Wrong! Tower Grove East takes a punch; the Ville ducks one. 8:45 AM

Earlier this year, I posted about the unique St. Louis architectural style: the free-standing flounder house. Specifically, the one located at 2915 Minnesota (see below) that Kacie Starr Triplett (6th Ward) wanted demolished.

I made the a prediction in the post that the Flounder house would be saved. Testimony regarding the rarity of these structures in the city, the house's potential to be affordable housing (due to its diminutive size) in a continuously improving neighborhood, etc. would certainly render it safe I thought.

Not so. The Preservation Board approved the demolition 4-2.

Terry Kennedy (18th Ward) was one of those in favor of demolition.

Again, I emailed him. Here is what he had to say:

The overwhelming testimony from the citizens on that block and surrounding community was for demolition. The board heard story after story of the horrors and safety issues living around and near the building. Several of these citizens asked how much longer, after seven years waiting, will they have to wait until this building is demo. The testimony also said this building was extensively marketed as a part of the rehab arama in the area and no buyer and/or developer had come forward. Still further, the proforma presented to the board indicated that it was not cost effective for renovation. There was no real, factual information presented to the contrary. There were two proforma both of which indicating that it was not cost effective. From my recollection, the board was also told that no developer had come forward or would come forward to do the rehab with out large amounts of public funds which was not reasonable.

Quite ironically, my earlier post used the Ville as an example of a neighborhood for which preservation interests were simply not strong enough. But in the latest Preservation Board meeting, it was the Ville's history that was spared and not Tower Grove East's, as I had predicted.

That's right. The demolition of 4568 St. Ferdinand (see earlier post on that as well) was denied.

Are we so shortsighted as to demolish our derelict buildings (rather than secure them; institute a block or neighborhood watch; aggressively market them) when those buildings are rare contributors to our historic built environment?

I can't help but think despite Alderman Kennedy's words that there's a better solution.

State of the City 2008 11:18 AM

Mayor Slay delivered his State of the City address on April 25, 2008.

Conspicuously absent topics?

Blairmont. What's coming?

Transit. What's next?

Pyramid. What now?

That the Mayor has made only one official reference to Paul McKee Jr. and Blairmont is simply inexcusable. This is an issue that deserves attention.

We all know, however, that when Mr. McKee announces Winghaven East on top of St. Louis Place and JeffVanderLou, it will contain townhouse units urban enough to win the mayor's support. He'll be nothing but shocked when the development is announced, of course, because he knows nothing of McKee's plans for over 600 parcels in north St. Louis (which qualify for the new Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit).

We all know that when the city sells the former Pruitt-Igoe site to McKee for a NorthPark East, city officials including the Mayor himself will be tickled at all of the new jobs brought to the city in this traditional industrial park layout.

Why not take this opportunity, Mr. Slay, to ease our minds and let us know what is ultimately planned to subsume over a century's worthy of architectural heritage?

Or when/if we'll see a new Metrolink expansion? Or what will happen with that damned Skybridge at St. Louis Centre!?

Blairmont in St. Louis Place 11:48 AM

I continued with my mapping endeavor last night. Here is a series of blocks in St. Louis Place, along St. Louis Place Park.

Again:

Red = Blairmont Properties

Blue = LRA/LCRA Properties

Gray = Private Properties

White = Not done yet



See my other attempt here. Again, this was chosen at random.

When you consider how much LRA-vacant land is owned in combination with Blairmont's holdings, the possibilities are frightening.

Another attempted Ville demolition. Alderman Moore should go. 9:04 PM

Jesus Christ Temple of Deliverance, in the city's Ville neighborhood, wishes to demolish the historic building below.

For what reason, you ask? To provide the neighborhood with more green space.

The Cultural Resources Office Report recommends denial of the application to demolish the building at 4568 St. Ferdinand. Kate Shea says that the denial of the request comes in light of a National Register survey being conducted in the neighborhood that is expected to see a 2010 completion. Read the full report here.

The Ville has seen such rampant demolition as of late that it is a wonder anything is left. I'll bet that the National Register of Historic Places is considering booting the Ville Historic District due to too much sacrifice of contributing resources.

Let's see.

• Just a couple days ago, Ecology of Absence reported that a (perhaps very old) Ville frame house was demolished.



• Wagoner Place in the Ville was added to the National Register, but it may be too late. The stately buildings of the once impressive block are in near ruins.



