Concordia Publishing Doesn't Need Another Employee Green Space

Next Monday at 4:00 in suite 1200 of the Locust Building, Concordia Publishing House will present to the Preservation Board its plan to purchase and demolish a three story corner building at 3600 S. Jefferson and turn the vacant lot into a green space for it's employees. A quick look at an aerial photograph of Concordia's property however shows that they already have a green space for employees!


A closer shot shows the green space landscaped with a center planting bed with benches surrounding. The green space is conveniently located immediately adjacent to Concordia's building and employee parking lot.


The building in question was the victim of an ill fated remuddling several years ago which has left the third floor in need of some masonry wall repairs and the rear wall in need of extensive tuckpointing. The lower two floors however are in excellent condition, so the building is far from irreparable. The building anchors a completely intact block face. 


It is located in the Benton Park National Register Historic District, which makes it eligible to receive Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits, which would make a renovation financially feasible. 


If Concordia Publishing is so desperate for addition outdoor space for it's employees, they should look to expanding their existing roof deck. Additional deck space surrounded by green roof vegetation would be an oasis compared to a vacant corner lot on busy Jefferson Avenue.


As always, concerned citizens may attend the meeting and state their opinions to the Preservation Board before they vote on the matter. The final agenda for the board meeting was posted yesterday and has an excellent review of the situation. If you cannot attend, please email your opinions to Betsy Bradley, Director of the Cultural Resources Office. Additional information can be found on Landmarks Association's website.


On Mondays agenda you will see that the proposal to demolish the Souther Funeral Home on South Grand has been withdrawn following the sudden withdraw of the same from Wednesdays Board of Adjustment hearing for a zoning variance for the property. With the call to withdraw from Mondays Preservation Board meeting though came an inquiry as to the date of Februarys meting, so General Dollar's plan to flatten the historic funeral home for a new store may come up again.

Zoning Hearing for Southern Funeral Home is Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Wednesday January 18th at 1:30 pm in room 208 of City Hall is the hearing at which General Dollar is requesting a zoning variance to construct a new store at 6322 S. Grand just north of Carondelet Park. The proposed General Dollar store would result in the demolition of the Southern Funeral Home building.


Please come to the hearing if you can and testify that this zoning variance should be denied. We don't need to lose this beautiful structure for another faceless retail box behind a parking lot! If you cannot make it to the hearing, please email Alderman Tom Villa to express you thoughts on this proposal.


For more information about the Southern Funeral Home, visit B.E.L.T. and Landmarks Association.

Website & FB Page Established to Save Rock Hill Church

A commenter from yesterdays post has shared links to a website and Facebook page that have been established to raise money to save Rock Hill Presbyterian. 


The website is: http://www.savetherockhillchurch.org/


The Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-The-Rock-Hill-Church/265989486788403


Please visit, "like", share it and of course if you are able to, chip in a few bucks to help save this irreplaceable piece of history. The unfortunate reality is that the city of Rock hill has made the decision to proceed with the U-Gas plan so moving the church may be the only way to save it.

Half Baked in U-Gas Hill

Seeing the headline "Rock Hill moves to save 19th century church", I thought I was going to be able to do a post about something positive and something negative going on this month. The negative being the proposed demolition of the Southern Funeral Home on S. Grand just north of Carondelet Park. Reading the article though, I'm not so convinced. While the city of Rock Hill, whose name was derived from the presence of the historic church, has taken the first steps to acquire the property, the plan to preserve the historic building itself is contingent upon raising money to move the structure.



Unfortunately the city of Rock Hill is still convinced that a giant U-Gas - Phillips 66 gas station with a convenient store and car wash is the highest and best use for the main intersection at the center of their community. According to the article, the city taking ownership of the historic church is contingent upon raising money from scratch to move the building to one of two less prominent locations nearby in Rock Hill and maintain it in the future with an unspecified use (potentially no income). One of the locations is on an obscure side road next to the city's municipal storage yard. While moving the church is feasible, it would be very costly.



Instead of raising money to move Rock Hill's namesake historic structure from the city's main intersection, the city should raise money to purchase the property and move their city hall from a rented storefront to the former church. The attached modern era school could be used as a community center and library, which is currently located in another strip shopping center a few blocks west of city hall. To make this more financially feasible, the remaining part of the large 2 acre site along McKnight Road could be developed privately for commercial, residential or mixed use with an RFP process.



Rock Hill's former "city hall" in a run-down strip mall didn't exactly say "welcome to our lovely municipality". The current location on Thorton isn't an improvement.



The half baked U-Gas Hill plan currently supported by the city would also require relocation of the historic Fairfax House. The house was previously re-located from across Manchester to make way for commercial development.

Yet Another SLU Demolition: the David P. Wohl Sr. Mental Health Institute

From early November through last Monday evening, the preservation community in St. Louis was focused on saving the landmark Pevely Dairy at Grand and Chouteau.  The Preservation Board voted 3-2 for a compromise to prevent SLU from demolishing the most significant portions of the Pevely complex, the corner office building and the smoke stack, while allowing the milk plant and garage buildings to be demolished. Just down Grand from Pevely however, this week St. Louis University Hospital is process of demolishing a lesser known but equally significant structure, the David P. Wohl Sr. Mental Health Institute with little to no outcry.

