Armour Meat Packing Plant's End Coming Soon

Armour Meat Packing Plant, June 23, 2012

A couple of years ago, the new Mississippi River Bridge website published the following satellite image of the path of the Illinois approaches to the new bridge. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that only a portion of the historic stockyards around the old mule pens were in the way of the new road. My favorite ruin in the St. Louis area, Armour Meat Packing, sat uncomfortably close, but nonetheless safe for the time being.

You can understand my chagrin when I recently visited the site and found this new satellite image had been uploaded. If you look closely, you can see that new access road planned to be perpendicular to the new I-70 ends right in front of the main buildings of Armour. I would assume they plan on extending that road further, which of course would go right through the plant. Perhaps it's time for you to see it before it's gone.

Quality Hill, West of Downtown, Kansas City, Missouri

Here's a novel idea; build and rehab houses just outside of your main business district so people who work downtown can walk to work.

The area around Kansas City's cathedral is a combination of original Italianate houses combined with housing that looks like it was built in the 1990's or slightly earlier.

Regardless of its date of construction, the in-fill fits in well with the surrounding historic architecture and supports a thriving neighborhood.

St. Louis could learn about the idea of having healthy neighborhoods surrounding its downtown; currently St. Louis is surrounded by interstates, vacant lots and undesirable housing projects. When was the last time you walked to downtown St. Louis from your house? Never? It's not like that in every American city.

More McRee Town

Much of the rest of McRee Town sits abandoned, with the potential for more redevelopment.

I particularly like the house with the tan front and the red brick side walls; it would make a great rehab one day.

The two mirrored apartment buildings give the effect of one larger building.

I always like alley dwellings such as this one, because so many of them have been torn down. It would make a great garage and artist's studio combination.

The Rebirth of McRee Town

I'm interrupting my tour of Kansas City architecture because I was so excited to see the recent developments in McRee Town, which for a long was one of the most troubled neighborhoods in the city.

Combining sensitive in-fill with the conversion of four-family flats into two houses and the renovation of other notable single family houses, the Botanical Grove redevelopment is doing everything right that has so often been done wrong in St. Louis.

For starters, pre-existing homeowners were not run out of their homes with eminent domain arranged with corrupt officials in smoky backrooms.

Secondly, the remaining housing stock was renovated into viable real estate, and priced at market rates.

Finally, the in-fill housing is very cool; it doesn't try to pretend it was built in the Nineteenth century, is unashamedly modern, but the massing and materials match the neighborhood and city.

If the first phase on McRee Avenue is successful, it will spread to other streets, and hopefully the rest of the city.

What They Wanted to Do to Soulard

This was the plan to completely demolish Soulard and turn it into the suburbs.

St. Louis Centre, Eviscerated

Alerted by posts at Vanishing St. Louis and the Preservation Research Office, I decided to use the new St. Louis Centre Memorial Parking Garage last Friday. That was a big mistake.

I had already seen the new exterior, but I wanted the opportunity to see the new parking garage built in the floors of the old mall. I must say, it is the most open, light-filled parking garage I have ever parked my car in, but when I tried to exit by a staircase, I was greeted by signs saying that the exit was for emergencies only. I had to go back up the stairs, checked to verify that there was in fact no sign saying that I couldn't use that staircase, and eventually just took an elevator down to 7th Street. What a bizarre place.

Old Deaconess Hospital

There's not much left of the original facade of the old Deaconess Hospital on Oakland Avenue, slated for demolition if the sale of the property to the zoo proceeds.

There is still this nice nurses' wing, I believe, that could be reused by the zoo. It looks like it's in good shape, and has architectural merit.

My favorite part of the hospital is the row of three nurse statues that line the corridor that links the hospital with the west wing above.

The rest of the hospital site is definitely looking worse for wear. The glass box office building, to be saved for the zoo's expansion, is still in good condition.

It's a shame the building is being torn down, but I must say that I believe the zoo would be a good steward of the property. Forest Park lost many, many acres of land to Highway 40, and I see no reason why the park can't spread south a little, into space that has been institutional for close to a century. Less surface parking would be nice, if the zoo could alter its plans for the site.

And the saving of the two iconic towers would be a welcome sign from the zoo as well.

Modernist House, Town and Country

I recently had the opportunity to document a unique--and very long--modernist house out west in Town and Country. The developer/real estate agent kindly offered me the chance to document the house before it was demolished for a new house.

The house sits on a large lot, and has a beautiful pond in front of the house. Records show the house was first built in 1949, and then a large expansion and renovation pushed the house to close to 200 feet long, almost the entire width of the property.

The natural setting kept pulling my eyes away from the actual house, which is interesting in its own right.

The origins and architect of the house remain a mystery, but the original portion of the house captures beautiful views out to the flowering magnolias and other landscaping features.

While comparisons to the more famous Morton D. May house could be made, I don't feel it's the best comparison. While the May house had large amounts of original fabric, I'm afraid upon my inspection that this house was stripped of any interesting Modernist fixtures or accents in the 1980's renovation.

What was left was largely a very giant house, stretching a long way and with a lot of oddly shaped rooms lacking Modernist context.

The back of the house was not looking too hot, and betrayed its age. The living room, seen below, was really the centerpiece of the interior of the house.

I can imagine how originally this room followed Frank Lloyd Wright's desire for the interior and exterior to flow seamlessly between the two realms.

But unfortunately, like all flat roofed houses (and particularly seeming to strike Modernist houses), the only thing flowing the day I was there was an obviously large pool of standing water on the roof, as evidenced by the reflected ripples on the wall above the ceiling. Stripped of its original fabric, this Modernist house is an interesting footnote in St. Louis architectural history.

Philip Vincent, who generously allowed me to photograph the house before it was demolished, asked me to post this:

I'd like to give you a couple facts about the house. Built in 1949, 6000 square feet, 180 feet wide. The old house prevented people from understanding the true size of the 2.6 acres.

After a year of showing it to rehabbers and Modern "fans" we have decided to bring the old house down to make way for a new home in the 1.5 to 2 million range. The new home will also be 6000 square feet (but not 180 feet wide!) The realtor is Phillip Vincent 314-537-7445 with the Hermann London Group. My website is http://www.hermannlondon.com/phillip-vincent

Old North St. Louis, Late Afternoon

Yes, you can relax in North St. Louis without worrying about getting shot by drug dealers. I took these two photos while enjoying the waning hours of sunlight with some friends outside of the La Mancha Coffeehouse, which I encourage you to visit the next time you're in the Old North neighborhood.

City Hospital Power Plant, Reinvisioned

I can't say enough positive words about the renovation of the old City Hospital power plant into a bouldering facility, envisioned by two brothers and I think some of their friends.

Left as a ruin when the City Hospital was abandoned, the power plant is a landmark on the near south side.

The interior, while stripped of the bulky boilers that once filled the room, still contains some nice elements alluding to its industrial past, such as a giant gantry crane that still hangs over the lobby.

Below you can see several angles of the artificial "rock wall" that climbers can now tackle in the renovated space.