An Analysis of Lafayette Walk’s Doors & Transoms

Two weeks ago the City’s Preservation Board, in a tediously long meeting, voted to require the developer of the new Lafayette Walk townhouses, Orchard Development, to replace the front door and ‘transoms’ on the units already complete and to make changes going forward.

I must admit that at first glance I agreed with their decision. In spending some more time looking at this project, other new construction projects, and period buildings I’ve some to a slightly different conclusion.

Correctly discussed at the meeting was the lack of a proper transom sash. At Lafayette Walk the developer somehow thought they could just insert glass in the frame and do without the sash. Of course, real opening transoms (like the six in my building) all require a sash frame to work. It is part of the look and should have been a no brainer. The staff & board also focused on the lack of thickness of the header frame between the door and where a proper transom should have been.

Cultural Resources director Kathleen Shea focused on the height of the doors as the other problem. All evening long she asked those speaking the height of their doors. As a result, the Preservation Board voted to require the front doors to be 7ft tall rather than the 6ft 8 in doors that are already in place.

Looking at the entry to the right it is certainly true the door could be taller without any issues. However, if they also thicken the header and do a proper transom sash the amount of area will be significantly reduced.

I have an issue with the light area over the window in the eyebrow. Historically this area would be the same color as the window frame. Why this hasn’t been addressed is beyond me. It is possible this area just hasn’t been painted yet…

The building from above includes six units, three with half circle opening like this one. In this case, a taller door would be a horrible mistake as you’d lose the entire view of the transom. So, the first mistake from the Preservation Board was to apply the 7ft door to all openings, including ones like this.

While we are here at this picture I want you to note a few things that I’ll reference later. The front steps leading to the small front porch rise to the point where you are nearly flush with the interior floor — no step up from the porch to get inside the house. As a result the steps are way above the dividing line between the foundation and brick line.

One last thing, I’m surprised they are not required to have a “graspable” handrail given the height of the steps above grade. I know I’d want something to hold on if the steps are covered in snow & ice.

New Website Launched for Northside-Southside Mass Transit Study

A new website has been launched for the Northside-Southside transit study. From the site’s homepage:

From January 2006 for the next 18 months, this is where you will find the latest information on planning MetroLink and other major transit improvements for the City of St. Louis, Missouri.

In reality the locally preferred routes selected a few years back were routes through the city to get to both north & south county. Plus, as I’ve said before, I don’t think light rail in the middle of the street is a good urban solution. Check out the site yourself and be sure to use the comment form!

The site is visually attractive and easy to use. However, it fails to include an RSS feed for updates. Those of us that use feeds to know when a site has been updated must now manually check the site. Not smart!

Click here to view the new site.

– Steve

The South Grand Building With Many Names

0Some call it the Melba Theatre building, others refer to it as the Pizza A Go-Go building for a long-time tenant, and still others call it Grand View Arcade. Whatever the name, it is stunning. With few exceptions, this has to be one of best proportioned and detailed buildings in all of St. Louis.

Anyone looking to construct a new mixed-use building in the city of St. Louis should study this one closely. I’m not advocating copying the detailing, although it is fine. Rather, the massing and relationship of windows to solid is very pleasing.

A modern interpretation of this building would be quite nice a block south on the old Sears site. Oh that is right, Ald. Jennifer Florida wants a McDonald’s on that site. Well, I guess she knows best…

The Lawrence Group is tackling this building along with the former Southside National Bank across Grand. This building will have sidewalk level retail with apartments above. Parking for residents will be in the basement, accessed from the former bank drive-thru area to the south. Unfortunately, the existing curb-cut on Grand will remain. I’d like to see access to this side parcel from the alley, not Grand.

The name Grand View Arcade, according to TLG, is the official historical name of the building. Like the larger Arcade building downtown at 8th & Olive, this one sports an indoor hall with shops facing it on two levels. Basically, it was an early indoor mall. This, in fact, pre-dates the early suburban outdoor mall concept. Where this differs is scale: it works as a small space in a great building in a pedestrian neighborhood.

Apartments will occupy the 2nd and 3rd floors of the building so it remains to be seen if this arcade will once again be a public space or it will become a grand entrance lobby for the apartments. I’d like to see it open to the public.