• In October of 2007, three buildings on Annie Malone saw the wrecker thanks to 4th Ward Alderman Sam Moore. In the Ecology of Absence posting, Michael Allen notes that Moore was hostile towards the Preservation Board and vowed to continue to press for demolition of all derelict structures in the Ville.



• In September of 2007, three cast-iron storefronts on MLK met their demise.



• In July of 2007, Sam Moore pressed for the demolition of 39 Ville structures; 11 were approved in a contentious Preservation Board meeting.



• In October 2006, a Classical Revival row at the corner of Sarah and Cottage was demolished.

Those are merely the demolitions that Ecology of Absence has covered; there may be several more.

I wonder if Sam Moore understands that the Ville, the city's onetime premiere African American mecca, will never recover if the neighborhood sees much more of this so called "green space". The last time I checked, very few people seem to relate to a vacant lot on a city block as green space. Sam Moore should block this demolition outright. What are the chances of that, given the history above?

Let's check out the green space the Ville already has to offer.

I didn't even include official green space, such as Tandy Park in the above all-too-easy photo showcase.

Moore's toll on the neighborhood has been devestating. Certainly, vacant structures can be a horrific nuisance. But the Alderman should be working with his constituents to develop a preservation strategy for the neighborhood, highlighting how a historic structure is an investment opportunity, housing a potential income-earning and tax-paying neighbor. But in St. Louis, voters reward the role of the watchdog alderman who does less to develop the neighborhood than to add another layer of policing and ordinance enforcement. See the South Side's Craig Schmid as another example.

Consider, though, the Ville's rich history as the locus of African American upward mobility, culture, and talent, along with its architectural acumen. The Ville is a special case and needs special leadership. It deserves better than this "green space". Unfortunately, it has an alderman more concerned with "Smart Shrink" Youngstown, Ohio-style than making the Ville a sustainable investment once again.

Part of such a strategy involves historic rehabilitation, creative financing, and forging a relationship with constituents that inspires hope for change and growth, not fear of vacant buildings and retrenchment.

And it's not just Moore. If St. Louis's structure of government did not allot so much power to alderpersons, we might see a more citywide vision for redeveloping distressed parts of north St. Louis. Instead, parochialism continues with free reign, further damaging neighborhoods already starved for resources.

The Ville's odds of recovery were already low. With Moore, it will be impossible. Alderman Moore should be recalled.

My cry for attention to the National Trust re: Blairmont 5:37 PM

I wrote the following to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's online blog, where anyone can submit an (approved) article for publication on the site. I posted a long entry regarding the Blairmont situation in north St. Louis.

I think it is important to attract more attention to Blairmont's activities than we've currently seen. One St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Riverfront Times article each just isn't enough. There needs to be constant coverage--the kind you'll find in painful overbundance in Built St. Louis's ongoing "Daily Dose of Blairmont" posts.

Here is a snippet of the article I posted. I correct a typo or two along the way (Oops! Must have been a bit too fired up! Hopefully they'll contact me to publish it and will let me do a couple edits).

The St. Louis Place, JeffVanderLou, Hyde Park, and Old North St. Louis neighborhoods lose historic structures by the day at this point. These neighborhoods' recovery is contingent upon retaining such inimitable architecture. Old North St. Louis, for one, is something of a preservation showcase. Severely abandoned and dilapidated, the neighborhood suffered the worst of suburbanization and deindustrialization. The Old North St. Louis Restoration Group, however, has fueled a remarkable turnaround. Now, circa 1870s German vernacular rowhouses are being renovated. On one block, a commercial row is being converted back to a through street after an ill-conceived 1970s-era scheme that turned the street into a pedestrian mall.

Blairmont has bought into this tight-knit neighborhood with disastrous results. Mysteriously accelerated decay, removed boards, damaged rear corners, windows left open to the elements or removed altogether are the identifying features of a Blairmont property. Surely, McKee's demolition by neglect (and by BobCat) are threatening the future of a neighborhood with an admirable grassroots effort to revive itself.

The other neighborhoods involved are much worse off. St. Louis Place is home to a large swath of land that has already witnessed wholesale clearance. Likewise, JeffVanderLou contains many vacant buildings and those who remain in the occupied units are often extremely impoverished.

