The Century - Four Years Later

It was a little after 5:00 exactly four years ago as I was sitting in a late afternoon meeting in what was then Paric's office at the corner of 9th and Olive when the pounding started. The floor tremored slightly under our feet. It was the beginning of the demolition of the Century Building. The pounding continued seemingly non-stop for three and a half months until the afternoon of February 3rd, 2005 when the final section, the center wing of the E shaped building which had been reduced to what looked like a giant game of Jenga, came crashing down. The loud rumble and earthquake like jolt inducing a few shrill screams through our 6th floor office in Frisco Building across the street.

Four years later several floors of the 1000 parking spaces that were claimed to be needed to serve the Old Post Office and surrounding buildings sit empty on a regular basis. Although it was announced with great fanfare several months ago that Schnucks will open in the ground floor space, construction has yet to begin on the build-out. The Old Post Office itself, which we were told would be activated day and night by throngs of new Webster University students, as well as retail and restaurant spaces throughout the ground floor reminds me more of the days in the late 1980's after the last renovation had long fizzled.

The still empty "future" Schnucks space

The East entrance is closed due to to perceived security issues. Webster does occupy the entire 1st lower level, but there does not seem to be the level of activity one would expect at a college satellite campus. While the Library and Pasta House provide an activated north end, the entire south half of the first floor was turned into office space, which adds nothing to Olive Street and leaves the enlarged plaza area (which took away valuable street parking) dead and empty. Apparently the building management does not want anyone hanging around on the interior either since the giant atrium space in the center of the first floor contains not one, that's right, zero! furnishings. Not one bench, not one table... please pass through and get out!

Ironically, on this fourth anniversary of the destruction of the original half of the flagship Scruggs Vandervoort Barney department store, the Post announced that this week Centene is to start demolition of the first Vandervoort's branch store in Clayton, the Harris Armstrong masterpiece known to most in my generation at the Library Limited Building. On the west half of the block, in stark contrast to the lifelessness of the 9th Street Garage, final touches are being completed on The Syndicate. Like the Paul Brown, The Syndicate renovation was designed to accommodate most if not all of it's parking needs within the existing building.
So four years later, we must ask ourselves: Is the Old Post Office District better off today? Was the "garage mahal" and the destruction of the Century really needed?

6124 Enright - A victom of the Loop's Success

Behind the soon to be completed Moonrise Hotel in the Loop stood this simple modern building. The building was designed by and housed the offices of the architectural firm of Murphy & Mackey. Murphy & Mackey was one of the more innovative firms in St. Louis during the modern era, and brought us such landmarks as the Resurrection of Our Lord Catholic Church, The Climatron (based on Buckminster Fuller's concept), and Washington University's Olin Library (which has been horribly altered).

The building on Enright however was very reserved and somewhat utilitarian in nature. The covered driveway led to parking in the rear (a nice urban solution to the parking access issue).
The rear of the building shaded by a continuous canopy faced south to the parking lot. There was an entrance at the first floor off the porte cochere and a more prominent entrance at a mid-level between the floors on the east bay.
The main entrance framed by a glazed wall and a small paved area. The yellow awning is an obvious addition, in fact the original canvas awning shading system can be seen still intact under the brow of the canopy. The metal staircase at the northeast corner was added in 1995 according to City records.

This bench appeared to "grow" out of the paving.

The interior of the building was as straight forward as the exterior with exposed waffle slab ceiling and exposed brick at the end walls.
The one element of this simple building that stood out was a pair of narrow stained glass windows in the middle of the west wall. Inside, these windows were the only glazing in two private offices.

Detail of one of the windows below. Were these windows the work of Emil Frei, who created windows for a number of churches by Murphy & Mackey? I am not sure if these windows were salvaged or lost in the rubble pile.
Below is a portion of a much less ornate art glass window which flanked the first floor entrance off the porte cochere.

The building was demolished in fall of 2004 to expand the parking lot behind the Pageant. The expanded lot serves many of the newer developments in the Loop in the last several years, including the Pin-up Bowl, the soon to be opened Moonrise Hotel, the Regional Arts Commission, and several other retail/office buildings on the south side of Delmar which do no have much of their own parking.
The photo above shows the building prior before demolition, and below shows the enlarged parking area. The sad thing is that the small footprint was replaced occupied an area of only 12-18 parking spaces. In other words, the building could easily have been spared and the new parking laid out around it. The photos also show Wash U's clearance of several industrial buildings on the north side of Enright.

