This afternoon the St. Louis Preservation Board will likely approve demolition of Jewish Hospital at Kingshighway & Forest Park Boulevards and the former Jewish Hospital School of Nursing across Parkview Place, which was previously denied demolition because plans for a replacement building were not in place. Today though schematic plans are in place to replace the buildings with new bed towers for both Barnes-Jewish and Children's Hospitals atop a joined podium that is proposed to span over Parkview Place. Next STL's post from last week has the full agenda for the Preservation Board meeting.
This post is not written to oppose the demolitions, but to reflect on certain aspects of the impending transformation. While the existing building might be able to renovated and retrofitted for uses such as medical office, research or bio-tech space as is being done with the Heritage Building in CORTEX, the old Jewish Hospital and School of Nursing would be very difficult if not impossible to convert into modern functional hospital facilities. Hospitals are required to meet much higher seismic standards than most other uses.
Besides the architecture, one of the most noticeable aspects of the existing buildings are the mature trees and other significant landscaping in the lawns along Kingshighway.
Turning the corner onto Parkview Place, there is a similar mature canopy between the street and the building complex.
The tallest portion of the old Jewish Hospital is only seven and a half stories and set back from all surrounding streets on a tiered base.
While the six and a half story Jewish Hospital Nursing School building does not have a tiered composition along Kingshighway, the setback from the sidewalk and mature trees gives a similar scale along the block face.
Standing in front of the School of Nursing building looking north, the setback, limestone base, red brick upper stories, similar design and detailing as well as landscaping provide a unifying appearance and scale along Kingshighway.
The massing model for the replacement structures show a base of two to four stories with the bed towers rising to about 12 stories, slightly shorter than the Siteman Center at the other end of the block at Euclid. In contrast to newer buildings south of Children's Hospital and the existing buildings to be removed, the base of new structures would not have a setback from the sidewalk. This is similar though to the condition that exists at Queeny Tower, where the parking garage base has no setback. The bed towers on the Kingshighway side would have an angled setback, but would continue up in line with the base along Forest Park Boulevard.
Aerial photos show the existing and proposed buildings at the north end of the hospital campus along Kingshighway. The view above appears to show an angled cutaway in the base (not seen in the massing model) as the building above bridges over Parkview Place.
There is precedent for bridging a building over a street on the medical campus. The Clinical Sciences Research Building at the Washington University School of Medicine bridges over Children's Place, although this portion of the street has been converted to pedestrian use only. The large angled trusses on each side of the building successfully narrow the amount of space covered at the street and also provide very interesting spaces at the interior of the building.
Anyone designing a building over a street though should be cautioned to avoid creating dark and desolate spaces that occur when the width of the bridge is too wide and the height to the underside is too low.
The Jewish Hospital of St.louis began with its first building located at 5415 Delmar Boulevard which opened in 1902 only able to house 30 beds. It was expanded in 1905 with symmetrical wings that brought the bed count to 100. By 1913 this expansion proved too small and land at Kingshighway & Forest Park Boulevards was purchased in 1915 as a site for a new facility. The building on Delmar was purchased by the neighboring Masonic Home who significantly remodeled it and built a twin building to the east. The site is now the location of the St. Louis Regional Psychiatric Stabilization Center, which was built in the mid-1990's.
Above is the architectural rendering by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White of Chicago for the new Jewish Hospital on Kingshighway which was dedicated on May 16, 1926. The School of Nursing was opened three years later and connected to the hospital by a tunnel under Parkview Place.
In 1956 the center wing was added to the hospital and the courtyard facing Kingshighway was infilled with a two story addition. Above is a photo of the new modern lobby created with the expansion.
The idea of going vertical at the Jewish Hospital site along Kingshighway is not new. This study drawing from the late 1960's shows a highrise addition along Forest Park Boulevard and second future tower in front of the original hospital along Kingshighway.
The Schoenberg Pavilion by Schwarz & Henmi Architects was opened in 1974 at eight stories in height, but a newspaper article about the building stated that the building was designed to be expanded vertically up to twenty stories. The Schoenberg building is the only portion of the Jewish Hospital complex that will not be demolished with the new expansion plans.
While Barnes & Jewish Hospitals formed an affiliation agreement in 1992 that led to the creation of BJC and officially merged in 1996, the old hospital building at Kingshighway & Forest Park for many retained the identity of Jewish Hospital. For many Barnes Hospital with the large East & West Pavilions facing Highway 40 still retains its identity. A recent article in the Jewish Light reflects on this passing of the independent identity of Jewish Hospital.