Nevertheless, it is vital that these neighborhoods' built environments be rescued from the clutches of a secretive and destructive developer. McKee's wealth and development experience should be working to benefit the neighborhoods involved, bringing in much needed investment, new residents, and jobs. Instead, historic buildings are being lost and, along with them, the heritage of once dense and vibrant urban neighborhoods. Whether a limestone faced three-story row house or a modest turn-of-the-century red brick shotgun, north St. Louis has a more than worthy architectural heritage. It should be spared such an ignoble demise, especially considering that the decline of the Rustbelt has taken its toll on these neighborhoods for nearly a half-century already.

I urge you to show your support for St. Louis's North Side and contact anyone you believe could care enough to make a difference.

Blairmont Footprint Map 7:05 PM

I wanted to take a stab at mapping the acquisitions of Blairmont. I just did two blocks at random to demonstrate how the project might look.

Location: 22xx Block of St. Louis, 22xx Block of Montgomery, 23xx Block of St. Louis, 23xx Block of Montgomery.

The faint gray is private property.

The blue is LRA/LCRA property.

The red is Blairmont (LLCs include Blairmont, MLK 3000, Dodier Investors, etc.).

(And, by the way, the white is stuff I didn't get to yet!)



And here is a bolder colored image.



As you can see, they have yet to unleash their full onslaught on the intact and large homes of St. Louis Avenue (though they've started), but the vulnerable and significantly vacant inner portions of St. Louis Place are disintegrating at an ever more rapid pace with Blairmont as their steward. Blairmont is already expanding St. Louis's most notorious "urban prairie" centered around North 22nd and Market.

This was my first attempt. There will be more to follow.

Stay posted.

Take Action:

By the way, please call McKee to express your concern.

McEagle Realty
1001 Boardwalk Springs Place
O'Fallon, Missouri 63368
636-561-9300

Built St. Louis has an excellent list of contacts that you might want to look at as well.

Visit Stellina Pasta. 12:33 AM

For the first of my small business spotlights, I wanted to tell you about Stellina Pasta. First, the facts.

Business: Stellina Pasta
Category: Restaurant
Sub-category: Pasta/Italian
Neighborhood: Lindenwood
Location: 3342 Watson Road., St. Louis, MO 63139
Contact: 314-256-1600
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11am - 9pm
Amenable to: casual dates, a small office lunch outing, organic food freaks, meatlovers and vegetarians alike, basically anything other than a large group of people
Prices: $10-15 per head, post-tip

Stellina Pasta ("little star") is one of the coziest dining spots in St. Louis. I have to admit, its location is not all that exciting to me. Sure the growing presence of "yuppy" types in the Lindenwood/St. Louis Hills area seem to drift in and out, snagging seats with unsuspecting neighbors and generating casual chat like the best of urbanites--but something about its location on Watson (which I usually associate with St. Louis County's much longer stretch of the road of the same name) almost kept me from trying this place out. When I think of new and exciting places to go in the city, Lindenwood (Park) doesn't typically win out.

I'm glad I was extremely hungry one day while traveling down the pedestrian unfriendly Watson highway that is now, in my opinion, home to two destination restaurants: the ever popular Biggie's and Stellina itself.

Stellina, make no mistake, is tiny.



But as you can see, the storefront is adorable. The large window with the counter facing it is great for a person flying solo and wanting to people/car watch. In nice weather, the patio outside adds a lot more seating.

The interior gives off a bit of that pristine and squeaky clean coffeehouse vibe--again, not my favorite, but the intimate scale of the place, which makes it appear all the more busy, is rare in St. Louis and is appreciated in this context.



With the tin ceiling, my imagination has invented the scenario of this building as a former neighborhood grocery store. Maybe I'll do a bit of research.

What about the food and pricing though?

The food, all organic and handmade, is excellent. I have had several iterations of the pasta, all successful to me. The Hog Wild is my favorite sandwich:

Shaved ham, bacon, granny smith apple, white cheddar, sweet hot mustard on peasant bread, served grilled.

But rotating specials and a host of no-meat items make this place amenable to all foodseekers.

Check out the menu here. Prices are definitely reasonable, with each sandwich falling between the 7 and 9 dollar marks. Pasta, as can be expected, is a bit pricier. Portion sizes are not huge, but are completely appropriate and filling. My only complaint, as a Coke/Pepsi addict, is the lack of a fountain--meaning you must pay for each soda can and glass of ice. Oh well. It's probably for the better.

Next time you think pasta, at least for once, don't think the Hill! Come to Lindenwood and try out Stellina. You will not be disappointed.