Restaurants, coffee shops, you name it--they should have bike racks! 1:45 PM

...like Dutchtown's Urban Eats, (3301 Meramec, 63118) which is officially at the top of my list of places to try the next time I'm in town.

Here is a picture of their bike rack:



They're also hosts to numerous neighborhood and community events.

One even dealt with bicycles--the "Blessing of the Bicycles" in front of the glorious St. Anthony's church on Meramec. Check their website out for more info.

I've had the pleasure of having tried another bike-friendly establishment: Cafe Ventana (3919 West Pine, 63108), which not only has a row of bike-shaped bike racks, but also a striped "bike lane" in its parking lot.

These two restaurants are leading the pack, St. Louis. You need to catch up.

Kosciusko: one survivor? 10:24 PM

The Kosciusko neighborhood, today, is a maze of private, industrial streets. There were no residents in the "neighborhood" according to the 2000 census.

I'm often surprised that there's so little in the way of historical record of the old Kosciusko neighborhood, the one that was razed at some point (1960s?) during the urban renewal craze. If you're delving through St. Louis's extensive history of renewal, you'll hear a lot about Mill Creek Valley and various public housing sites (DeSoto-Carr), but very little on Kosciusko.

Doug over at Random Affairs did unearth this gem about the Kosciusko redevelopment (along with Mill Creek Valley). The only real specifics the article mentions are frightening: 71 blocks of red brick homes were demolished for an industrial park. Ouch.

But I've never been able to find a picture of the old Kosciusko neighborhood. I'm assuming that it was akin to the eastern end of Mill Creek Valley--mostly late Federal style two and three story buildings, a couple Creole-influenced apartments, and some Greek Revivals. This had to be a very early St. Louis neighborhood.

I had thought the entire neighborhood was cleared away. Certainly, though, the structure below has to have been a part of the original Kosciusko. Take a look:


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It's located on the 100 block of Victor. Click the "see larger map" link to view the context of the area.

The house looks Creole. It, in fact, reminds me of a rundown version of a French Quarter structure in New Orleans.

Did this home survive the Kosciusko urban renewal?

The St. Louis Community Information is not too helpful on this matter. The parcel on which the home sits is combined with the adjacent industrial property. The earliest construction date for the six structures on the site is 1899. Click here for the STL CIN info.

That building does not look turn-of-the-century to me.

Hmm...

What would I tear down? 7:06 PM

In a blog dedicated to preservation, this seems an odd question.

Shouldn't such a question be predicated on the assumption that, if something is going to be torn down, something better should replace it?

Well, of course. And relax. I was just reading Skyscraperpage and saw a topic titled "Tear it Down!". It's a list of buildings that certain cities' residents (mostly Chicagoans) would like to see torn down.

Almost without fail, the buildings to be torn down are of the Modern (1935 to 1970) or Postmodern (1970-1995) movements.

What's interesting to me is that there are many self-avowed "urbanists" who would readily tear down any mid-century modern building that is not quite "urban" in their books. If it has a small parking lot in front, is not quite as intimate as the older, classical-style building across the street, or, especially, if its own construction involved tearing down a handsome historic building, it's on the urbanist chopping block.

But there is definitely something to be said of a city that embraces its architectural flux--especially one like St. Louis that has suffered too much loss to pretend it's a fully preserved period piece.

I think an Urban St. Louis forum discussion on the old Rodeway Inn (pictured below) says it best. From forum member Framer:

These kind of Mid-Century buildings are crucial to any successful urban fabric. They not only add variety, but they convey a sense of history, that a city is an evolving organism.

You can't always slap down the Jane Jacobs standards on cities that have witnessed so much change and dilution of their old urban fabric. I am of the opinion that the more autocentric mid-century architecture is generally superior to post-Postmodern construction that attempts to return to urban form. Why? At mid-century modernism's best, it applies creative materials, theretofore unseen forms, interesting site plans, and presents a window into a culture still inspired to bring change. Most structures built after the modern period (meaning, after 1970) are only valuable in a kitschy sense.

But even these Postmodern and post-Postmodern structures probably deserve their spot on the soil. As the above quote espoused, cities are always evolving and catering to new economic, social, and cultural norms.

