Remember when Lenore K. Sullivan Blvd used to flood nearly every year? How it was a costly mess because street light wiring, guard rails. and such were all damaged? The street between the Arch and the Mississippi River underwent a major makeover, including increasing the elevation roughly four feet.
Re-opening day June 2, 2016. Lights were mounted on top of angled concrete piers to keep the wiring dry.
The work to elevate the road reduces odds of flooding, but it can and does happen.
Major flooding on the St. Louis riverfront, May 5, 2019
In the above example you can see the tops of the concrete piers sticking out of the water. Keeping the electrical connections dry significantly reduced the time & expense to reopen the street once flood waters recede. Hopefully we won’t see future flooding so extreme the connections are under water.
May 23, 2018Featured, Media, Planning & DesignComments Off on Opinion: Wholesale Demolition Has Not Served St Louis Well, Yet Many Still Think It Is The Solution
I applaud KMOV’s Doug Vaughn for raising questions about the appearance of the riverfront to the north & south of the Arch grounds. Yes, we can and should improve these areas.
If you’re unfamilar, see the following three Doug Unplugged videos:
Vaughn repeatedly used the term “eyesore” which is highly subjective. It means “something unpleasant to look at”. Different people can see the same thing very differently. What Vaughn views as unpleasant I see as beautiful, historic, with great potential.
While I agree a problem exists, I strongly disagree as to the best solution to solve the problem(s).
Vaughn’s proposal is tear down what exists and plant grass. This is been St. Louis’ answer for well over a century, we’ve been tearing down our city for generations. Luther Ely Smith, who has a square named after him in front of KMOV’s building, was the one who championed the project that would erase 40 city blocks of our city’s origins. He was also instrumental in hiring Harland Bartholomew, who spent decades tearing down many hundreds pf acres of St. Louis, ignoring calls for commuter rail to the new suburbs, and making a car a requirement. Bartholomew famously miscalculated the impact of his massive tear down and rebuilding projects — population dropped rather than increase, as he had thought.
KMOV’s Doug Vaughn wants to continue generations of removing the old from view. Yet it’s the renovation of the old that we celebrate today and has been shown to boost population. Forty years ago Vaughn would’ve spoken in favor of razing Union Station — it was such a vacant eyesore it was used in the filming of the post-apocalyptic film Escape From New York.
The beauty of Carl Milles’ work with Union Station in the background
Thirty years ago Vaughn likely would’ve advocated razing all the vacant warehouses just West of the downtown business district, the streets around these had also been in the 1981 film. Thankfully few were razed, and most have been converted into condos & apartments. It took the city investing in narrowing Washington Ave. to get long-stalled loft projects off the drawing boards and under construction. Private investors needed to see the city was committed. Once they saw the commitment, they invested.
Formerly vacant eyesores now fully occupied, Washington Ave at 16thA 2011 interior photo of our loft, where I’ve lived for over a decade.
The North & South riverfronts have had no such commitment from the city. In fact, the city has repeatedly sent the message to investors the North riverfront is expendable. You can’t blame developers for not investing in an area the city doesn’t care about.
In one “unplugged’ segment Vaughn suggested tearing down the old elevated railroad trestles.
Doug Vaughn is obviously unaware these elevated rail lines are still in use. Yes, the auto lanes on top of the old MacArthur Bridge has been abandoned since 1981 — but the rail level is used daily by freight and Amtrak. . The bridge and elevated lines are owned by the Terminal Railroad Association — acquired in an exchange for the Eads Bridge. These rusty old trestles are part of what I love about St. Louis. Their repetition is pleasing to my eye, the shadows they cast intriguing.
Razing and planting grass hasn’t worked yet for St. Louis yet those without vision who like vinyl-clad boxes with faux “shutters” too small to cover adjacent windows continue to advocate this failed strategy. Sadly, for too long people have listened. Our city & region can’t afford to continue listening to those who espouse a tired failed strategy.
Each Sunday’s poll typically gets about 32 votes — plus or minus 20% depending upon the topic. I could tell right away the recent non-scientific Sunday Poll was being hijacked but I decided to let it go — I wanted to see how far they’d go to defend failed ideas — and I wanted the ad revenue.
Q: Agree or disagree: KMOV’s Doug Vaughn is right, the old vacant buildings on the North & South riverfront should be torn down.
Strongly agree 120 [65.57%]
Agree 23 [12.57%]
Somewhat agree 13 [7.1%]
Neither agree or disagree 2 [1.09%]
Somewhat disagree 3 [1.64%]
Disagree 7 [3.83%]
Strongly disagree 15 [8.2%]
Unsure/No Answer 0 [0%]
The vote total in 12 hours was 183 — 571% more than usual for a typical week of regular readers. Clearly someone orchestrated a campaign to get the results that support their view.
