Putting the CARt Before the Horse on 39th Street

Tomorrow the Preservation Board will consider the partial demolition of a 12 unit apartment building at the corner of Lafayette and 39th Street in the Tiffany Neighborhood National Register Historic District. As with so many demolitions in St. Louis, this building is proposed to be knocked down for a surface parking lot. The building at 3867 Lafayette was built with 6 apartments facing Lafayette and 6 facing 39th Street. It is a textbook example of how good urban corner buildings were built to address both streets. 

The view above is of the portion of the building facing 39th Street which is proposed to be demolished. These views from Google Steetview are not very old, and as you can see, the building while empty appears in decent shape. The windows look to be almost completely intact. Like any building of this age though it likely needs a complete rehab inside. Being located in a National Register Historic District, the a rehab of the building is eligible for Missouri and Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits.

UPDATE: The Preservation Board voted tonight to approve the demolition of the 6 units facing 39th Street. There were 3 yes votes, 2 "reluctant yeses" and 2 no votes. The comparison I made to the Spring Avenue buildings was called non-relevant because Spring is a "nice tree lined street with gates on Lafayette" and 39th is a busy street during nearby hospital shift changes. So basically they said this is a bad site... so lets add off-street parking! Neighbors, the Garden District rep and Alderwoman Marlene Davis argued that this has been a "problem property" for some time and that the "density" was a problem. Interesting how it doesn't seem to be a problem on the other end of the same block. These same arguments, by the way, led to clear-cut demolition of 6 blocks west of 39th 10 years ago (see link below). My argument that unit density could be easily reduced to 8 by combining portions of units was also ignored. In the end, against the wording of the ordinance, the board voted to demolish a sound merit building in a National Register Historic District. This sets a very bad precedent for historic districts across the entire City!


The elevation facing Lafayette is identical except for the lack of the raised terraces flanking stair to the entrance. The demolition is being proposed the Garden District Commission, the organization that ten years ago employed 1960's style urban renewal tactics to clear-cut six blocks of historic buildings between 39th Street to Thurman and Lafayette to Folsom.

The Garden District Commission does not currently own the property. According to Geo St. Louis it is owned by CXA Corporation of Dallas, TX. The Commission wants to acquire the property, demolish the 6 apartments facing 39th Street and build the parking lot, then sell the building to a developer who would rehab the remaining portion of the building.


The Garden District Commission argues that the demolition is required in order to serve the remaining 6 apartments with off-street parking. The Commission is also playing a shell game with Historic Tax Credit rules. If a developer bought the building and tried to demolish half of it, they would very likely find themselves being denied Historic Tax Credits for the remaining portion of the building. But if the Commission demolishes the wing facing 39th Street and sells the the property, the tax credit reviewers would not be able to punish the developer of the remaining building because it is a different owner.


39th Street at left in the aerial view above was the demarkation between the clear ant re-build development and the remaining neighborhood. 3867 Lafayette sits at the west end of a remarkably intact block and one needs to look no further than the other end of the block to debunk the Garden District Commission's argument for demolition.


On Spring Avenue between Lafayette and McRee there are no less than three 12-unit buildings of the exact type in question at the other end of the block, and none of them have any off-street parking. The buildings are all occupied and appear to be well maintained.


A view north on Spring Avenue from Lafayette. Other than architectural style, these are the exact same building typology with 6 apartments facing the main streets of Lafayette and McRee and 6 facing Spring.


Toward the middle of the block the buildings form a very attractive urban landscape. Just think how different this would look with three surface parking lots replacing the wings of the buildings that face Spring. 


Back on 39th Street, the Preservation Board should deny the proposed partial demolition of this historic building. It is clear that buildings on Spring and from a quick survey of many buildings in the nearby Shaw neighborhood that off-street parking is not required for a building to attract residents.

If dedicated parking is desired, it could easily be attained by creating angled parking along 39th Street in front of the building. The traffic lanes would shift to the west side of the street where street parking is not needed along the side of the suburban style single family home. Between Lafayette and the mid-block alley about 10 spaces could be created. With additional parallel spaces on Lafayette, a similar parking ratio as being proposed with the demolition could be achieved. The south side of Lafayette that abuts the highway provides ample overflow parking.


