney's "Up in the Air" movie. For the next few months, film crews will be working in St. Louis on Clooney's next big screen production. I don't know anything about the movie, except with George Clooney in it, it's sure to get a lot of attention. And that's good for St. Louis.

Over the past few weeks, film crews have been downtown. They were lined up along Memorial Drive near the Arch, and also by the Bowling Hall of Fame/St. Louis Cardinals Museum. With the great renaissance happening in Maplewood, it's no wonder location scouts have landed upon Sutton Avenue.

St. Louis makes some sense for film makers. We have four seasons. We have a wide variety of scenery. And we're an affordable place to do business. In the 70s, our run down buildings were chosen to serve as the backdrop for a post-civilized New York City in "Escape from New York". Today, STL is being chosen as an authentic American landscape.

It will be interesting to learn the impressions from movie people about their experiences working in St. Louis. With good word and a successful project, St. Louis can raise it's standing as a viable option for more Hollywood movie making.

Older North

This weekend we are enjoying a milestone celebration in our house, so we were looking for some nice ways to commemorate the event. We visited a place we haven't been in over ten years, and are happy to report, the place is as authentic and enjoyable as ever. I'm referring to one of the oldest homes and entertainment venues in the region, the Bissell Mansion.

Built in 1823, the Bissell Mansion is one of the oldest homes in St. Louis. Much of the original building is intact, with the main interior bearing wall around two feet thick. The building's original owners have important history dating back to the founding of the United States, with General Bissell a veteran of the War of 1812. Back in the 1820s, St. Louis was barely a dot on a map, so it's fun to walk the grounds, see the view of the Mississippi, and think about what St. Louis was like, forty years before the Civil War.

The Bissell Mansion is a dinner theater, so a visit there is an interactive and entertaining evening. Staff serves the meals and acts in the show. The artists both perform and write the shows. The place has a lot of heart; the performers give their all; and the food is good too. Guests are given scripts and are invited to participate in the show. But no worries - you're given the option of a small or larger part when you make your reservation.

Attendance was good, with a large party upstairs, and our group downstairs. Nonetheless, in tight economic times like these, competiton for discretionary restaurant dollars is tough. For an authentic St. Louis night out, to experience a special occasion with family or friends, and to help preserve an important piece of St. Louis history and tradition, STL Rising recommends the Bissell Mansion dinner theater.

Shows change four times a year. This year we will make an effort to visit again for their fall or winter performances.

Bevo Mill - For Sale or Rent?

Bevo Mill has closed its doors. The property was recently donated to the City by Anheuser Busch, and so, it really belongs to you and me - the city taxpayer.

The building is one of the city's destination landmarks for tourists. Approaching it from Delor on the west is the ultimate in a Scrubby Dutch St. Louis view. So what should happen with it?

Rent for a $1 and offer it to the operators of the Boat House in Forest Park? Convert to an urban Bed and Breakfast? Sell to the highest bidder?

Offer rent free to Schlafly for a southside microbrewery with live music, splitting proceeds with the Bevo community organization to help fund neighborhood improvements?

Something needs to be done to ensure the building lasts another 100 years. How do we make sure it's something good?

Grounds For Action

Yesterday closed the public comment period for the draft General Management Plan for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Sometime over the next few months, the National Park Service will finalize and adopt the new General Management Plan. The GMP will guide the future of the park for the next 15-20 years. That's a generation of urbanists to you and me.

The GMP lays the ground work for action. Action to fix the connectivity problems plaguing the Arch. Connectivity is the common thread identified for improvemenet in all three action alternatives of the draft General Management Plan. What those action measures include will become the outcomes of the current planning process.

The Danforth Foundation and the National Park Service have gotten the momentum going. It is time for the rest of the community to build on that momentum. Investors in Chouteau's Landing, casino interests, MODoT, the Army Corps or Engineers, Laclede's Landing merchants, the City of St. Louis, and the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis - as well as average citizens like you and me - all have vital roles to play in bringing about improvements to our downtown and riverfront area.

Success is built on partnership and collaboration. Leveraging the resources of the multiple stakeholders involved will bring about the best outcomes for future generations of St. Louisans, and help draw more people to our region. Our challenge is to switch from planning mode to action on solutions. It will be interesting and fun - and let's hope rewarding - to see how well we do.

