Some More Downtown East St. Louis

I'm always amazed by some of the beautiful storefronts on Collinsville Avenue, many featuring terracotta decorative elements that are still in good condition after decades of neglect.

Sadly, the back sides of many of the most elegant buildings in downtown are beginning to fail, and are slowing falling down into piles of concrete and rebar.

Grass lots are replacing what were once businesses, leaving the long sides of building exposed to view.

This house looks like it caught on fire at some point; despite the vinyl siding, I suspect this house is much older.

Also, I will be presenting about the exciting future of St. Louis Patina at 7:00 PM at the Contemporary Art Museum on July 12th, in conjunction with PechaKucha St. Louis. I hope to see you there.

Spivey Building, Revisited

I had the opportunity to photograph the long-suffering Spivey Building, supposedly the tallest building in southern Illinois. You can see previous pictures of the exterior and interior.

I was concerned that there was some new damage to the pediment of the building, but I looked back at old pictures and realized that it has been like that for a while.

The city wants to tear it down, but it has no money to do it. In many ways, it's sort of an awkward building; individual floors don't have much square footage, and there's plenty of room to build new buildings in downtown East St. Louis.

Downtown Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Power and Light Building

The Kansas City Power and Light Building was the tallest skysscraper in Missouri for decades, only surpassed by a modernist skyscraper in St. Louis.Its Art-Deco detailing once features a dramatic light show when the building first opened.Hoit, Price and Barnes designed this remarkable building, as well as other buildings around the city.Again, how did St. Louis not get around to building so many tall buildings during this era, even though it was a larger city?

Art Deco Skyscraper, Kansas City, Missouri

Why does Kansas City have so many taller historic skyscrapers compared to St. Louis?

Missouri Pacific Building

Slightly outside of the heart of downtown and not really near any major attraction, the Missoui Pacific Building recently underwent a massive renovation. I'm not happy that what was originally intended to be another condo tower was downgraded into a hideous parking garage, fronting the major north-south axis of downtown; but nonetheless, I am glad that the building was renovated, and if it took the parking garage being built to get it done, then so be it. The parking garage can be replaced with a more elegant structure in the future.

Interestingly, it seems the Missouri Pacific Railroad was once headquartered in one of the buildings demolished for the Gateway Mall.

Note that the builders didn't sheath the inside wall of the skyscraper; it seems that in the optimistic days of the turn of the century, people were certain that wall would one day be obscured by a skyscraper of similar height.

If only their optimism had come to fruition, we would have possessed a wonderful block of Art-Deco buildings fronting the civic plaza.

I have to admit that the new windows really make the building look great, even if they're not 100% historically accurate.

The Art-Deco detailing, above on the rampart of the building, and below, in the stunning entrance lobby, are what make this building stand out.

I particularly enjoy how the stone switches to gray on the first floor, highlighting the entrance.

The giant C-scrolls, rife with careful detailing, are a stark contrast to the clean lines of the terracotta white building rising above them.

U.S. Steel Building, Old Empire Brewery

On Sarah, just north of Clayton Avenue and the railroad tracks is this interesting building, decked out with some intriguing ornament.

Currently, a large metal shop sits behind the building, but it is clearly much newer than the tan brick building with wonderful neoclassical details.

The lion heads, most likely in terracotta, give this building its distinctive character. I looked around, and could not figure out what this building was used for, but it may have been the office for the Empire Brewery, which once sat on this site.

The tell-tale U.S. Steel logo, which is affixed above the front door and most likely is original, points to the history of the building. I suspect that the famous steel company had a factory of some sort here, and the current metal shop is the descendent of the unique office building shown here.

Cupples Warehouses and the Future

There has been all sorts of beautiful renovations downtown south of Market Street, but the area continues to lack something that will make it a truly vibrant neighborhood. Here are some of my suggestions.

First of all, while they should not necessarily be eliminated, the entrance and exit ramps onto the elevated lanes of Highway 40 are intrusive, ugly, rapidly deteriorating and most importantly, they waste space. When the rebuilding of these structures occur, they should be reconfigured to fit in more hospitably with the street grid.

Likewise, there are huge swaths of "greenspace" that waste valuable real estate, often times for the sake of safety. I've been told that the government didn't want buildings across the street from the federal courthouse for safety reasons, but that is totally illogical since you can drive right by the courthouse anyway. After living in Washington, DC in the post-9-11 world, I watched as security barriers went up all around that city, despite many of the measures merely ruining public space as opposed to protecting anyone. For example, the federal courthouse in St. Louis has Jersey barriers up around the courthouse; they make the place look secure, but in reality would only stop a truck bomb from getting a grand total of another ten or so feet closer to the building. Certainly they make the area look bad, at minimal benefit to safety.

Also, work to make Walnut Street and actually appealing street to walk down; as can be seen below, the builders of City Hall clearly intended Walnut to be the grand vista upon which to approach City Hall. It is marred by a bridge from the jail to the courthouse. While I know it would cost large amounts of money, perhaps the bridge could be turned into a tunnel under the street.

Finally, embrace the juxtaposition between new and old; the area south of Market has lost much of its original character, but that does not mean that a neighborhood with its own character can't rise in its place.

Let's be honest, the whole area is dominated by courthouses, which in general are places people don't want to be unless they work inside. My experience is that many courthouse areas tend to take on a similar pallor as the courthouses around them. Likewise, government office buildings seem to have the same effect on creating drab neighborhoods. Consequently, the area should have a strong mix of all different types of businesses and housing to create a strong community in the Cupples Warehouse District.

Busch Stadium and the Architectural Legacy of St.. Louis

I was going to do this post about two years ago, but then I completely forgot. I thought to commemorate the Cardinals' eleventh World Series victory, I would look at the third Busch Stadium and how it borrows and celebrates earlier architectural monuments in St. Louis.First, and perhaps the most obvious, is the Eads Bridge, one of the most important bridges in the world; as you can see, the main entrances to Busch feature giant arches reminiscent of the bridge.See more of historic bridges here, from some of my earlier posts.Likewise, the ornamental terrcotta panels clearly show the influence of the Merchants Laclede Building on Fourth Street, once nicknamed the Wall Street of the Midwest.Look at more of St. Louis and other cities' historic office buildings here.Finally and perhaps the most obvious, the nearby Cupples Warehouses influence the overall composition of the stadium.I was remarking this weekend about how important the Cardinals are to St. Louis; in a metropolitan area where it is a spectator sport to try and watch the city fail, no one dares lay a hand on the one of the most storied teams in baseball. They can take away 500,000 people, but they can't take away the Cardinals.

Davenport, Iowa

I was able to photograph a little bit of Davenport recently while on a trip there; I'll definitely need to make it back and see some more.

Tandy Medical Arts Building

This small but interesting doctors' office building sits just north of Natural Bridge on Kingshighway.
Not only is it an interesting building, it has an interesting history. Read this entry from Discovering African American St. Louis.
The details are what I enjoy about this building, from the brick-created symbol for medicine...
...to the flower bed that sits on one side of the doorway.The small details like the railing also add a sophisticated touch to the design. The lobby is fantastic as well, containing apparently all of the original features as well as furniture.