Demolition Underway at Forest Park & Vandeventer

CORTEX's demolition at Forest Park Boulevard & Vandeventer is well underway this week with the front half of the one story section down as well as much of the two story building at the northwest corner of the complex.

With most of the portion fronting Forest Park gone, you can start to get a sense of the scale of the building and the vast amount of emptiness to come, well over an acre.

Only the parapet wall and the decorative iron scrollwork that graced the corner are missing from the more prominent three story building. When this comes down, the vista viewed from the west will open up to the gas station/carwash across Vandeventer and SLU's surface parking lot to the north.

CORTEX to Demolish Building at Vandeventer & Forest Park Blvd.

Several weeks ago a chain link fence went up around the prominent three story building at Vandeventer and Forest Park Blvd. and bulldozers showed up on the small parking lot at the west end of the building complex. A friend quickly confirmed that a demolition permit had been applied for on St. Patrick's day by Z & L Wrecking.

The expansive brown brick building complex was constructed in 1901 as the Welle-Boettler branch of the American Bakery Company. In 1904 according to an article from the St. Louis Republic, oil was discovered on the bakery property. In more recent times, the building was home to Missouri Metal Trims inc. and a storage company. In 2004 the building was purchased by St. Louis University, who then sold it to CORTEX in 2007 for $2,374,146.00.

CORTEX is apparently demolishing the building because they do not want to make needed repairs to the masonry shell of the building. The building has masonry problems as a result of non-existent maintenance by CORTEX, SLU, and likely former owners, including such a basic concept of keeping a functioning gutter on the rear wall of the building. Because of the gutter issues, the outer layer of brick is falling off the building or bucking outward in several locations along the alley. Beyond the alley wall there are a few locations of visible bowing of the masonry walls, including a small area at the parapet of the one-story section facing Vandeventer that needs attention, one minor location at the three story section that is not an imminent threat, and at the one story section facing Forest Park Blvd next to an area that has seen previous repair.

The cost of this demolition is not cheap, and neither are masonry repairs, but unless the masonry issues are causing serious structural failures, which these do not appear to be doing, they are not something that should warrant demolition. The estimated cost listed on the demolition permit application is $179,000! This amount of money could likely buy repairs and re-building sections of the back walls, a new gutter, as well as stabilizing and repairing some of the bowed areas on the street facades.

Crumbling parapets top walls missing mortar and covered with ivy on the alley side.

Back in 1998, a former owner of the building prior to SLU's purchase cared enough to completely re-build a good portion of the front wall of the one story portion of the building facing Forest Park Blvd. This portion of the front wall had collapsed after it had bowed out over a period of years. I recall being impressed that they re-built the wall with all details and windows in the original locations.

The re-built section of wall above is between the painted "M" and "L".

As I mentioned in a recent post, CORTEX has had a hit and miss record developing what was supposed to be a burgeoning bio-tech district linking SLU and and the Washington University Medical Center. With no publicly announced plan for redevelopment of the site, after the existing building is demolished, the property could remain a gaping vacant lot for years to come, unless CORTEX sells to someone else.

A decorative terra cotta pediment over the Vandeventer entrance.

While CORTEX may not be in a position currently to build another large new building to house growing biotech companies or have a large company re-locating here to sell to, however on the other end of the same block is the Center for Emerging Technologies (CET), a business incubator for start-up biotech companies. The CET started in a small existing building near Forest Park Blvd. and Sarah, then expanded in 2002 with a historic renovation the former Dorris Motor Car Company building next door. The CET incubator has graduated several successful start-ups, some of whom are tenants in the CORTEX building at Forest Park and Boyle.

The former Dorris Motor Car Company building renovated for CET in 2002.

One thing that the CET lacks however is wet lab space. For the last several years the CET has been trying to raise money to build a new 60,000 s.f. lab building on a vacant lot on Laclede between Sarah and Vandeventer. A 2009 article from Park Central Development's online newsletter mentions that the CET had received a $1 million dollar donation from Monsanto toward construction of the $28 million building, but that they needed $2-6 million more to begin construction. Two years later, the proposed construction site on Laclede sits vacant while the need for wet lab space lingers.

Bulldozers sit on the parking lot west of the building.

Some have the opinion that the nature of the wet lab space desired by CET requires new construction. A quick Google search however reveals that wet labs have been successfully in existing and historic buildings across the country. The SCRA MUSC Innovation Center in Charleston was built in an existing single story 28,400 s.t. warehouse building and contains 11 wet labs, offices and shared amenity spaces. The Triangle Biotechnology Center in Durham, NC is located in a former auto service garage that is on the National Register of Historic Places. In Charlotteville, VA, a Coca-Cola bottling plant built in 1939 is being redeveloped as the CityCampus Biotechnology Center, which will include wet lab space for start-up and early stage life sciences companies.