As I’ve said before, I’m not a “preservationist.” I’m an urbanist — someone who loves urban environments, which is best when it’s a mix of old & new. The North & South riverfronts could be incredible neighborhoods — if we renovate the remaining buildings and fill in the holes with new construction. Perhaps we can organize a charrette to brainstorm a vision for these areas beyond…grass.
St. Louis tried redeveloping the North Riverfront, the largely vacant area just North of Laclede’s Landing, by razing it and building an NFL stadium. That failed…thankfully. Next up, the area was included in our bid to win Amazon’s HQ2. Last week Amazon announced their list of 20 cities being considered — St. Louis’ bid didn’t make the cut.
Warehouses along Ashley between 2nd and Lewis.
So now what to do with the North Riverfront? I say stop dreaming about a magic pill that’ll do it in one shot. The street grid still exists, sidewalks need to be built. There’s lots of room foe new buildings and existing buildings awaiting new uses. St. Louis could invest in the area and enact a form-based code to guide future development. The investment would take the form of infrastructure — utilities, sidewalks, and transportation.
St. Louis is working on a North-South light rail plan to the West. This new line will use low-floor vehicles, not the high-floor vehicles used on our current MetroLink light rail lines. Modern streetcar & light rail lines use the same vehicles, the light rail usually just being longer and on a track where higher speeds are available. What does this have to do with the North Riverfront area?
We can use the same vehicles, maintenance facility, etc to operate lower-speed circulation streetcar route that’s connected to the proposed North-South line,
The blue line rep[resents the proposed North-South LR, the orange is a circulator route going from the Eads Bridge MetroLink station up to Mullanphy St. The purple is a connecting route along Cass — which could extend to the new NGA HQ and perhaps beyond in future expansions. After uploading the graphic I realized it would be good to have a connection in the center of the orange circulator route — at Biddle.The orange line is just under 2 miles long. Yes, I know, a bus is a far cheaper way to move people. I also know a bus route doesn’t spur private development. This have the potential to connect The Arch, Laclede’s Landing, the upcoming North-South line, and the NGA HQ.
February 20, 2017Downtown, Featured, ParksComments Off on New Arch To Riverfront Ramps Are A Great Improvement
When I first moved to St. Louis in August 1990 the grand staircase down to our riverfront wasn’t complete — it was grass with steps only on the North & South edges. At some point the center steps were completed.But even as a young (20s) able-bodied person the steps were a pain. I recall one time, in the early 90s visiting the Arch grounds with my parents & grandfather — in their early 60s & mid-90s, respectively, The steps were a huge problem.
Visitors to the Arch grounds yesterday enjoy the sun on the grand stairs
This weekend I visited the Arch grounds twice — along on Saturday and with my husband on Sunday. Both days I did all four of the new ramps connecting the upper Arch grounds to Lenore K Sullivan Blvd on the riverfront.
Looking South from the North outlook area,a new ramp on the right and the North steps on the left. The steps are closed currently because they’re in poor condition.At the bottom of that rampMoving toward the river you can begin to see how much longer the ramp is vs the stepsThe North steps, mirrored to the SouthThe two South ramps each feature a longer flat section with s bench. — excellent for those who may need to sit and restLooking North from the South lookout area
I saw many people using the new ramps both days, but nobody else in a wheelchair. Users were all ages, some were biking, others walking their dogs, some pushing baby strollers, most just out with family and/or friends.
The Arch & grounds were designed at a time when the disabled were institutionalized — not independent members of the community. Ramps just weren’t done back then. Today, thanks to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, those of us who are disabled are better able to live independent lives.
These four ramps, plus the connection next to the Eads Bridge, make getting to/from the riverfront a pleasure.
July 28, 2016Planning & DesignComments Off on Readers Impressed With St. Louis’ New Riverfront
The biggest group of readers in the latest non-scientfc Sunday Poll were “somewhat impressed” with the remake of Lenore K Sullivan Blvd.
Q: Impression of St. Louis’ new riverfront?
Very impressed 8 [15.09%]
Impressed 9 [16.98%]
Somewhat impressed 15 [28.3%]
Neither impressed or unimpressed 7 [13.21%]
Somewhat unimpressed 6 [11.32%]
Unimpressed 3 [5.66%]
Very unimpressed 0 [0%]
Unsure/No Answer 5 [9.43%]
More than 1 in 5 are neutral at this point.
The opening event didn’t work well for accessibility — they parked food trucks on the sidewalk. The end of the food lines were behind a curb. I too voted for “somewhat impressed” — I like the stainless steel railings and the raised streetlight bases.
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