In addition to the building, an entire row of mature trees stretching almost the entire block were mowed down only to be replaced by saplings. These trees at least would have done a good job of screening the surface parking from the street.
Today this is the view from Skinker and Enright, a sea of asphalt with the new Moonrise Hotel rising in the background. Hopefully in the future this part of the Loop will be so successful that demand will dictate the construction of new mixed use buildings lining Enright with a garage behind. Such a concept has been proposed at least a few times on the large lot in U City off Kingsland, but has yet to come to fruition. With the Metro station only a couple hundred yards east, maybe it could happen here first.

Moonrise Hotel rises in The Loop

The Moonrise, a new 7 story 124 room boutique hotel is rising in The Loop on the site of a former funeral home at 6175 Delmar between the Pageant and the Pin-up Bowl. The funeral home was demolished to make way for the hotel, but the historic front of the building is being re-constructed as the lower facade of the hotel, with the tower rising behind. A restaurant will occupy the area that would have been the former front rooms of the funeral home, and a rooftop bar and outdoor terrace atop the hotel should provide spectacular views of the City.

The Moonrise will be one of the only examples that I aware of in St. Louis where a historic facade is preserved or re-built as part of a new larger structure. This practice, which is more common on other larger cities is known as facadism. The practice is often controversial due to the fact that all the interior portions of the building are typically destroyed. In this case however, like many funeral homes, only a few front rooms could have been argued as having any historic significance, and here these were not really overly ornate.

As the photo above partially shows, beyond the first 20 feet of the front of the funeral home was a plain flat roofed brick box with no ornamentation.
The Moonrise Hotel is the brain child of Joe Edwards, who is responsible for most of Delmar's rejuvenation east of Skinker and the extension of The Loop district east to the Delmar MetroLink station. This project is example of what is unfortunately a fairly rare occurrence in St. Louis. While a historic building is demolished, the most significant portion is re-built and becomes part of a new landmark structure.

The materials of the new tower are not luxurious. The exterior will be a mix of EIFS and brick, but unlike many newer hotels of this size, the building does not try to achieve false grandeur by adding over-scaled goofy cornice elements at the top of the building. The building is unabashedly modern in contrast to the funeral home facade. The one element of whimsy will be the tower which instead of clock faces, will display the current phase of the moon. Notice in the photo above that the streetscape trees and lighting is protected out of harms way, and an accessible covered walkway is provided during construction... also rarities in St. Louis.
The main entrance and lobby will be located behind the rebuilt facade with a drive off Delmar in the same location as the original drive of the funeral home. A tunnel through the rear wing of the L shaped plan will lead to the large existing shared parking lot to the north.

New windows going in the re-built portion of the funeral home. The completed Moonrise Hotel is scheduled to open in April 2009.

Update: Drury Hotel would spare Lambskin Temple

Last night at a packed church in Forest Park Southeast, Drury Development presented a proposal to build a new hotel at the intersection of Kingshighway and Highway 40. In contrast to what was reported in the West End Word last week, the Lambskin Temple would not be demolished for the hotel. Most of the development land would come from surplus land that is leftover from reconfiguration of the 40/Kingshighway interchange. A spokesperson from MODOT was on hand and confirmed that they are in the process of seeing determining how the land would be decommissioned. She did say that they have agreed to return a triangular piece of land back to the City that was originally part of Forest Park prior to realignment of Kingshighway.

The proposal presented last night calls for two 16 story towers each containing 345 rooms. The east tower closer to the highway would be built first, then if it is successful and there is additional market demand, the second tower would be built. A three level below grade garage would contain most of the parking, although the site plan appears to contain some surface parking. Someone threw out a number that the total development could be around a $100 million investment.

Charles Drury stated that this would be the finest hotel of their holdings. He said that there would be a mix of room rates and levels from those affordable to families with children, to rooms that would "beat any Ritz Carlton".

Unfortunately to access the hotel, five to seven homes would be acquired and demolished in order to widen an existing alley behind the Lambskin Temple and other buildings along Kingshighway. The new access road would enter at the recently closed intersection of Oakland on the east side of Kingshighway. Drury said they would be fine with an access point directly into the front of the property from Kingshighway, but doubted that MODOT or the City would want that so close to the new interchange. This is something they should pursue further and could avoid demolition of homes.