Last week a resident of the 4400 block of Washington Boulevard informed me that this beautiful three story home at 4474 Washington had recently been demolished. I had included a few photos of this house and it's twin neighbor 4476 in a post I did last year about a another demolition on the same block.
This photo by the resident of the block shows the home reduced to pallets of brick wrapped in plastic. Its twin with a different dormer design still stands next door.
The home had been vacant for many years, but was in relatively good condition except for a portion of the rear wall and a small section of roof over this area. A rear porch which shows up in an aerial view from just a few years ago had collapsed from what appears to be fire damage. The main house though was only damaged in the rear where the opening in the wall occurred. The isolated collapse was likely caused by water pressure from a fire hose.
At just over 3,000 square feet, the house which was built in 1905, was not small, but it was still smaller than many houses on this stable block that have been rehabilitated in the last several years. The home was condemned for demolition by the City in June 2012 and according to the City's property records, it's recent demolition cost the City $9,300.00.
This home is a perfect example of where a mothballing program by the City of St. Louis could have resulted in preservation of this handsome structure. A temporary roof at the rear section of the home and framing in the three story opening in the rear wall, which would secure and stabilize the house until rehabilitation, could likely have cost less than the demolition.
A view of the east side of the house shows the structure in sound condition, with original windows still fully intact. The fire escape indicates that the house may have been divided into apartments at or used as a rooming house at one time.
The home had been owned by a corporation with an address in Maryland, and according to City records, property taxes had not been paid for 2010, 2011 or 2012, meaning that instead of being demolished, it could have gone to a tax sale early this year and been bought by someone who would rehab it. If no one happened to bid on it, LRA would have taken ownership and an RFP could have been issued for purchase and rehabilitation of the home. While the real estate market is not (and likely won't be) where it was before the crash in 2008, a local real estate agent told me last week that demand for existing homes in the City is outpacing supply of for sale homes this spring.
A view inside the rear of the house shows some smoke and water damage at the ceiling, but the structure is still fully intact. The fire had not spread through the main portion of the house. While the photo above isn't pretty, the home was still very much in restorable condition.
The surviving twin at 4476 Washington is also vacant but is well secured. The owner according to City records lives in the 5700 block of Pershing, and there are electrical permits listed as recent as 2005.
It should be noted that the demolition of 4474 Washington took place without a review by the Cultural Resources Office. The home was located in the 18th Ward, which lacks Preservation Review and it is also located on a block that was excluded from an expansion of the Central West End Historic District by Alderman Terry Kennedy. The map below shows the expansion of the Central West End Historic District district in blue and the blocks of Washington that were excluded by Alderman Kennedy in pink. The red colored lots are the locations of the demolition last year of 4411 and the recent demolition of 4474 Washington. Including these blocks would ensured review by the Cultural Resources Office that could have resulted in preservation of these homes. The homes would also have been eligible for the 25% Missouri Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit for substantial rehabs.
At a mayoral forum held by the American Institute of Architects - St. Louis the week prior to the primary election, Mayor Slay pitched the idea of a revolving fund to mothball vacant buildings. This strategy is outlined as a short term goal in the Urban Character, Vitality & Ecology section of the City of St. Louis Sustainability Plan that was formally adopted by the City in January. It is time to enact this strategy, which would result in fewer un-needed demolitions and could actually save the City some money. Enacting City-wide Preservation Review would also elevate historic preservation from a political shell game to a strategy for revitalizing the entire City.
Last night I attended the Grand Center Great Streets open house that mostly focused on the streets in and around Grand Center and what should be done to improve them for all users including pedestrians, bikes and cars. Some of the boards also dealt with the problems associated with the uses of many properties fronting the streets, mostly being surface parking lots. One board showed several buildings in red that have been determined to be buildings that should be demolished for other uses. Most I would agree can go away, including the gas station on the island of asphalt at the northwest corner of Spring and Olive and the concrete block pillbox that was made famous in 2010 for being the site of the largest cash heist St. Louis history (no that doesn't make it historic). I was surprised however to see this building at the corner of Washington and Theresa on that board.
While I admit that this building isn't the best form an urban design standpoint (it stands in the middle of a parking lot), it is a unique piece of Googie architecture that should not be dismissed so quickly. The building was constructed in 1969 for NEBA Roast Beef and there are only a few of this type left in the country (thanks Debra Jane Seltzer for the info).
