This Month in Grand Center

Demolition of the Central Apartments at 3727 Olive began late November / early December. For the first (and last) time in several years, the storefronts at the first floor of the building were revealed from behind the plywood barricade that had been erected to block the sidewalk so that pedestrians don't get hit by falling brick. Apparently when the entire building comes crashing down on the sidewalk during demolition, no protection is needed.

The un-adorned entrance to the Central Apartments

By mid-December most of the front wing of the T-shaped building is gone except for building entrance and west storefront, and only the west half of the main portion of the building remains.
From this angle it is easy to see that the concrete frame, floors and roof slab of the building was in fine structural condition. Only the exterior brick skin of the building, which was peeling away in several places was in need of serious repair, meaning that the building as a whole was definitely rehab-able.
Demolition revealed that the upper floor contained a large attic space above the plaster ceiling that increased in height toward the front of the building due to the roof slope, which could have provided very loft like spaces for units on this floor.
Like most apartments built in the early 20th century, these included built-in cabinets that were still intact as the building came down.
On the east end of Grand Center, where SLU recently cleared several buildings including the Locust Livery Stable, the two new block-wide slabs of asphalt stretching from Locust north to Samuel Shepherd are now marked by large new lighted signs. They appear to be poorly designed knock offs of the attractive neon signs by Kiku Obata that have marked several surface parking lots in Grand Center for about a decade. The originals add a nice bit of kitsch to the still emerging arts district, but these additions by SLU are simply ugly.

3838-40 Olive

Back on Olive, just down the block from the soon to be gone Central Apartments stood this beautiful building. The building was one of most flamboyant left on the block in the mid 90's, but like most of Olive for several blocks in each direction it stood abandoned and boarded up. In the summer of 1996 the building had a fire that damaged the 2nd and 3rd floors. Despite the fact that the beautiful facade was still fully intact, the building was demolished a few months later.

Next door to the west, (partially visible in the photo above) is the former home of the Wolfner Memorial Library for the Blind, which now stands isolated near the western end of the block. A few years ago, the buildings on the two lots west, from the Wolfner to the corner, were demolished as well (unfortunately I didn't get any photos of these). The former library has also been abandoned for many years, but was listed on the National Register in June 2005. It acquired recently by Grand Center, Inc., and there is now a small sign on the front that reads "Wolfner Lofts", giving hope that it will not meet the same fate as its neighbors on each side. To see more photos of the former Wolfner building , including interior, see the recently revived pages of Sonic Atrophy The actual Wolfner Memorial Library is now located in Jefferson City, MO.

2 of 3 Givens Row Townhomes being demolished - 2903 & 2905 Delmar

Update: Only one townhouse remains standing Givens Row. Photo 10-23-07.
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At Delmar & T E Huntley two small rows of historic townhouses on the southeast & northeast corners stand in contrast to newer rental townhouses built in the early 1980's. All of the historic townhomes on the southeast corner were rehabbed and incorporated into the newer development, but unfortunately on the northwest corner, only one of three remaining townhomes was included. The three limestone faced townhomes are know as Givens Row, which was built in 1884 by Joseph Givens, who would later donate the funds to build Givens Hall at Washington University.
One hundred twenty two years later, in 2006 the townhome closest to the corner, which is owned by Noble Development (one of Paul McKee's slumlord shell companies) a fire occurred on November 30th, less than two months after the property changed hands. The fire was confined to the third floor of the townhouse, but also spread to the roof of the middle unit, which has been owned by LRA since 1996. The fire caused fairly minor damage, which could have easily been repaired/re-built. The two buildings are currently being demolished. Only the third unit at 2907 Delmar will remain. Givens Row was added to Landmarks Association's list of most endangered buildings not long after the fire. The November/December 2006 newsletter gives a more detailed history of the row.


Photos from the rear show little to no fire damage in other portions of the buildings being demolished.

Photo of the row after the fire

Close-up of the limestone detailing around the windows

3727 Olive - Grand Center to lose another building

Grand Center, an area that has over the years suffered a large percentage of demolition at the same time it has struggled to regenerate life in the district will soon lose another building. 3727 Olive, which lies outside the Midtown Historic District, is one of a handful of building left on this block of Olive between Spring. The building was built in 1916, and housed 30 small walk-up apartment units on floors 2-4 and 2 small retail storefronts flanking the entrance on the first floor (obscured by the plywood fence).
On September 13th, the City issued an emergency demolition order even though the building's condition has not changed much recently. The plywood fence went up a few years ago as the outer withe of masonry began to peel away from the building in a few locations.
The building is devoid of much of the ornamentation typical of apartment buildings from the time period, with its small cornice being the only exception. Instead, the building's simple but attractive symmetrical elevation achieves interest with brick detailing above the openings and below the cornice, and with the cantilevered balconies at each unit.
The economics of rehabilitating this building for apartments or condos would likely be difficult given that it is not in the historic district (making it ineligible for historic tax credits), and is likely not distinguished enough to merit an individual National Register nomination. Additionally, adjacent land would be needed for parking since the building occupies the majority of the lot and it's footprint is not conducive to indoor basement parking. This is unfortunate, since rehabilitation of the building could bring much needed additional residents to the area.