The ground floor of the building at Forest Park and Vandeventer has about an acre of floor space (43,560 s.f.) with high ceilings that would be ideal for conversion to lab space. The upper floors of the three story section contain another 15,000 s.f. of space which could house offices or other support spaces. While not currently on the National Register, the building is very likely eligible considering that several buildings of lesser architectural significance in the nearby area have been successfully been renovated with the use of Missouri and Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits. Brownfield Tax Credits might also be available to offset costs associated with environmental cleanup. With these incentives, much needed lab space could be much more feasibly obtained through renovation than through the high cost of new construction. By demolishing this building, CORTEX is blowing a great opportunity to add to it's fledgling biotech district rather than subtract from it.

Building Huggers: Show Some Love for Your Favorite in STL

Calling all STL Building Huggers: Show some LOVE for your favorite building in St. Louis whether it is endangered or not, have someone snap a pic of you giving your favorite a hug, yes, literally give it a hug!, and submit the photo to GROUPHUG St. Louis! Come to the GROUPHUG party on Thursday, June 2nd at STyLehouse, and check out everyone else's expressions of love. There will be prizes for the best photos, as well as a raffle and other prizes. The GROUPHUG website has all the information about the event and submitting your photos. This STL love-fest is being presented by City Affair.

I don't normally use this space to promote events, but besides my involvement with City Affair, this unique event is intended to raise your awareness of the things that you love in St. Louis and make it a great place to live, whether it is your favorite endangered landmark or neighborhood row house, Ted Drewes concrete stand, the Gateway Arch or your favorite piece of public art. Twain is calling your name... Go HUG IT!

In the mean time, some of you may be wondering what happened to Vanishing STL? I'm still here, but have been busy for the last several weeks putting together the final drawings for the renovation of the Metropolitan Building on Grand Boulevard across from the Fox Theater. Built as an office building in 1906 but abandoned for about 25 years, the Metropolitan will be converted to affordable artist loft apartments. Construction should start in July.

The Metropolitan Building at Grand and Olive.

The Metropolitan Building has some major structural issues, which has sent many developers running away scared over the years. Its general condition is worse than that of the Arcade Building. However a three year hiatus on the building's redevelopment after Pyramid collapsed has been filled by Dominium Development of Minneapolis. The photo above shows the shoring that is currently keeping the buildings roof structure from collapsing. On top of the structural issues, extensive masonry work makes this project extremely challenging from a financial standpoint, but it will be another major anchor to Grand Center when completed.

Only 1 CORTEX Building on Preservation Board Final Agenda

When the final agenda for today's Preservation Board meeting was posted on Friday, I was surprised to see that only one of the three CORTEX buildings that I posted about last week will be considered this afternoon for a recommendation to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Cultural Resources Office is recommending that a report should be sent to the Missouri State Historic Preservation Office stating that the the Western Electric Southwestern Bell Telephone Distribution House at 4250 Duncan is eligible for listing on the Register under criteria A and C. It is unclear why the other two buildings are not on the agenda.

Three CORTEX Buildings up for National Register Nomination!

Several weeks ago I heard that someone is in the early stages of putting together a three building historic tax credit project in the CORTEX district. This would be a complete reversal of what has been the mode of operation for the district since it began development in 2005. The master plan for the district which was approved by the Board of Aldermen as part of the areas redevelopment plan had shown demolition of almost all historic buildings for construction of new lab buildings, boitech incubators and office buildings.

This month however, what I had heard is proving to have strong potential to come to fruition. On this months Preservation Board Agenda three CORTEX district buildings are up for consideration as new nominations to the National Register of Historic Places. They include the Post Dispatch Rotogravure Printing Plant at 4340 Duncan (photo above), the Western Electric-Southwestern Bell Telephone Distribution House at 4250 Duncan (top photo) and the J.I. Case Threshing Machine Company Branch House at 4260 Forest Park (Google streetview below).

For the past 6 years, since construction of the tilt-up concrete and glass CORTEX building at the southwest corner of Forest Park and Boyle, the Cortex has had mixed success in luring biotech companies to the district. In early 2007, Solae began construction of a their new headquarters building at Duncan and Boyle which required demolition of the O. Morse Shoe Company which had significant Art Deco detailing.

The O. Morse Shoe Company building which had most recently housed SKH Paper Company was demolished for the new Solae headquarters.

Since then however there has been little development activity in the district except for acquisition of land and buildings for future redevelopment. Off and on has been talk of luring other potential companies to the area, but nothing else has moved forward. Although the economy is in a slow recovery from the Great Recession, lending for expensive private commercial development is still difficult to obtain. It seems the leaders of CORTEX have realized that the economics of historic rehabilitation make a lot of sense, especially in the current state of the economy.