So the name thing. The Pizza A Go-Go name is simple, it was a tenant for many years and people fondly remember it. But how did the Melba Theatre fit into all of this? Well, not inside this building that is for sure. The Melba was behind the building to the east. Basically you’d enter the Arcade off Grand and walk past this staircase to the actual theatre.

The east facade of the Grand View Arcade is seen at right here. Note how the lovely facade wraps around the corner from Grand onto Miami Street. On the left of the image is an unfortunate apartment building that was built where the Melba Theatre once existed. It is not clear to me how you got from the Arcade into the Melba: by going back outside? By going through a hallway? Did the Melba have an entrance off Miami Street as well? Perhaps some historians will know or someone will look up some old records. Razing this ugly apartment complex and building something new up to Miami Street would be a great next step.

Apparently TLG already has interest from retail tenants for this building so they are moving ahead their renovations. These tenants haven’t yet been announced by it is good to see the strong interest in street-level retail in this area.

Additional photos can be seen on Flickr.

– Steve

Washington Ave: Parking vs. Traffic vs. Valet

Last summer the Downtown Partnership’s Jim Cloar made a big deal about parking not being allowed on Washington Avenue after they and others failed to post any no-parking signs.

Last month, after pressure from myself and others, the powers that be decided to allow parking in the 1000 and 1100 blocks of Washington Avenue. The one exception, no parking during the rush hours of 7:30am to 8:30am and 4:30pm to 5:30pm. I’m still not convinced we have enough of a rush to keep the area free when folks might be stopping at places like KitchenK for happy hour or local businesses like City Mac. But, I reluctantly accepted the desire to keep traffic moving while we try this out. Seemed like a reasonable compromise.

But today, at 5:10pm, the lanes were not kept open during the required hour for the evening rush. The culprit? Copia’s valet parking.

I fail to see the logic of not allowing parking on the street during the evening rush simply to allow a restaurant to take the very same lane for valet parking. Either we keep all lanes open during rush or we drop the no parking requirement for everyone.

– Steve

Vollmer & Deferring Colleagues Vote to Raze St. Aloysius

I’m not sure what feeling is the strongest: anger, disappointment, sadness. In truth it is all of these. According to the Post-Dispatch the Board of Aldermen passed legislation to bypass the Preservation Board and allow the demolition of the former St. Aloysius Gonzaga complex. Keep in mind the Preservation Board is a volunteer citizen board appointed by the Mayor — the very ones who are supposed to give a balanced view of demolition requests as they relate to the development potential.

On December 19, 2005 the Preservation Board gave the property owner a very clear message: no you can’t tear down these buildings. It was a preliminary review and the owner could have come back another time with more documentation as to why he couldn’t save the buildings.

But instead he relied on the area’s Alderman which delivered the required legislation to snub the city’s 1999 Preservation Review ordinance. Basically the legislation stands to protect our neighborhoods and building stock unless one person, the area’s alderman, decides otherwise. Why even bother having a Cultural Resources Staff and a Preservation Board? Why not streamline the careless destruction of those very buildings and urban settings which make our city unique.

In the end Ald. Vollmer make a horrible decision not only for the immediate area but for the city. As expected, the other 27 “legislators” deferred to his judgement. I guess we have 28 cities within a city.

In place of this unique setting we’ll have some very ordinary houses — maybe. I’m not holding by breath. Based on what I’ve seen to date this developer he won’t get very far beyond razing the historic structures. My prediction is he’ll get no more than 5 houses completed and sold this calendar year with another 5 in 2007. More than half the sites will remain vacant eyesores.

This is if he does the project at all. Some have suggested he is busy shopping the building lots to other builders. This might be a good thing as ugly suburban looking homes are better than vacant lots with weeds and debris.

Neighbors will be hugely disappointed by the end result of all this. Of course, at that point it will be too late. As with so much of what we’ve lost, we don’t miss it until it is gone.

Perhaps the most disappointing thing about all of this is we’ve failed to learn from past mistakes. Mistakes around razing great old buildings. Mistakes around electing the same types of folks.

You can express your feelings on this project in the comments below, to the Board of Aldermen and the Mayor.

– Steve