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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Rants and Raves, Quick and Dirty

Rants

Grand Center--the Intersection of Art and Life--is getting an artless, lifeless streetscape improvement project. New sidewalks, essentially...that's it. See Gateway Streets blog for more details. Why waste the money?

In a 4-3 vote Tuesday, the St. Louis County Council approved the name change of Weber/Carondelet Roads in South County bordering River des Peres to, gulp, River City Casino Boulevard. River City Boulevard? Maybe. The "casino" portion does indeed turn this stretch of road into a billboard. It erases the history and identity of the street so that drivers cannot mistake where they're heading. Anyone ever heard of a directional sign?

Raves

On the other side of Grand Boulevard, in the Grand South Grand strip, things look a bit better. This streetscape project will shrink the bloated roadway without the use of ugly barriers, will plant new trees, install new street furniture, wayfinding signs, etc. Here is the link to the latest presentation on the project, which includes the rendering.

Sappington Farmers' Market is expanding into the city. The market's owners plan to build a two-story structure at the southeast corner of Park Avenue and Truman Parkway in the City Hospital Complex. It'll include 25,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor and an 80,000 square foot greenhouse atop the building. This excellent development should make the Near South Side an even better place to live. Here's to hoping the building is designed well and is urban in form.







3 comments:

Chris said...

Isn't that a half mile from Soulard Market?

Matt M. said...

About that. ^

But, Soulard Market doesn't really carry as much straight-from-the-farm produce. I mean, there are Dole Bananas there.

To my knowledge, Sappington is closer to a full-service grocer than a traditional farmers' market anyway.

Will said...

River City Casino Boulevard.

Ugh. Reminds me of that tackiest of main drag designations, Mid Rivers Mall Boulevard.

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