The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts has been open for several years now but I never visited until last week. I went to see the “Urban Alchemy/Gordon Matta-Clark” exhibit which runs through June 30, 2010. The exhibit was more interesting than I first thought it would be – a pleasant surprise. The building is much bigger and more interesting than I expected based on the stark street elevation.
Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts
The Pulitzer and the Contemporary next door to the West break all my normal conventions about good urban buildings. Both present large blank walls to the pedestrian on the sidewalk. The Pulitzer is set back from the sidewalk and the front door is hidden from street view. But both structures work as quasi-civic buildings which often break traditional sidewalk relationships. Blocks and blocks of the beautiful concrete walls would get old quickly but in small doses they make a nice contrast to the older buildings in midtown.
The Pulitzer is open Wednesdays noon to 5pm and Saturdays 10am – 5pm. Admission is free.
There are good restaurants throughout the region, on both sides of the Mississippi River. To generalize, the core of the region has eclectic locally-owned restaurants and the further out you go the more you encounter generic chain after generic chain. There are exceptions, of course. I’ve been to great locally owned restaurants in suburban strip malls and I’ve been to chains in the core. Chains can be company owned as well as a locally-owned franchise.
I regularly use the website Urbanspoon.com to find new restaurants, track my favorites and read reviews by others. The other day I started looking at the list of restaurants by area – city neighborhood vs. areas further out. Sure enough, my suspicions were correct. But why?
Part could be many formula chains prefer stand alone buildings typical of suburbia. Conversely, the local restaurateur may only be able to afford rent on an older building.
Are urban types more prone to try new cuisines compared to counterparts in suburbia? Do the restaurants fit the clientele? Are foodies drawn to the core? I’d say the answers are all yes.
Despite the annual First Night event in Grand Center, I stayed at home New Years Eve. If I were more mobile and it wasn’t so cold out I might have joined the party. The question about people’s plans for New Years Eve was the poll question last week:
Q: New Year’s Eve I will celebrate:
at my home: 28 (33%)
at the home of family/friends: 28 (33%)
at a local business in my region: 9 (11%)
at a local event in my region: 9 (11%)
unsure/still deciding/not celebrating: 6 (7%)
in a region other than my own: 5 (6%)
It was a soft question to end out 2009 and the response was lower than normal. Two-thirds were going to be at home – theirs or that of others. I imagine most of us at home watched the ball drop in Times Square. Such events are held in urban spaces. You’d never see a New Years Eve celebration in a Home Depot parking lot.  People just expect celebrations (parades, festivals, etc) to take place in urban settings.
As Grand Center gets more restaurant venues, hotels and residential housing this area and the First Night event should become more and more important. Maybe this coming NYE won’t be as cold?
More and more I rely on Google Maps on my iPhone. Sometimes it is for directions but recently it was to let me know the time to drive from downtown to visit friends in St. Charles.
I knew the route but wasn’t sure of the time. Thirty-five minutes isn’t too bad, certainly seems longer! Once I had my answer I was curious about the other two route options offered by Google Maps: transit and walking.
As expected the transit option (above) returned with the message, “Transit directions could not be found between these locations.” No surprise since I was headed far into suburbia. But what about walking?
Great, a walking route. But the route is over 70% longer than driving (29.5 miles vs 44.5 miles). I’m not sure what I expected but it wasn’t such an out of the way route. Some use walking routes to help find cycling routes and this is not a viable alternative. It must relate to safe ways to cross the Missouri River.
There are many formulas to determine the ideal relationship between street width and adjacent building height. They often involve drawing cross sections with precise measurements. I’ve got a simpler idea – a rule of thumb, if you will. Build up to the property line and the number of floors of adjacent buildings should be at least as many as travel lanes on the road.
Two lanes = two stories. Three lanes (2 + center turn) = three stories, and so on. If too wide streets like Jefferson were fronted by six story buildings they wouldn’t seem too wide. It doesn’t have the precision of some of the formulas but it is simple – important for a rule of thumb.
It works for two-lane Locust (above). Most of the buildings are two stories high. Not far away we see taller structures along a stretch of Pine.
Pine just West of Jefferson, Wells Fargo Securities
The curb-to-curb distance is roughly the same but the feel is totally different. Clearly more than two floors doesn’t help Pine be a better urban street. Of course many other qualities make this block of Pine the horrible street that it is – lack of building entrances, windows, through traffic, interesting architecture, etc…
The opposite of low suburban sprawl is the mega skyscraper. Today the new world’s tallest building, Burj Dubai, opens in the United Arab Emirates:
The building boasts the most stories and highest occupied floor of any building in the world, and ranks as the world’s tallest structure, beating out a television mast in North Dakota. Its observation deck – on floor 124 – also sets a record. The finished product contains more than 160 floors. That is over 50 stories more than Chicago’s Willis Tower, the tallest record-holder in the U.S. formerly known as the Sears Tower. (USA Today: Dubai to open world’s tallest building)
I’m not impressed. I care more about the sidewalk perspective than a skyline seen from afar. I personally prefer areas of 4-6 story buildings over those that are 40-60 stories, or more.
I see our major streets lined with active buildings of a height corresponding to at least the number of lanes. Block by block, street by street, we can re-urbanize the core. Don’t want to require 6-7 story buildings then reduce the number of lanes of traffic. We must get the lanes/buildings in balance.
AARP Livibility Index
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Built St. Louis
historic architecture of St. Louis, Missouri – mourning the losses, celebrating the survivors.
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a guide to geospatial data about the City of St. Louis