St. Louis does not have many great examples of this typology, which has been given greater credibility with the restoration of the Flying Saucer on Grand. Great streets like Lindell Boulevard have all kinds of architecture that make them interesting. This building would make a great art gallery or continue as a restaurant. Either way, lets focus on filling up all the other giant asphalt lots in Grand Center with buildings and other uses first.
There is a survey for the overall project linked from the page GrandCenterGreatStreets.org. Please take the survey and tell Grand Center what you think of this building.
Demolitions are underway for phase 1 of the Loop Living development at Delmar and Eastgate.
The buildings at 609 Eastgate and 6236 Enright are gone as well as several townhome blocks of the University Terrace Apartments.
On Delmar the six family building at 6263 is slowly coming down.
Fortunately it appears that the decorative terra cotta entrance surrounds of both buildings have been salvaged.
Anticipating the new multi-story construction, protective scaffold has been erected along the entire frontage to keep a pedestrian path along Delmar open.
Sifting through the pages of the Delmar Loop Photograph Project available online through Missouri Digital Heritage, I came across a few photos of the Standard service station that preceded the building that had been occupied for many years by Meineke. The building was almost identical to the station at Newstead & Laclede that according to City property records was built in 1933. What isn't obvious in the photo above is that when the older station was replaced the gas station site was enlarged.
A narrow six family apartment building at 6251 Delmar, at the right in the photo above, was demolished when the newer station was built sometime around 1967.
Around the same time several buildings west, two buildings were demolished to create a surface parking lot directly across from the entrance to the Tivoli Theater. The east building at 6319 Delmar appears to have had it's storefronts added later as was the case with many buildings along this row.
The building at 6321 Delmar had storefronts integral to the construction of the building.
By 1967, when this photo montage was created, the site had been cleared. The parking lot, which would remain for three decades, was part of a larger overall urban renewal plan enacted in the Loop in the late 1960's. This site is now occupied by the University City public parking garage, which is also home to Good Works furniture, constructed in 1998.
A matching lot had been created across the street between the Tivoli and the one story building that housed Streetside Records for many years. Both lots had masonry screen walls along the sidewalk punctuated by terra cotta lions that had been salvaged presumably from a demolished building. This past Friday evening I noticed that the wall is gone and the lot appears to be under re-construction. According to the Green Practices Commission page of U-City's website, the lot will be re-paved with permeable pavement. No word as to whether the wall will be rebuilt.
A closeup of one of the now missing lions by Flickr member MBK.
Demolition are beginning this week in the Loop to make way for Washington University's new Loop Living development. Those coming down include four buildings dating from the early 1920's near the intersection of Delmar & Eastgate. Of these, probably most significant of is 609 Eastgate, which until recently housed a series of sushi restaurants and two apartments above. With its simple but elegant stone trim and decorative red tile roof, this building epitomizes the typology of structures that make up commercial districts throughout the City and inner suburbs.
At the corner, just south of the 609 building, is a lot that with 150 of frontage on Delmar has been vacant for several years since an abandoned Meineke Muffler shop was cleared.
The Meineke building, originally a Standard gas station was built in 1965. This photo from a 1983 architectural survey of the Parkview Gardens neighborhood illustrates the gap created in the Delmar streetscape by this automotive user. Across Eastgate, the storefronts of the corner space that most recently housed the Delmar Lounge have been restored since this photo. Coming soon to this space will be the Mission Taco Joint. a new tacoria that will serve duck tacos among other specialties.
The Loop Living development will feature two 4-5 story buildings fronting on Delmar with continuous retail on the first floor and student apartments above. The first phase will include the two buildings on Delmar and two on Enright. A pedestrian walkway will connect Delmar and Enright between the buildings. Note that the courtyard shown in building 1A above will be at the 2nd floor with retail space continuous fronting Delmar below. The design of the buildings by William Rawn Associates, Architects of Boston with associate architect Tao + Lee Associates, Inc. of St. Louis, especially along Delmar, is a refreshing departure from the traditional styles used in newer student housing on WU's main campus and South 40.
The 609 Eastgate building is located at the far northwest corner of the Skinker DeBaliviere-Catlin Tract-Parkview Historic District. Washington University presented the Loop Living proposal to the Historic District Committee, of which I am a member, last year. While we were of course not thrilled with the idea of losing the 609 building (the other buildings are out of our jurisdiction), we felt that the overall improvement that this development will bring to the Loop and to the vacant Meineke lot that is in the historic district outweigh the loss of the building. The new retail spaces on Delmar that will be part a major component of this development along with the recently added one-story retail building that houses Dick Blick will go a long way toward bringing together the west Loop and more recently developed east Loop.
