An Elegant & Accessible Solution

My real estate office (Circa Properties) is located in a very urban building on S. Kingshighway at Landsdowne (map). The building’s owner, an Architect, lives with his family in one of the upstairs apartments.

This summer as I was about to return to work he make access easier. Since the building was built in 1922 the commercial storefront spaces have always had a single step at each entrance.

As you can see above he devised a simple and elegant solution to eliminate the steps. At each end of the new section of sidewalk is a gentle slope, allowing someone access without a step. Planting space softens the area and visually breaks up the previously large amount of concrete. Rather than a bunch of ramps this solution looks very thoughtful.

I’ve never had my wheelchair at the office but if I did getting inside would no longer be an issue.

Win Tickets to St. Louis’ 2009 Inaugural Ball

On Tuesday January 20, 2009 Barack Obama will be sworn in as President of the United States. There will be many parties in Washington D.C. and room rate there have skyrocketed. Not going to D.C. for the event? Still feel like celebrating?

Well then the St. Louis African American Caucus Foundation and the St. Louis Young Democrats have just what you need, St. Louis’ 2009 Inaugural Ball held inside the beautiful rotunda of the St Louis City Hall. Tickets for this black-tie event are $50 per person or $125 per person for the VIP ticket which includes valet parking, a cocktail party and dinner. The Ball starts at 8pm with the VIP events starting at 6:30pm.

I’ve got two regular tickets (non-VIP) for a lucky reader. The contest is open between now and 5pm Friday January 2, 2009. Entering is easy, just send an email to contests@urbanreviewstl.com – include your name, your home address and your phone number. I’ll take all the entries and pick a winner at random. Only one entry per person. If you cannot attend please don’t enter. I’ll notify the winner by email and/or phone by 5pm Monday 1/5/2008 so that person has plenty of time to go shopping for the right outfit, arrange for a baby sitter, etc. Your contact information will not be used by me or sold to others.

I would use the tickets myself but I don’t have the proper attire and I’ve got class until 7pm that evening anyway. Besides, my bedtime is often before 9pm. Trust me, when President Bush becomes former President Bush and Barack Obama becomes President Obama I will be celebrating.

Burger King at Loughborough Commons Lacks Pedestrian Access Route

Given what a clusterfuck Loughborough Commons has been I really shouldn’t be surprised the new Burger King lacks a pedestrian access route. Burger King joins Lowe’s as two places at Loughborough Commons where pedestrians are not welcomed — pedestrians must be willing to risk injury or death and share space with cars to access these buildings located in a project that utilized generous tax incentives.

The public continues to get hosed at Loughborough Commons. I’m surprised because providing pedestrian access, as you will see, would have been quite simple.

Burger King has very generous provisions for the motorist but zip for the pedestrian. What pedestrians you might ask. Well, people do walk to Loughborough Commons. People also arrive by bus and bike. Yes, most use a car but we shouldn’t overlook those not driving private autos. Everyone spending money at Loughborough Commons is paying an extra tax to the Community Improvement district. Shouldn’t pedestrians expect some accommodation in return?

Potential pedestrians coming to the Burger King include nearby residents and workers at other businesses at Loughborough Commons. For example, a clerk at the OfficeMax may want to walk to Burger King for lunch

So how would it have been easy to provide pedestrian access to this Burger King? From the above picture you can see the width of the Fifth Third Bank lot is not terribly wide. To the right is the new Burger King. To the left is the main entrance for Loughborough Commons. Both sides of that entry include Pedestrian sidewalks.

So they have sidewalks bringing the pedestrian into the development.

At the bottom of the entrance the sidewalk ends (above) with a crosswalk to the South (below). Going off to the left is an outer drive that separates the out parcels from the main parking area. When built I though the solution was pretty good – the sidewalk could simply be continued to serve all four outlots.

Of course for all the establishments located in the out parcels to be accessible the sidewalk needs to be continuous. Burger King being located in the 2nd of four out parcels the fact they didn’t continue the sidewalk means the remaining two to the East will also not be in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. It also means that an able-bodied person who might consider walking a few hundred feet is being encouraged to drive.

How can this possible be so bad? They had the origins for a sidewalk to serve all four of the out parcels yet they still managed to screw it up. Clearly the pedestrian is given no thought. The folks at DESCO & their engineering consultant must all be amateurs because they can’t seem to figure out something so utterly simple.  If they want to do stupid development with their own money fine but when they hold out their hand asking for help from the public we need people & ordinances to ensure we’ll actually get something worthy of our investment.

This is not about excluding cars, or even creating the ideal urbanist project, but about planning for all means of site arrival as well as circulation within the site.  One of the residents in new homes a few blocks to the West might want to walk to the grocery store or to get a Whopper his way.  I’m referring to Mayor Slay, a new resident to the area.

One of the four out parcels will soon have a Fifth Third Bank.

One of the conditions needs to be that the bank extend the sidewalk along the edge of their parcel and that they actually connect to it. I’m emailing everyone I know at City Hall to try to improve this situation before it gets worse.

I’m sure Alderman Matt Villa would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on Loughborough Commons.