The entrance to 4250 Duncan, which is a concrete framed building that has large open floor plates and is well suited for adaptive re-use for offices or biotech lab space. The reuse of historic structures for biotech incubator space has precedent right around the corner at Sarah and Forest Park, where the Center for Emerging Technologies is housed in two rehabilitated structures. Some of the tenants in the CORTEX building started their companies in CET's incubator buildings. Hopefully the nomination of these three significant historic structures to the National Register and the accompanying historic tax credit incentives that come with this designation we will see the renovation of the buildings for new uses fitting with the districts goals.

A simple yet beautiful detail of 4250 Duncan.

Resurrection on Dick Gregory Place

Three years ago many of the large stately homes of Dick Gregory Place, in the Greater Ville neighborhood were on their last legs. Several had literally begun collapse as years of abandonment and exposure to the elements had taken their toll. The home above at 1702 Dick Gregory had been abandoned for over 20 years (date stamped photos from Geo St. Louis). Unfortunately this scene is all to common in several North St. Louis neighborhoods, with the typical ending of demolitions and more vacant lots.

The ending of the story of Dick Gregory Place however has defied all odds. Instead of demolition, the historic houses are all nearing completion of extensive renovations and re-building as part of a $13,000,000 project that will result in 32 units of affordable housing in renovated buildings plus four additional units in two new buildings and commercial space on Martin Luther King.

This incredible project is being developed by Northside Community Housing Inc. with assistance from RHCDA. The complex funding package is consists of both Missouri and Federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits, Missouri Low Income Housing Tax Credits, HOME funds, American Recovery & Reinvestment Act funds as well as other funding sources. More information about the development can be found in this Northsider article. Also check out the nomination for the Wagoner Place Historic District, which encompasses Dick Gregory Place and four single block streets to the west of Dick Gregory.

In a reversal of the common trend of converting two-family buildings into single family homes, several of these large homes have had additions at the rear to accommodate conversion to two apartments.

This Google aerial view shows the extent of the substantial rehabilitation of the historic houses and the rear additions added to convert some of the houses to badly needed affordable family apartments. Unlike much affordable housing in multi building complexes that all look the same and stand out from their surroundings, residents of these beautiful historic buildings will be able to take pride in a true neighborhood environment.

The scale of the two new buildings at the corner of Marcus & Aldine, each with two apartments, fits well with the existing historic buildings in the district without being replications.

This beautiful corner building at Martin Luther King & Marcus will have commercial space on the first floor along MLK and apartments above.

Before and after at a large two family dwelling at the corner of Martin Luther King & Dick Gregory Place. I'm not sure if the Schoemehl pots will be removed to re-open the street. More of my photos of Dick Gregory Place and adjacent areas can be seen be seen here on Flickr.

Just across the alley from Dick Gregory Place to the east is Cora Avenue. Compared to the former conditions of Dick Gregory, this street of large homes has managed to remain remarkably intact.

While there are a few boarded homes on Cora, most are occupied and very well maintained.

The blocks of Cote Brilliante and Aldine east of Cora however are riddled with vacant lots and vacant homes. Sprinkled in between are a few remaining owner occupants. The boarded homes for the most part though are still in salvageable condition, and would not even require the extensive re-building that occurred on Dick Gregory Place. The area is part of the local Ville Historic District which was expanded in 2006.

RHCDA has looked at the possibility of doing a second phase of the Dick Gregory Place project including some remaining properties on Dick Gregory as well as properties in the blocks to the east. If Jay Nixon and the Missouri Legislature have their way thought, this second phase will not be financially possible. As part of Nixon's crusade to slash tax credits, a new rule which had been recommended by Nixon's tax credit commission and now making its way through the state Senate would not allow developers to use both Missouri Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits and Missouri Low Income Housing Tax Credits on the same project. This short sighted regulation would be a cold slap in the face to North St. Louis as it not only would make phase two of Dick Gregory infeasible, but would make rehabilitating much of the North Side extremely difficult due to deflated real estate values at the same time that several new historic districts are in the works.

City to Replace Municipal Courts with New 14th Street Garage

The City of St. Louis today is poised to announce the newest enhancement to the ongoing redevelopment of Downtown St. Louis. The new 14th street garage will replace the former Municipal Courts building on Market Street west of City Hall. The Municipal Courts building, which will be demolished, has been vacant since the courts moved to the Mel Carnahan building (the former federal courthouse) at the southeast corner of Tucker & Market.

The new garage will be a good complement to the recently completed municipal garage at the northwest corner of Tucker and Clark. The new 14th Street garage however will have the added benefit of being attached directly to City Hall via a sky bridge.

The former Municipal Courts building on Market Street

By now you may have figured out that this is a joke, but in all seriousness, crimes against our City's built environment of this nature have happened several times before. Only continued vigilance and taking real action agains threats to historic building when they occur will prevent these scenes from continually repeating.