The other issue with the access plan is that currently the neighborhood is closed off from Kingshighway, and apparently likes it that way, as many residents expressed that they did not want the through traffic. The issue then is how to handle circulation at the ends of the streets if they are blocked off from the new road.
The meeting was held in the beautiful Calvary Christian Church the end of Gibson. Under the plan presented, the church property would be acquired. In keeping with Drury's laudable past preservation efforts Downtown, including saving the Fur Exchange as it had begun demolition, Charles Drury proposed that the church sanctuary would become the lobby of the second tower, which would contain nicer rooms. The church would apparently be raised off its foundation, moved aside, then placed back atop the new underground garage (not an inexpensive endeavor!).

Stained glass windows at the rear of the church, and the beamed ceiling below

Timothy Drury held up a rendering of an earlier concept that has fortunately been scrapped that called for a single large continuous building creating a wall in front of the neighborhood. It kind of reminded me of a PoMo version of one of the Pruitt Iago towers. Another rendering of that plan is below. The triangle of green space is presumably the area MODOT has agreed to give back to Forest Park.
The Drury's stated that it is very early in the development process, and they have traffic studies, City and MODOT negotiations and approvals yet to be had, as well as acquiring mush of the land. The is good, because the while the proposal would be a great investment in the City, it needs to be done in a manner that does not turn its back on the neighborhood. The site plan needs serious help, as it presently looks like a very unfriendly place to be on foot. Both the CWE and FPSE are great walkable areas, and you should feel comfortable walking to and from the hotel buildings to Forest Park, the hospital complex and the surrounding areas. The towers themselves also could possibly use some work, although the detail was difficult to make out on the screen. Trying to fake the architecture of the historic surroundings is probably not the best approach. A good cue could be taken from BJC's Center for Advanced Medicine that fronts Forest Park Blvd., which while possibly influenced by some past styles, is very much rooted in the present without being a ticky tacky piece of roadside architecture like Drury's recently opened Chesterfield hotel. The proposal though overall was better than I expected, and a good start.

Update: Drury FPSE Hotel Plan Meeting is Tuesday, Aug 19(tomorrow), Not Today

Apparently the West End Word published the wrong date for the meeting where Drury's hotel plan for Kingshighway and Oakland will be presented. It is tomorrow, Tuesday August 19th at 7pm - same location stated earlier, the church located at 1034 S. Kingshighway (at Gibson). A neighborhood resident who commented on my post made me aware of the error.

Drury plans to replace Lambskin Temple and other historic buildings with new hotel

Drury wants to replace this

With this!

This weeks West End Word reports that Drury hotels is proposing a new hotel on Kingshighway at Oakland. While the details have yet to be made public, the article reports that the historic Lambskin Temple, which was renovated several years ago as loft apartments could be demolished as part of the plan. Additionally, several houses and small apartment buildings in the area would likely be demolished as well. Drury Development has already begun knocking on peoples doors, offering to buy them out.

Below are a few photos from St. Louis CIN of buildings south of the Lambskin Temple that could be included in the buyout. While none of them are spectacular buildings individually, they make up an entire block face of the the Forest Park Southeast National Register Historic District. Just south of the Lambskin is a somewhat unusual house built entirely of stone instead of brick (see first photo, peeking out behind a tree... photo from waymarking.com)