What do you think? How would you proceed? What would you do?

Deadline Approaching to Submit Comments on Future of Arch

The deadline for the public to submit comments on the Draft General Management Plan for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial is Monday, March 16.

More information can be found here:

NPS Update on Arch Planning Process

The link opens with a good video and provides all the information you need to offer public comment.

Arch Connections Group Gets New Name

The ad hoc riverfront connections group that's been meeting for a few months has a new name: "City to River Group".

The group has been looking at ways better connections might be made between downtown, the communities of the central riverfront, the Mississippi River, and the Arch grounds. The link on the right side of this page will take you to the group's Google page.

For years, it has been said that St. Louis has turned its back on the river. With better connections reestablished between the City and the riverfront, St. Louis will start to feel like a riverfront city again.

So, in an effort to rebuild the idea that St. Louis is a river city, and that its rightful front door should face the river and not turn its back to it, the riverfront connections group has given itself a name that's all about reorienting the city's relationship with the Mississippi River.

If you would like more information or to get involved, please visit the Google page linked on the right side of this page.

Vernal Equinox at Cahokia's Woodhenge

March 20 is the date of this year's Vernal Equinox. That's one of two days in the year when day and night are of equal length and the path of the sun splits the heavens.

It's also a day when people gather over at Cahokia Mounds to witness the event from inside Cahokia's Woodhenge.

At least that's what one of the regulars gathered at Iron Barley told me last night...

Cahokia is on the UN list of World Heritage sites. Now there's talk of adding the Gateway Arch to the same list.

There's all sorts of cool and creative stuff going on around St. Louis.

They Heard Us!

Walking outside in search of a cup of coffee, I looked over with an empty feeling to the corner of 6th and Olive where workers were scheduled to box things up and close the one downtown STL storefront Starbucks location.

Jaywalking to Met Square, things didn't look right at the Starbucks. It looked like employees were wearing their green service aprons and white oxford shirts. And there weren't just employees in the store, it looked like a short line of customers. What was going on?

I walked up to the front door and found an impromptu sign taped up. It said they were staying open! Management decided to renew the lease and keep the store. People in St. Louis voiced their concerns, and the corporate decision to close the store was reversed! Today they are restocking everything and coffee and pastries are being given away free all day!

Us customers stood together smiling and half stunned. The employees were joyful. One man said it was like showing up to class to take a test you hadn't studied for, only to hear the teacher say the test had been postponed. Another man said it was like finding money in a pair of pants you hadn't worn in months. I'm going back for another free cup of coffee!

"Park Into the City" - an approach for Chouteau's Landing?

Improving connectivity is the one common theme throughout most of the discussions about how to enliven the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. In the draft General Management PLan, there are multiple alternatives and one preferred alternative. The preferred alternative is called "Program Expansion". Another alternative is called, "Park Into the City" and the last action option is called "Portals".

Through the design competition, combinations of the various alternatives may emerge. During the student design charette, one proposal showed the park growing across Memorial Drive, into the heart of downtown. That may be among the interesting but undoable ideas, but what about considering this approach for the connection with Chouteau's Landing?

Yesterday we described the no-mans land under the Poplar Street Bridge between Chouteau's Landing and the Arch grounds. At Chouteau's Landing, there's good potential for historic rehab, artists lofts, and new investment. Could a "Park Into the City" approach breath life into the Chouteau's Landing neighborhood?

Thinking of improving connectivity in an incremental way is one approach to making progress in manageable stages, that over time add up to a better connected downtown and riverfront.

Richard Florida on the Economic Crisis, National Reset

Interesting take by writer and academician Richard Florida on our current economic problems. Florida is best known for his work promoting the important role of the "creative class". He was a guest yesterday on NPR.

Florida is not a fan of the term "depression". He thinks it's too, well, depressing. Instead, he prefers the term "reset", and that's what he thinks our nation is going through now.

According to Florida, the days of long commutes, unsustainable sprawl, and homeownership based economies are fading. Instead, he sees an era of emerging mega-regions, increased emphasis on affordable rental housing, and a concentration of creative talent in fewer select areas.