During his testimony at the Pevely Preservation Board hearing Steve Smith, principal of the Lawrence Group stated that the Pevely Dairy was not designed by a prominent architect and cannot be found in any books about St. Louis architecture. This is true, but this same argument could be said about several buildings near SLU's main campus that have been renovated with historic tax credits in the last several years including the former Warehouse of Fixtures building, the Aquinas Institute of Theology, and the Spring Street Lofts.

The Wohl Institute however was designed by a very prominent architect, Gyo Obata of HOK, and is featured in the book Modern Architecture in St. Louis. In the book, Obata describes the design of the building as alternative to the asylums where psychiatric patients were locked away from the rest of the world. The facility reflected the most modern and advanced treatment theories expressing openness with several garden courtyards cut into the two story structure. Architectural Record published the design in October 1959, titling the article: "Pleasant and Open Plan for Psychiatric Patients. City of St. Louis property records indicate that the building was completed in 1962. The buildings three 2-story wings were designed around landscaped garden courtyards.

SLU applied for a demolition permit for the building on May 20th, 2011. Despite being designed by prominent architect and included in a book of significant modern architecture in St. Louis, the building was not on the National Register, in a historic district, or in a Preservation Review area, so the request to demolish the Wohl Institute was never Reviewed by the Cultural Resources Office nor presented to the Preservation Board.

Ironically in July, as SLU was ripping down the small neighborhood of sturdy brick single family homes behind the Wohl Institute, the Preservation Board had a special agenda item regarding a grant for a thematic survey of Modern Movement Architecture in the City from 1040-1975. Had this survey already been completed, the Wohl Institute just may have been given the recognition and potential protection it deserved.

I could not find any information information about where the psychiatric treatment services formerly housed at the Wohl Institute have been relocated. All information on SLU's website still lists the address of the building now undergoing demolition. A site plan presented at the Preservation Board - Pevely meeting shows surface parking lots on the site of the Wohl Institute and the now vacant lots where homes stood on Hickory & Rutger west of Wohl. The lots would presumably serve the new ambulatory care center that SLU is planning to construct on part of the Pevely site.

Before the Wohl Institute was constructed, the site on Grand was home to the St. Louis Armory - Battery A - Light Artillery, a massive castle like structure. This photo from the St. Louis University Pius XII Memorial LIbrary Special Collections was taken Christmas week 1959. The Pevely Dairy ice cream plant that was lost to fire in 2009 and the surviving office building with rooftop sign are seen beyond. This photo shows a jagged toothed edge of the brick a the corner of the building along Rutger, which seemed to indicate that part of the building had already been demolished. Most armories typically included a large clear-spanned space that would be used for practicing field drills and holding other events.



An 1889 photo from the Missouri History Museum showing the building at its completion however shows the same tooth like brick at the edge of the building. If it was planned to be larger, like the structure eventually built in 1937 on Market Street in the nearby valley, it was apparently never built. The 1909 Sanborn map above also verifies this. If anyone has further info, please share.

SLU Denied Demolition of Pevely Office Building

Last night the Preservation Board voted 3-2 to uphold the Cultural Resources Office staff recommendation to allow demolition of the Pevely milk plant and garage buildings, but to deny demolition of the Pevely Dairy office building at the corner of Grand & Chouteau and the smoke stack. Interestingly enough, the plan for SLU's new ambulatory care center presented by Lawrence Group principal Steve Smith last night should not need to change too much due to the board ruling. The site plan below shows a rectangular green space at the corner with a curved drive leading to the new building (shaded purple). The green space is about the length of the of the corner office building and should only require minor adjustment of the plan, if any. The plan already had incorporated preserving the smoke stack just east of the new building.

The colored aerial photo below shows the small rectangle of the site occupied by the office building (shown in yellow). The plan above shows future wings (lightly shaded and barely visible) extending east and west from the main building. This assumes acquisition and demolition of the building just south of the smoke stack, although the new main building does not appear to conflict with this either.

A rendering of the SLU's proposed ambulatory care center with the historic Pevely smoke stack. With last nights ruling, the building will only need to work with the Pevely office building. There seems no reason why the two cannot coexist minus of course a big empty green space and a fountain!

Preservation Board to Consider Pevely Demolition December 19th

The Preservation Board will consider SLU's proposed demolition of the Pevely Dairy complex at a special meeting on Monday, December 19th at 4:00pm. The meeting will take place at 1015 Locust Street, suite 1200.

As you may recall, SLU pulled Pevely from the agenda of last months Preservation Board meeting and then issued a statement to the press that their plan to construct a new medical office facility for SLUCare on the site has not changed. A SLU spokesman said that the delay gives them more time to prepare their case for presentation to the board. SLU representatives will no doubt show up with renderings of the new SLUCare facility and present arguments that the Pevely corner is the only location amongst the dozens of acres of vacant land that they own in the immediate vicinity where they can build the new building.

After SLU's presentation, the Preservation Board will allow testimony from concerned citizens, so if you are opposed to demolition of this National Register landmark please attend the meeting. If you cannot attend, please email your statement to Betsy Bradley, Director of the Cultural Resources Office at bradleyb@stlouiscity.com Emailed statements will be entered into the record and used in the final analysis by CRO staff that is presented to the Preservation Board.