Despite my statement of support for these architectural movements that are reviled by urbanists, there are some St. Louis buildings I could see myself let go. Numerous parking garages and gas stations would make the list (not the least of which would be the Busch Stadium garages just mentioned in a previous post). Anything on the list would be there because of a gross disrespect to context and detrimental effect to a streetscape/blockface.

I would say my two least favorite buildings in the city should go--those just north of the Civil Courts building on the east side of Tucker--but they provide the correct massing for such a wide boulevard.

So, if I had to choose just one, it would have to be:


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(I couldn't resist)

Beautiful Greek Revival in Carondelet - for sale! 2:41 PM

Click here to view the listing.

Remember my post about the threat to St. Louis's Greek Revivals? Well, you better snap this one up before the city finds an excuse to tear this down!

What a great building!

Visitation Park: a microcosm of the condition of St. Louis 1:08 AM

Decayed, but slowly resurgent.

Fractured, yet still beautiful.

The Visitation Park neighborhood was so-named because of the school and religious institution that used to anchor Cabanne and Belt Avenues, from 1892 to 1962.

Viewing the picture below, it's hard to believe that anyone would have allowed this building to be demolished. It was a breathtaking landmark--a status that probably did it in in the 1960s, considering the costs of rehabilitation and the uncertainty of a "changing" neighborhood.



KETC has done a wonderful history of the park (now known as Ivory Perry Park) and the neighborhood around it in their "Living St. Louis" series. You may access it here.

I cannot help but hold a grudge against Visitation Academy, who abandoned Visitation Park for the pastures of Ballas and Highway 40 in the 1960s. Their predictable move only further harmed the neighborhood they claimed was "too dangerous for their girls to walk to" (See the Living St. Louis video above for that quote).

Now no one can walk to their campus!

For that reason, Visitation Park is a microcosm of the city of St. Louis as a whole. In a city always a victim of urbanophobia, an indifferent citizenry simply threw up their hands in a climate of racial change and federal incentives to head out west. "Sure, let's move this community anchor to a place that is community-less," they must have said. No, not aloud, but in a mere thoughtless acquiescence, as if paralyzed in a river current.

Is auto-ownership next to Godliness? Is a visit from Jesus more likely if you locate your House of God along a major interstate?

My W.W.J.D. radar is beeping at the thought that He just might have remained with the dwindling neighborhood where He was needed most. And, with any luck, he would not have been embarrassed by the magnificent, even ostentatious chateau.

A quote from our fair Mayor re: biking 11:18 AM

I don’t have the kind of daily schedule that would let me bike to work. But, if the weather stays this nice a while longer, you might find me along the River Des Peres Trail on a Saturday morning soon. I’ll have a helmet on.

From yesterday's MayorSlay.com blog post.

Personally, I'd like to see him rearrange his schedule to include biking to city hall. It's a major boost for cyclists and urbanists when your city's figurehead bucks the personal automobile in transporting him or herself.

The very act screams, "I am the mayor of an urban area. And I am one of you."

Is that thinking too much into it?

Portland, Oregon's mayor-elect rides his bike to City Hall.

Walnut Park East and West 12:12 AM

I'm a total nerd, and totally obsessed with St. Louis, so I think about these things.

What are the Walnut Park neighborhoods like?

I got to thinking last night, while doing my Patch post, that there are some neighborhoods through which I've rarely traversed.

Besides cruising down Goodfellow and Riverview and other such streets back in the days of car ownership, I don't believe I've ever been through the residential streets of these two neighborhoods.

Am I missing out? I don't really know, I guess.

Well, luckily, as with the Patch, St. Louis Community Information Network has some pictures.

I won't post so many of the city's photographs this time, but I do have to ask: what's the residential context of the two neighborhoods? Walnut Park was ignored by Google's Streetview mappers, so that's no use.

Is it more like this house, on 5949 Lalite Avenue (W.P. West):




Or this one, at 6006 Garesche Avenue (also W.P. West):




Or it is more of a Baden-like hodgepodge?

Is it in good condition? Bad? Terrible?

Are there any neighborhood businesses? A small business district that's escaped me over all these years of dotage?