Immediatly west of the Meineke lot are two 6-family apartment buildings that will also come down. These buildings at 6255 and 6263 Delmar were built by John M. Cook for developer Victor E. Rhodes in 1921. Rhodes and son-in-law Cook built about 15 buildings in the Parkview Gardens neighborhood. The deep overhangs featured exposed rafters that are now hidden by metal or vinyl soffiting and were originally capped with a tile coping at the front edges.
The highly decorative terra cotta entrances seem almost out of place on these buildings which are almost devoid of ornamentation. I would have expected to see an entrance with either a small tile roof in the arts & crafts style or an even simpler entrance with pain stone banding of no ornament at all as is typified my many of the buildings in the blocks north.
The buildings at 6255 & 6263 Delmar have twins two buildings to the west at 6301-05 and 6307-09 Delmar also built in 1921. The storefronts of the building above were added to the building in 1935 in a streamlined style that has been altered. The apartment entrance was moved to the west side.
The Jacobethan style storefronts at the building below with extended central apartment entrance were added in 1928 by architect Norman B. Howard. Unfortunately since the 1983 photo from the architectural survey, the broad overhangs on this building have been hacked back to within a foot of the building face and leaving the edge of the roofing drooping over the edges. Norman B. Howard also designed a storefront addition in the same Jacobethan style connecting two 1919 apartment buildings at 6265-77 Delmar.
Unlike storefront additions to homes in other parts of St. Louis where the original setback was greater, these are not simply additions to the front of the buildings. Instead, they were complex transformations carving out the spaces of the ground floor apartments and adding structural capacity to span the width of the stores. The floor line of the former apartments were also lowered to sidewalk level at least in the front portions by filling in the portion of the basements extending below grade. In the late 1920's though retail trade in the Loop was booming enough to make such expensive transformations a lucrative investment. Please note that none of these buildings with retail spaces west of 6255 and 6263 Delmar are part of the new development.
The last of the four pre-war buildings is this arts & crafts style 6-family at 6236 Enright built by R. E. Jones in 1921. This building is located on the curve as Eastgate and Enright come together and while it is a nice building, it has always like the odd man out due to the loss of historic context west of the building. In the 1960's, the entire Parkview Gardens neighborhood was labeled an Urban Renewal Area, and even in the 1983 architectural survey, the historic buildings were listed as endangered due to this designation.
One of the only large scale clearance and redevelopment projects that occurred as a result of the urban renewal designation was the construction of the University Terrace Apartments on Enright. Fourteen original buildings from the 1920's were cleared on the south side of the 62 and 6300 blocks of Enright to make way for the modern apartments. One of the demolished buildings at 6254 Enright was the home of Tennessee Williams during the time he was a student at University City High School from 1926 to 1930.
The design of the apartments by Anselevicius & Montgomery was chosen in a competition sponsored by HUD. George Anselevicius was a professor at the Washington University School of Architecture, and would later become dean of the school. Most are rows of two story townhomes with the exception of a four story block at Enright and Westgate.
When I went to photograph the buildings that are coming down recently, I happened to run into Eric Schwartz, who recently founded Refab, which is a local nonprofit organization that promotes sustainability and re-use of our built environment by salvaging usable materials from buildings slated for demolition. Refab's first contract is the buildings slated for demolition for Loop Living.
Eric and his crew were hard at work removing everything that can conceivably be re-used from the buildings. I got a chance to take a look inside, and they have stripped these units bare, including all the hardwood flooring. So while we are losing these buildings, at least it is being done in a sustainable manner.
Speaking of sustainability, just around the corner on Skinker at McPherson, Wash U is going for a building permit this week for the complete rehabilitation of the Parkview Apartments. The historic six-story structure built in 1923 was designed by Edward F. Nolte, who was the architect of the building that houses Blueberry Hill, the Lambskin Masonic Temple on Kingshighway and several Craftsman style homes and apartments in the Skinker DeBaliviere neighborhood. Washington University initially planned to begin the renovation last year, but the construction budget was higher than anticipated.
So what did they do? They formed a for-profit entity and will be getting state and federal historic rehabilitation tax credits in order make the project financially more feasible. This is an example that a certain other local university should look into for a certain building at the corner of Grand and Chouteau!