To improve the parking ratio immediately adjacent to the building, the developer could take down the rear portions of the 2nd & 3rd floors of the north wing and half the south wing and create three 2-story townhouse units, reducing the overall unit count to 9. Because the selective removals would be at the rear of the original apartments and not visible from either street, this could likely be approved by the tax credit reviewers. The townhouse units could end up with very desirable roof decks in this plan. Another option to reduce the unit count would be to simply combine portions of the units, which are mostly under 1,000 s.f.

If you have comments or opinions about this proposal, you can email to the Preservation Board via the Board's Secretary, Adona Buford: buforda@stlouis-mo.gov

Detroit Continues to Squander its Potential

Attacked from the rear.  Demolition of the Lafayette Building begins.

Photo by Sean's Flickr photostream.  More at Buildings of Detroit

Regular readers of this blog know that it is easy to get depressed about the state of things here in St. Louis.  Then sometimes I read about events occurring elsewhere and feel pretty good about our fair City.  Recently I had one of those moments when I read that demolition began this fall on the Lafayette Building in Detroit.  In June of this year, the Detroit Downtown Development Authority had voted unanimously to demolish the building.

Reading the history of the building it is easy to think about the similar plight of the Arcade building here in St. Louis, once threatened with demolition by a former owner, then slated for redevelopment as condos, an hotel and office space, construction started, then empty again and waiting.  The difference with the Arcade is the story's ending.  Just a few weeks ago the City's Land Clearance Redevelopment Authority authorized a 10 year tax abatement on the Arcade Building to entice future redevelopment.  Compared to the Arcade, the Lafayette would have been an easy rehab.  The Lafayette is half the size and has only been empty since 1997 compared to 1978 with the Arcade Building.

In Detroit however, the story ends with an unenlightened city government squandering yet another potential jewel in Downtown.  The same narrow narrow minds were responsible for the senseless destruction in 2006 of the former Detroit Statler in 2004-2005.

Detroit wins this weeks urban destruction contest - Lafayette Building to be demolished

A vintage shot photo of the Lafayette Building that I found on City Bird Detroit.
Original photo source and the building's history is on Buildings of Detroit.

As if not to be outdone by Monday's vote by St. Louis' Preservation Board to demolish the San Luis, yesterday the Detroit Downtown Development Authority voted unanimously to demolish the historic but vacant Lafayette Building. One would think that with its location literally in the shadow of the beautifully restored Westin Book-Cadillac and nearby Fort Shelby Hotel & Apartments both recently opened after years of abandonment and decay, that the DDA would see the natural potential of the Lafayette?

Sometimes people here wonder if St. Louis is striving to be like Detroit with our seemingly never ending wanton destruction of urban fabric. Unfortunately this week it seems that Detroit is striving to be like St. Louis.

City Hospital Tower & Malcolm Bliss

With Bohemian Hill in the news recently with the proposal for an auto oriented shopping center and the destruction of the only remaining block of original urban streetscape along Tucker/Gravois between downtown and McNair, as well as an innovative example of contemporary residential infill in harmony with its historic surroundings, I thought it would be appropriate to reflect back on the de-urbanization that occurred north of Lafayette Avenue.

The aerial photo below from 2002 shows the City Hospital site as a fairly dense urban village with the old Administration Building along Lafayette, the 13 story Tower Building at center fronting on Carrol Street (notice how Carrol connects to the residential area to the west), and the 6 story former Malcolm Bliss Mental Heath Center along Park Avenue. In late 2002 demolition began on Malcolm Bliss and the Tower Building prior to the conversion of the Administration Building into the Georgian Condominiums by Gilded Age. Fast forward to 2006, and you can see that the Tower Building has been replaced by a lovely asphalt surface parking lot and the Malcolm Bliss site is covered in gravel and seems to have an undetermined future. The situation is not helped by the way the Truman Parkway cuts off the site from the residential neighborhood to the west. With the new roadway and demolitions, the Georgian becomes an isolated island all by itself.
The X-shaped Georgian revival Malcolm Bliss building, designed by Albert Osburg, which opened in 1939 was the first to be demolished in early 2002 (if you look closely at the aerial above, you see the southeast wing already going down). Despite the later additions, the original building was worthy of saving and could have made great apartments or condos. Why was it demolished? The thought occurred to me that maybe people would not want to live in a former asylum, but a quick search shows that several former asylums around the country are being converted to housing and including one in New York and a massive mixed-use complex in Traverse City, Michigan. Unfortunately I did not photograph the building before its destruction, so please visit Built St. Louis for photos of Malcolm Bliss as well as the other buildings in the complex.
The Tower Building, also by Albert Osberg, was built in 1942 as part of a major expansion of the hospital. The building was a handsome structure that could be mistaken for one of the classic hi-rise apartment buildings on Lindell but for its location. At 13 stories, the building commanded amazing views in all directions including some of the best views of downtown. One can only imagine how fast upper floor condos would have sold out in this building! Once the modern ancillary and connector buildings were demolished, there was still room west of the tower and between the buildings to do a low parking structure to serve the buildings. Addtionally, as with buildings downtown, it only takes some imagination to squeeze parking spaces into basements and lower floors of existing buildings.