Florida sees tough times ahead for second tier, rustbelt cities, with most Americans being drawn to mega regions. On the other hand, he offers Pittsburgh as an example of how smaller cities can remain competitive. From a current piece in the Atlantic magazine, Florida writes:

"Finally, we need to be clear that ultimately, we can’t stop the decline of some places, and that we would be foolish to try. Places like Pittsburgh have shown that a city can stay vibrant as it shrinks, by redeveloping its core to attract young professionals and creative types, and by cultivating high-growth services and industries."

One of the points Florida made about the revitalization of Pittsburgh during the NPR interview was the important role of "CDCs - Community Development Corporations". He described the way CDCs work at the neighborhood level to rebuild community.

I wish someone would made it on the air to ask a question about St. Louis. St. Louis also has a major CDC presence. I wonder where Florida would rank a sense of community in the heirarchy of things attracting the creative class? Given his support of CDCs, probably pretty high.

You can read the entire Florida article from The Atlantic here.

Chouteau's Landing - Connections Waiting to Happen

When you exit northbound 55 onto Memorial Drive, you have two options, continue north on Memorial Drive past the Old Cathedral, or make an immediate right turn to the east, heading down the levee toward the riverfront.

Making the right turn, you're driving along the southern edge of the Arch grounds, the Mississippi River flood wall is a couple of blocks ahead, and on your right side is the sea of concrete support columns for the Poplar Street bridge. It's a sort of no-man's land now. But is there potential for something better?

Chouteau's Landing lies across the divide created by the Poplar Street bridge. You can see it from the Arch side, but you're looking through the eerie landscape of a mostly abandoned area with dozens of cylindrical concrete columns holding up the PSB. The original city street grid under the bridge is intact. The space between the columns is paved with asphalt, striped for surface parking, and is mostly empty and fenced off with 6' cyclone fencing.

It's sort of a haunting feeling, driving the original riverfront street grid, under the PSB, between the support columns holding up the bridge, seeing mostly vacant or underutilized warehouse buildings in the Chouteau's Landing area, and being directly adjacent the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

With so much dead space, existing road network, and underutlized building stock, redevelopment of the area and connection with the Arch and the rest of downtown doesn't seem so much a question of if but how and when?

Planners like to talk about buildings or neighborhoods having "good bones" for redevelopment. In this case of the southern edge of the Arch grounds and its connections to Chouteau's Landing, driving through the support columns of the PSB feels like you're in the middle of big, dry, urban bones. Is there life in those bones? Can the planning for the future of the Arch help bring back the area and improve the vitality of the Arch and downtown in the process?

Misery and Flexibility

Way back in the 1980s, when I first started work in the field of community development, an architect friend and mentor passed along to me two principles of his practice that he always tried to factor into his work: the concentration of misery principle and the flexibility principle.

When it came to concentrating misery, he always tried to combine the negative aspects of things spatially and chronologically. He wanted lousy experiences to be minimized, so he worked to put them close together, and get them out of the way. If he had a bunch of unpleasant things to do, he tried to get them all done together. That way, the rest of his time would spent on more positive work.

On the other hand, when it came to making choices or finalizing alternatives, he took an opposite approach. He always worked to preserve as much flexibility into the planning and development process as possible. Rather than painting oneself into a corner by making firm decisions too soon in a planning or development process, he would create room for new ideas and options to emerge in a forward moving, collaborative process.

This week, the planning process for the future of the Arch moves forward. There will be two public meetings regarding the Draft General Management Plan for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. When the General Management Plan is adopted, it will establish the direction for future management of the Arch site. This is a key process for defining the future of our riverfront and downtown.

Thinking back to my old architect friend's advice, he would recommend that the final product promote flexibility. With the top issue of agreement being a lack of connectivity, are there flexible approaches about how to improve connectivity?

Regarding the concentration of misery, I think he would like the way the Arch site concentrates its new service area all on the southern part of the site. But what about the parking area on the north end of the site? What ways might it be repositioned to increase flexibility at the site?

In terms of difficult connections, they are found all around the Arch grounds. Poor connectivity is a problem surrounding the entire park. Is there a way to minimize the bad connectivity experience at the Arch and maximize the better connections? Where are the key connection points?