Update: After taking a look at ownership along this stretch of Olive, I noticed that Grand Center, Inc. owns properties to the west, but not right next to the building (which they recently acquired as well). If they were to acquire the property just west of the building from the mortgage company that now owns it, a developer could build a new project containing parking for both the new building and the old apartment building (in a garage at the rear of the property of course). Alternately, the rarely used AT&T lot to the east could be acquired and similarly developed. In the mean time, a little masonry work, and possibly a new roof would stabilize the building until the market for the type of development just described emerges.

St. Charles Borromeo - 2901 Locust

Just five blocks east of the livery stable currently being demolished on Locust lies an entire block of vacant land. Until August 1995, the southeast quarter of this block bound by the corner of Locust and Ewing (TE Huntley) was occupied by the parish of St. Charles Borromeo. The buildings were originally built in 1867 for S. John's Methodist Church, and they remained until 1901, when they built a new building at Kingshighway and Washington. In 1902, it was sold to the newly created St. Charles Borromeo parish, who occupied until its closure in 1982.The church sat vacant for many years and was not well secured. I do not recall who owned it at the time, but I do not believe it was the Archdiocese. With its location so close to the Harbor Light center, its probable that it was frequented by homeless squatters. At some point there was a fire in the parish hall which faced Ewing which must have weakened the roof structure. There was a visible sag in the middle of the roof, although the roof was not wide open. The sag in the roof got worse, and one day when I drove by, the entire section of roof had collapsed.
The roof structure consisted of large timber trusses spanning the width of the hall with the roof spanning the other direction between trusses. The failure of a single timber truss led to a collapse of the section of roof on each side. To make matters worse, this was also the section of roof that connected to the sanctuary structure that fronted on Locust. Not long after the roof collapse, the city condemned the building and the entire complex was demolished.View of the collapse from the southwest. The sanctuary is to the right of the tall chimney. As devestating as the collapse appears, the rest of the building complex was stucturally sound. Given the right owner, even damage like this can be re-built and the building saved.
The entrance to the parish hall on Ewing with the condemnation notice tacked on above. The doors were unsecured, allowing me to get some shots inside.
Looking through the wreckage into the sanctuary. The large stained glass window facing Locust is the same one in the first photo.
The sanctuary windows had panels of Matisse-like stained glass.
The front wall of the sanctuary, where portions of the large wall paintings had previously been cut-out. Above the wall can be seen the open structure of the parish hall roof and the opening left where the portion had collapsed.

Livery Stable Demolition Progresses

Last week the demolition permit was issued to SLU to demolish the historic livery stable at 3401 Locust. The west wall of the building facing the a portion of the parking lot that already surrounds the building.
A closer view shows the roof has been completely removed
A gaping hole in the Locust Street facade reveals the buildings heavy timber framing now open to the sky. The metal straps seen on the underside if the beams is a somewhat unusual engineering design employed to increase the spanning capacity of the timbers. The recently demolished Switzer Building used a similar technique although with much larger iron members.
Some of the last roof joists are visible through the east windows along Josephine Baker.
The upper story of the north wall has almost been completely reduced to pallets of used brick

SLU Strikes Again - Locust Street Livery Stable

Concerns reported by Ecology of Absence about the future of an old livery stable building on Locust Street at Josephine Baker were confirmed by city records showing that SLU, the building's owner has applied for a demolition permit. The building was built in 1885, with additions later in that decade and a major renovation in 1902.

Along Locust, what were probably at one time large storefront windows (the building was used also as an auto showroom) have been filled-in with concrete block and garage doors.
The east elevation also contains large openings, filled with block.
In-filled openings such as these however are routinely reopened in renovations occurring around the city. The building does not appear to have any obvious structural faults, so demolition seems un-necessary.
Arched windows punctuate the center bay of the 2nd floor along Josephine Baker
North and west of the building, SLU is constructing a large surface parking lot. Since the alley is being vacated for most of the block, it is presumed that SLU will pave the site for more parking, creating one large lot occupying two thirds of the block. To the north of this, across Washington, SLU demolished a few smaller undistinguished buildings and is building yet another parking lot stretching to Samuel Shepard. I'm not sure what all the new parking is for. The livery stable occupies a very important location along Locust. East of Josephine Baker, Locust has undergone an amazing transformation in the last several years with almost every building undergoing renovation with beautiful facade restorations, and are being filled with creative firms, offices, restaurants, etc. The block between Josephine Baker and Theresa however is quite desolate. The Drake Plaza while beautiful, has no storefronts or offices facing Locust. The building west of the Drake formerly Interiors Unlimited is also owned by SLU, and shows no signs of activity or occupancy. Around the corner on Theresa however, is the new Moto Museum and west of that on Olive, the recently completed Centene Center for the Arts and the Metropolitan is undergoing renovation into a hotel and retail.

