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Tuesday, May 5, 2009

A Case Study of Anti-Urban Design


Photo Source: Geo St. Louis

Forget the terrible series of one-story commercial buildings not even visible from the street they "front".

Forget the ridiculous contrast between early 20th Century red brick homes and the boring-as-could-be tan hue of the shopping center.

Forget that these homes face an unsightly commercial rear end.

Forget the ugly light poles; the lack of sidewalks; the perpetually unused parking spaces.

Forgetting even all of that, what do you have at so-called Gravois Plaza?

A design that spits in the face of urbanism--and environmentalism. This expanse of impermeable asphalt is so unneeded and so treeless it practically begs for a schlocky New Urbanist development to clean it up.

Where are the trees, at least? Seriously, this is not an ordinance? No wonder urban runoff and combined sewer overflows keep St. Louis polluting its natural resources.

1 comments:

Matt Kastner said...

I live on Gravois a bit north of this plaza and every time I drive by I think the same thing. I have never once had the slightest inclination to go to any of the stores in that plaza. What a joke.

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