As Laclede's Landing and Washington Avenue as well as the Chouteau's Landing areas continue to draw more downtown businesses, visitors and residents, how can we best connect those activity generators to the Arch site?

Information about tonight's public meeting for the future of the Arch can be found here.

St. Louis Stimulus

Today President Obama signs the $787 billion dollar economic stimulus package. The plan calls for a wide range of interventions aimed at reviving our nation's struggling economy.

The plan calls for major infrastucture investments, aid to state governments, and tax breaks for working Americans and corporations. At $787 billion, the amount works out to about $2,600 for US citizen. That doesn't sound like much. So government leaders have been working to decide how best to target the resource.

A major priority for the stimulus plan is jobs. Whether job creation or job preservation. President Obama states the plan will generate approximately 3.5 million jobs. Second on the priority list is housing. The third leg is infrastructure.

The nation's housing market is in trouble, with millions of foreclosures and declining property values. St. Louis is one of the nation's major centers for automobile manufacturing. The future of the US auto industry looms large in determing the direction of our region's economy. For years' we've had a national call to rebuild our nation's aging infrastructure, and contained in the stimulus plan is billions for new light rails, road construction, and education projects. So what about St. Louis?

At about 3,000,000 (give or take), the St. Louis region has about 1% of the US population. If we receive a prorata share of the stimulus plan, our region would realize $7.87 billion in stimulus help.

With the City of St. Louis having about 1/10 of the region's population, the city would see about $787 million in help (thanks to a reader for correcting this amount). However, knowing that things won't be doled out on a prorata basis, there's likely going to be a substantially larger amount of funding coming to St. Louis for local stimulus efforts.

The National League of Cities has made the case for projects to managed at the local, not state level. They are working to get the help to the project locations more quickly. St. Louis submitted a proposal for local priorities as part of the League of Cities request. The package included light rail and multiple public infrastructure investments.

A website, "Stimulus Watch", details proposed economic stimulus spending. St. Louis has a request in the amount of $2.45 billion pending. The breakdown is available here. The site is interactive and allows visitors to vote on individual projects.

Knowing that stabilizing housing markets, building new infrastructure, and providing for job creation and preservation are the nation's top goals of the stimulus plan, what projects would you like to see prioritized in St. Louis?

Straggler Lounge

Last night we were scheduled for a meeting of one of the working groups of our Arch connections committee. We planned to hold the meeting at the swanky and historic lounge of the Roberts Mayfair hotel. However, at the last minute, the meeting was rescheduled.

Never knowing how many people read their email on any given day, I went to the Mayfair just in case we had any stragglers show up. Sure enough, promptly at 6 PM, one member of our committee, Paul, arrived. So the two of us worked on the name thing for about a half hour. More on that in a minute. First some appreciation for the Mayfair Hotel.

The lobby and lounge at the Mayfair are right out of the old mob days of 1930s St. Louis. They drip with historic charm. The lounge is dark with a smokey feel, and lots of stained glass. If you're looking for a quaint, private, historic setting for dinner or a drink after work, this place is a good choice. When the adjoining condo tower opens, it will be a great combination of historic and new in the heart of downtown.

Back to the name of our connections group. Paul and I passed ideas back and forth until we came up with "Riverfront Connections Task Force". We liked "riverfront connections" because our group is about improving connections between downtown, the adjoining neighborhoods, the riverfront, and Arch grounds, and we like "task force" because the group is about working toward solutions. Incremental solutions, big ideas, altogether any good ideas that move St. Louis in the direction of reestablising its identity and lifestyle as a riverfront city.

With the two of us in agreement on a possible name, Paul got up to leave. While I was waiting for my ride to arrive, I decided to test market the name with the bartender. By this time, it was just the two of us left in the bar. I made the acquaintance of "Tom", bartender of the Mayfair hotel.

I introduced myself and told him about our group and its efforts to improve connections between downtown and the riverfront. I mentioned the one idea of removing the I-70 depressed lanes between the Arch grounds and the Old Court House and replacing them with a new urban boulevard. His face immediately lit up, and he compared the idea to the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Amazing coincidence, Tom and I were both living in the Bay Area during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake which led to the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway along the San Francisco waterfront.