While the idea of a hotel in this general location does make sense, and Drury has a great track record Downtown, with three unique hotels located in five renovated historic buildings, their recently completed hotel at Hampton and 44 does not inspire confidence about what might get built. The photo above (from their own website) of the new hotel shows a mostly Dryvit (fake stucco) building, that seems to be aspiring to be something it's not, in a suburban style sea of asphalt and cars. The aerial shot below shows an all to familiar scene in new construction with the building hugging the back of the lot and the surface parking lot taking the front seat This is why we need a new form-based zoning ordinance with build-to requirements.
Ironically the view from Esther Avenue behind the building is actually quite urban... of course there is no entrance on this side of the building.
Instead of tearing down an entire block of historic buildings, Drury should look to build on land that has been left over by the reconfiguration of the Kingshighway/40 interchange. Changing the design to a single point interchange, land is now available where the cloverleaf ramps were formerly located. The land at the southeast corner of the interchange, shown below on a drawing from MODOT's website, could easily accommodate the new hotel development. The hotel would certainly be more visible from the highway as well, which would be good for business.
The photo below from MODOT's webcam shows the newly available land south of the new eastbound entrance ramp. The Word article mentioned that the City has looked at this land for recreation use, but is that the best use for the land? Would we really want recreation space right next to the highway? Please someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the "replacement park" for the Hudlin playground was to be built off of Chouteau on or near the old Gasometer site?
Drury will be presenting the current proposed plan and getting feedback from residents and other stakeholders at a meeting of the Gibson Heights Neighborhood Association at 7pm next Monday, August 18th at the Church of Living God located at 1034 S. Kingshighway Blvd just north of the Lambskin Temple. To get there, take Arco west from Taylor and loop around the end of the block to the church which is next to Gibson. This U shaped loop does not actually connect to Kingshighway.

SLU Creates Superblock Between LBD & Grand Center, Hinders Development

Typically my posts here pertain to the loss of buildings. This one however targets the erosion of streets. Streets are literally the backbone of the City. Besides parks, they make up the majority of the area of the public realm. They not only carry the traffic of automobiles and pedestrians, but they define the character and scale of districts and neighborhoods, as well as delineate building and property frontage. The simplicity and flexibility of the urban street grid is what separates the City and its inner suburbs from post WWII suburbs which are more often than not defined by cul-de-sacs and overcrowded collector roads. Unfortunately, the City of St. Louis does not recognize the inherent value of it's streets and often gives away, yes, gives away these assets to private hands.

This is the case in Midtown where SLU has persuaded the City to vacate Josephine Baker between Locust and Washington creating a superblock about 870 feet long. This is twice as long as today's city planners recommend to create a walkable environment in an urban area. Longer blocks also increase vehicle travel speeds due to the distance between intersections.
Several years ago, SLU bought properties in bulk in this area as a potential site for their new arena. Fortunately some owners held out, which spared dozens of buildings from the wrecking ball, and SLU was forced to build south of their campus on an old school site (which they demolished). Instead of divesting the properties north of Lindell, SLU seems to have gone into land-banking mode, holding and sitting on many properties, and demolishing several buildings, including the Locust Livery Stable, one of the oldest buildings in the area, to create vast surface parking lots. SLU owned two narrow lots on the east side of Josephine Baker, and this spring decided to take the street and two thirds of an alley as well. The legislation (page 23 - bills 8 & 19) breezed through the third read and passage at the Board of Alderman on July 3rd.

Presumably SLU will swallow the vacated stretch of Josephine Baker into a gian sea of surface parking which will likely egulf the vacant lots as well. SLU owns two architecturally significant buildings facing locust east of the expanding parking lot as well (see photo below), and it remains to be seen if they will attempt to demolish these as well.
SLU's hunger for needless parking lots has created a roadblock to local development. The parking lots and other properties SLU occupy a key location between the flourishing Locust Business District and the steadily emerging Grand Center. The area holds the opportunity to become the bridge that knits the two areas together, but instead remains a wasteland of vacancy holding the two adjoining districts back. Already on the superblock, the former Zane Williams Printing Co. building is being trasformed into the PW Shoe Lofts, and Carter Hendricks, one of the hold-out owners when SLU was aquiring for the arena, has done a fantastic renovation of his shop at 3336 Washington (photo below). According to an RFT article published last year, Jassen Johnson wanted to buy the Livery Stable and renovate it. Now the parking lot in its place and the closure of Josephine Baker create a black hole.
Further west, at the southern entrance to Grand Center, SLU's reluctance or inability to develop the the vacant land where they demolished the Marina Building during the now subdued development boom leaves a poor impression at a very important corner. Across Grand, a fenced surface parking lot north of Jusuit Hall greets visitors to the newly opened Kranzberg Cultural Arts Center in former Woolworth's building.
What will ultimately become of all this vacant land? Know one seems to know, and no one is putting any pressure on the university to do anything about it any time soon. This pattern follows closely to MO with which SLU has operated for years at its medical campus to the south. Stretching west from Compton, block after block of empty land gives the appearance of the aftermath a nuclear holocaust. Are they really going to build med-school related buildings on all that property in our life times? Hopefully we will not all be dead before we find out.