The Tower Building's last stand below in early 2003, with the south wings already demolished.
See stlouiscityhospital.org edited by Michael Allen and Claire Nowak-Boyd for amazingly comprehensive information about City Hospital and it's history.

The Forest Park Parkway Wall

Central Corridians or anyone else who drove the Forest Park Parkway before 2001 might remember the concrete wall that bordered the south side of the Parkway from Skinker to just west of DeBaliviere and the north side of the Parkway from DeBaliviere to Union. To many the wall was known as the "World's Fair Wall" due to its location along what was once the northern boundary of the 1904 Worlds Fair. Evidence suggests however that this name is incorrect as photographs of the area researched by Landmarks Association have dated its construction to about 1910.

The wall was likely built by the developers of the Catlin Tract, which comprises the large homes located along Lindell Boulevard facing Forest Park. The wall separated the deep lots of the homes from a railroad that once ran in the Parkway right-of-way.

By the later part of the 20th century, the portion of the wall between Skinker and DeBaliviere was crumbling.

The many weed trees that grew along the the wall were one of the culprits of the decay as trunks and roots pushed against the wall and branches grew through the openings.

Bob Cassily however saw potential for beauty in the decaying wall and 1998 he created this amazing sculpture by hand forming new concrete around the existing wall. Bob had asked permission of a Lindell home owner who agreed to let him do the work. Some of the trustees of the street were apparently not happy with this, however they did not seem to be coming forward with any other plan to deal with the walls condition. Photo by Carrie Zukoski.

Close-ups of the figures that Cassilly formed around remaining wall elements. Photos by Carrie Zukoski.

The fat of the portion of the old concrete wall between Skinker and DeBaliviere was sealed with the routing of the Metrolink Blue Line along the south side of Parkway, and the wall was removed for construction of the extension.

As part of the Metrolink construction, a new pre-cast concrete wall was built along the south side of the right-of-way.

Part of the new wall was incorporated into a pedestrian crossing over the tracks at Des Peres Avenue.

The new wall bears some resemblance to the old wall, however there are not openings in the wall, only indentations.

The recessed design only shows up on the south side of the wall facing the Lindell homes. As part of the Arts in Transit program, neighborhood artist Andy Cross was commissioned to design decorative metal screens on the north side of the wall that faces Metrolink and the Parkway.

Unfortunately there is not much contrast between the metal screens and the wall, so they do not show up well.

The portion of the wall between DeBaliviere and Union was in much better shape than western half of the wall. Unfortunately this wall was removed as part of a separate City project to re-build the Forest Park Parkway from DeBaliviere to Kingshighway. The removal of the wall allowed for a larger shoulder along the new roadway. A new wall similar the the one installed along Metrolink was put up along the south side, but in this case, the indented based on the old wall faces the Parkway. Photo above courtesy of STL Style.

When the old wall was taken down, artist Bill Christman salvaged a few pieces that he has incorporate into the garden adjacent to Joe's Cafe.

Beside the sculpture that he did along on the old wall itself, Bob Cassilly was obviously inspired by the wall and its construction. Bob designed and fabricated several styles of pre-cast concrete walls that have been installed in various locations around the City. Above is an installation that surrounds the yard of an architectural salvage business located on Lafayette just west of Jefferson. The wall at the rear is a replica of the Parkway wall and in front is a variation with a diamond pattern. A Post Dispatch photo from 1984 shows Bob standing with one of his walls.

Another of Bob's walls can be seen along Sarah Street behind the Dorris Loft building. The wall surrounds the building's common courtyard space. Bob had an amazing way of enlivening our built environment with everything he created. He will be sorely missed.