Tom and I shared stories about life in the Bay Area. The two of us had similar experiences. We both lived in St. Louis once before, moved to California, and then returned to St. Louis. Back in the 1960s, Tom was a bartender in the Gaslight Square district of St. Louis. After getting held up at gunpoint 4 times in one day, Tom had enough of St. Louis and moved to California. It was the mid-1960s.

Back then, the Bay Area was a great place. Rock and roll was coming to life, and the place was affordable. Up through the late 80s, apartments could be found for under $1000 per month. But by the early 90s, things had gone crazy. Tom described situations in the upscale communities of Mill Valley and Sausalito, with rents reaching upwards of $4000 per month, forcing three and four families to live together in the same house, just to afford the rent.

With overcrowding of housing, traffic problems ensued. Tom described bumper to bumper traffic at 11:00 o'clock at night through some parts of Marin County. With people struggling to get by, but still "enjoying" life in the Golden State, I suggested the notion of living with a "false sense of prosperity".

So at about the same time, Tom and my wife and I all came to the same decision. Time to move out of California and somewhere more reasonable. We chose St. Louis. Tom lives in the Central West End. When his friends visit from California, they're jealous of the hip and comparably affordable CWE neighborhood.

So I ran the name "Riverfront Connections Task Force" by Tom and he liked it. He had some other suggestions for improving the visitor experience there. For starters, get rid of the cobblestones. He noted how in the CWE, when they removed the cobblestones from the north side of the Chase Park Plaza, along Maryland Plaza, lots of new businesses opened up. There's no doubt that little stretch of the CWE is much more pleasant now, not to mention easier on the undercarriage of your car and high heeled shoes.

Maybe something as basic an improvement as removing the cobblestones from areas around the riverfront would improve connectivity? Maybe so.

Point of View

Closing out a week featuring some downtown dining options, we recently visited Patty Long's Point of View restaurant.

Point of View is one of the few St. Louis area restaurants located on a top floor of a high rise building. They are way up on the 30th floor of the Laclede Gas building. On a clear day, the view extends at least 15 miles. It's cool looking that far down river. Three words: try this place.

This is an easy choice. Outstanding views. Excellent service. If you know Patty Long (think 9th Street Abbey), you already know about her great menus. Beautiful decor. The restaurant fills the same space once occupied by an exclusive private dining room open only to lawyers and their clients. This place is a gem.

With so much to recommend it, I was amazed by the reasonable prices. Most items were $10 or less. White tablecloths. Classy service. Great food. Breathtaking views. And prices comparable or below most other downtown sit down restaurants.

Lunches Tuesday - Friday, 11-2. Reservations being accepted for a special set menu Valentines Day dinner.

Soup Man?

There was a commercial on the radio yesterday advertising a new downtown restaurant that's based on the "Soup Man" character from the Seinfeld show. It's in the historic Bee Hat building on Washington Avenue.

"The Original Soup Man" website

It sounds good. Any recommendations?

Newcomer Perspectives

A new blog is up dedicated to the experiences of someone recently relocated to St. Louis from Chicago.

Given the inferiority complex many St. Louisans have toward Chicago, it will be interesting to read what our new neighbor thinks about St. Louis.

Check out Arch Observer for a newcomer's perspective on the Gateway City.

Local Leaders to Discuss Arch, Riverfront

February 12, 2009
Kemper Art Museum and Steinberg Auditorium at Washington University
Saarinen Exhibit Tours: 5:00 - 8:00 PM
Panel Discussion 6:30 - 8:00 PM

Confirmed panelists:

Barbara Geisman, Executive Director for Development, City of St. Louis
Hon. Phyllis Young, Alderman, 7th Ward, City of St. Louis
John Hoal, PhD, Architect, Washington University Associate Professor
Tom Bradley, Superintendent, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
Peter Sortino, Executive Director, Danforth Foundation
Bill Burke III, RLA, Principle, Arcturis

Moderator: Bruce Lindsey, Dean of Architecture School, Washington University

Given the top leadership and decision making roles of the panelists, this meeting is important for anyone interested in the planning process relative to the future of the riverfront, downtown, and the Arch grounds. Free and open to the public.

Link to official website