The livery stable building then holds a key ingredient to tying the Locust Street corridor with Grand Center to the west if it was retained and rehabilitated, or becoming a vast wasteland of surface parking and a barrier to tying the two areas together if demolished.

Architect James Wehmueller of Kansas City submitted the attractive rendering below showing what the building could look like if renovated instead of being bulldozed into the ground. The view is along Josephine Baker looking southwest. Thanks James!!

Update: Channel 5 did a story on the impending demolition of the stable this evening.
Here is a link to the video.

Jeff Fowler, a spokesman for SLU confirmed that the Livery Stable will be demolished for parking for SLU's new arena currently under construction. Fowler claims that SLU needs to provide more "convenient parking" for the arena. The new "convenient" parking lots on the stable site and farther north are over a third of a mile from the new arena. A quick look at the surroundings of the arena shows that there are several existing surface parking lots containing hundreds of spaces that the university is probably not counting, since they don't own them. Humans however are resourceful, and will find the places to park that are closer and use them.

The map below shows the arena in red, a third of a mile radius in yellow, the Livery Stable in green, and surface parking lots in blue. While Harris Stowe may limit parking for the arena, so they still have parking for their facilities, south of the highway, Metro and Midwest Consulting, with two large lots may be able to earn some extra income by changing people a few bucks to park on their close-by lots. Also, beyond a third of a mile, SLU is probably counting their Laclede Garage in towards filling the needs of the arena, but might be overlooking the giant AG Edwards garage that is about the same distance away, as well as their seas of asphalt surface lots and a large lot owned by Sigma Aldrich east of Harris Stowe. Given all of this parking capacity, it is hard to justify the demolition of the stable building.

3740 Lindell - SLU Continues Poor Track Record in Preservation

As reported recently by Urban Review STL, St. Louis University continues its poor track record in historic preservation as it plans to demolish yet another building in the Midtown National Register Historic District. This time it is a stately mansion that is in the way of a future entrance to their to be re-vamped law school. According to City records, the mansion was built in 1904, however its Second Empire suggests it may have been earlier. The structure currently houses the university's Center for Counseling & Family Therapy.

The new addition and the existing law building will be clad in the Gothic style of the older buildings on campus. Ironically SLU demolished one of these buildings, DeSmet Hall, which was formed part of the original quad, in 1977. The mansion's massive front windows are framed by decorative limestone moldings
A detail of the mansions beautiful entrance. The projecting canopy appears to have been given a frontal lobotomy at some point.
A view of the rear of the mansion with Lindell Towers and the Coronado across the street. The larger Romanesque style mansion to the east, which was connected to the law school during a previous renovation fortunately will remain. Apparently to SLU the Second Empire style does not have as much curb appeal and is therefore expendable. Another building west of the mansion, which lacked architectural distinction has already been demolished.

A detail of the window heads of the rear wing of the mansion

3740 Lindell is not the first mansion to be demolished for the law school as evidenced by the photo below from the nomination for the Midtown Historic District taken in 1977. The location of the mansion on the left is currently a courtyard with a fountain that sits between the Romanesque mansion and the current law school building which was completed in 1980.

The rendering below, from SLU's website shows the proposed expansion and re-cladding of the existing law school. It appears that there would be room to keep the mansion at 3740 in the space between the Romanesque mansion and the wing of the law school to the west. It is unclear if the wing to the west is new or simply a re-cladding of the existing modern style building at 3750 Lindell. The width of the existing building and its entrance appear to align with those in the rendering. It is also apparent that there would have been room for the mansion demolished for the 1980 building to remain in the fenced space east of the Romanesque mansion. Both of these scenarios would require SLU to come to terms with the fact that it is an urban campus. Here are a few examples of the many buildings that SLU has demolished over the years. Below is a photo from the nomination for the Midtown Historic District showing the Marina Building that stood at Grand and Lindell until 2002. Below that is a photo showing the building as it appeared when it was built, complete with corner towers and a decorative cornice that had been removed. Instead of renovating, which could have encouraged other adjacent but smaller development on the Jack-in-the-Box site, it was demolished in hopes that something bigger and better would be developed on the site. Five years later, SLU currently has out its second RFP for this site, and it remains to be seen what will ultimately get built (hopefully something worth the wait).

On the west end of campus, SLU demolished both the 7 story Olympia Apartments (see earlier post) in 1993 and in 1995, Preston Bradshaw's unusual Spanish Colonial Revival styled Vesper Buick building. The 1927 Vesper building had been built as an auto dealership, but is today a parking lot (logic error). The Olympia site is a parking lot as well.