What is Bowood Farms up to Now?

I was heading home from the Contemporary last night and on a whim decided to take Olive out to Kingshighway. When I got midway between Taylor and Walton, I noticed what looks like the back of a demolition in progress over on Washington. I went around the block and sure enough, 4604 Washington has been decapitated and is the entire back half has been removed.

This is what the house looked like in spring 2009. You may recall that the owner of this home, Bowood Farms, demolished the home just west at 4608 Washington. At the time, there was speculation as to what would happen to the neighboring 4604.

Just to the east of 4604 Washington is one of two in-fill houses that were built a few years ago. While the houses are very plain, they at least match the massing of the exiting homes. As with most new houses though, the sides and rear are vinyl siding, so exposing the west side to the street would be very unfortunate.

Detail of the stone porch columns at 4604 Washington.

Bowood is constructing a sizable new wood structure attached to the former auto shop on the corner. This is at least filling the gap that was another vacant lot between the auto shop and the houses.

The foundation of 4608 Washington remains and part of it has been re-pointed and incorporated into the new structure.

The permit on posted on the front of the house states that it is for demolition and structural stabilization. It does appear that possibly the front portion of the house might be retained, although work at the top of the wall makes it somewhat ambiguous. As for "structural stabilization", that is something I usually associate with a building that say has a collapsed roof, a missing wall or other structural defect. Another larger example of "structural stabilization" is what Pyramid and Craig Heller had to do to Lafayette Square's M-Loft building  (pan down half way through the post) before it could be rehabbed into apartments. To my knowledge, 4608 Washington had no structural issues.

A rear shot shows a new plywood wall across part of the first floor, hopefully another sign that part of this house will be retained. While not preservation in the truest sense, incorporating a portion of the house into something new could be very interesting and not result in a gaping hole in the block. If anyone knows the plans, please share.

Across the street 4621 Washington, which is also owned by Bowood still has its upper windows wide open to the elements. With torrential rain like we had tonight, the entire front part of the interior of this house is surely ruined. Not exactly a great way to preserve a house that they claimed they will renovate, and also not a way to be a good neighbor in general.

SLU Strikes Again! Destroying the Wagner House at 3438 Samuel Shepard

St. Louis University continues it's Midtown demolition rampage this month with the senseless destruction of the Wagner House at 3438 Samuel Shepard (formerly Lucas Avenue). The home is one of the last stone limestone faced Italianate Victorians left in the Grand Center area, and one of only three homes left on the Samuel Shepard for several blocks east of Grand Avenue. Midtown was once filled with homes like this that today are most commonly found in Lafayette Square and are also sprinkled through several neighborhoods in north St. Louis.

The historic building exterminators at SLU are wasting no time with this one. According to City records, they acquired the home on February 29, 2008, and were issued the demolition the same day! When I arrived at dusk this past Wednesday, workers were carrying out salvaged millwork.

The home has sat vacant for many years, but it is still very much intact. While the roof and cornice on the east side are damaged, and a few pieces of stone veneer on the front have fallen off, the masonry structure itself shows no signs of distress. The home could have easily been put on the market as a rehab opportunity.
So what will become of the site? SLU owns the small pocket park to the west and a tiny parcel containing a garage structure that sits between the house, corner lot and the alley. Will SLU build yet another parking lot!?

This photo is taken from Jesephine Baker, two blocks east of Grand shows a parking lot recently built by SLU on the southwest corner. The Wagner House is in the cneter of the photo, just left of the trees. On the north side of Samuel Shepard, is a sea of asphalt extending non-stop to Grand (minus a small sculpture park and concrete block screen wall). I think the area has enough surface parking!

The view north of Samuel Shepard across from the Wagner house.

The doomed house is not in complete isolation. The Stockton House sits just west of Teresa next to a large parking lot where the Missouri Theater auditorium once stood and has been lovingly restored over the last few decades by architect Frederick Medler. (Photo above by Kevin Kieffer on Built St. Louis).

Just east there is the impressive Ives House owned and well maintained by Father Dempsey's, who's main building is located on Washington (rear visible to the right of the house). Together, the three homes create a small oasis amid the rolling tide of asphalt that overtakes this area of Grand Center. Soon however due to SLU's continued short-sighted thinking, the Stockton and Ives will be left floating alone. A photo of the Wagner House with it's stone veneer still intact can be seen here on Built St. Louis.