St. Louis to Sell 162 Acres, Pruitt-Igoe Site, to NorthSide Development

Until development occurs, land banking will only have proven that the city has found someone else to mow the yard.

St. Louis CVC Offers $60M to Push Dome to "Top Tier"

This is a story that's a long way from being finished. What does the NFL want? What do the Rams want?

Conscious of History, CORTEX Plans New Construction and Preservation

Three significant historic buildings will see new life as part of the CORTEX development.

Groth Guide to Downtown

I'll put my money on Locust and Olive with their intersecting numeric streets as the rising stars in the bright future of DT

Spanish Lake and the Middle Class Exodus of North St. Louis County

On a visit to Spanish Lake to see family, Morton explored his old stomping grounds and was experienced its decline firsthand.

Planning Commission Reverses Preservation Board to Allow Demolition of Pevely Buildings

Wednesday, 22 February 2012 20:06 Written by Alex Ihnen

Just one vote was tallied to uphold the City of St. Louis Preservation Board decision from late last year. That decision maintained the corner Pevely office building, the signature building of a complex listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The rest of the Planning Commission decided that the Preservation Board had somehow erred in its decision, allowing Saint Louis University to demolish the three Pevely buildings and smokestack. SLU has stated that a fourth building facing Grand Avenue has a pending contract. A demolition permit request for that building is imminent and devoid of the complex currently surrounding it, will surely be allowed to fall as well.

{the Preservation Board preserved building in blue and allowed demolition of those in red - building in green has a contract pending and will be demolished - building in yellow was lost to fire}

One City, Two Plans: Compare and Contrast of 2001 Lafayette Square & JeffVanderLou Plans

Monday, 20 February 2012 12:16 Written by Dan Levin

Lafayette Square neighborhood plan - St. Louis

Both the Lafayette Square and the JeffVanderLou “Neighborhood Plans” were adopted by the City of St. Louis in 2001, and as such it makes sense to compare and contrast these two considerably divergent documents.

Without question, the issues affecting Lafayette Square and JeffVanderLou are extraordinarily different. For starters, the demographics are 99.2% African-American/Black for JVL, yet 28.1% for LS. The median income in JVL is just over $18,000; in LS it’s more than $45,000. This is about as stark a contrast between poor black and (more) affluent (mostly) white as one can get in the city limits. Within JVL, segregation and urban poverty issues are front and center, both on a day to day basis and within the plan; for LS, not so much.

In the JVL plan, social/community issues are given heavy weighting. The JeffVanderLou Neighborhood Plan is ‘triple bottom line’ planning document designed to tackle all of the issues affecting the neighborhood. Land use and economic planning are addressed alongside issues like education/training, child care, and crime/safety. The LS plan, by contrast, addresses form and function far and above any social issues. Amenity and preservation of the built form are the focus here. Any social problems that may be prevalent in the area are not given much consideration in the plan. Succinctly – the JVL plan is more about ‘People’, where the LS plan is almost exclusively about ‘Place’.

What Should Be: Pevely + SLU Healthcare

Friday, 17 February 2012 14:51 Written by Jeremy Clagett

Much has been said about the need to construct a new healthcare facility in midtown. And much has been said about the need to preserve the Pevely and the urban character it provides to the city and the pedestrian realm. It’s absolutely critical to point out that the two needs are not mutually opposed. The urbanist and preservation communities have no issue with SLU building a medical facility, in fact quite the opposite. The issue is not whether the facility should be built, but where.

The neighborhood needs more density and activity, especially at this critical intersection. A new healthcare facility, if designed with sensitivity to the now dwindling urban context, would also heavily contribute to connecting South Grand with Grand Center and creating a unified corridor. Saint Louis University owns large amounts of land in the surrounding neighborhood and could- should be a part of the solution to this fragmentation.

As St. Louis Lost 29,000 Residents from 2000-2010, 6/7 Neighborhoods With Light Rail Saw Gains

Thursday, 16 February 2012 17:45 Written by Kasey Klimes

{ click image for larger view }

Indianapolis, St. Louis and the Perception of a Successful City

Monday, 13 February 2012 18:57 Written by Alex Ihnen

(Listen to "Lessons from Indianapolis" from St. Louis Public Radio's St. Louis on the Air with myself and Ripley Rasmus, Senior Vice President, Director of Design at HOK as guests.)

Indianapolis is an incredible Super Bowl host city. Lucas Oil Stadium fits so well architecturally within the downtown. It's only a seven block walk to the center of the city. Most of the city's big hotels and restaurants are nearby. Indianapolis has a relatively compact, walkable downtown. The stadium has a Walk Score of 72. Indianapolis nailed this Super Bowl because of infrastructure. Indianapolis knocked it out of the park as host city for Super Bowl XLVI.

All of the above has been said in the past week about Indianapolis, Indiana. The city has been lauded for its hosting of sports events. This isn't a revelation to many who have attending an NCAA Final Four, or countless Olympic trials and other events there. The city has great facilities. What's more difficult to understand is the great chasm in rhetoric between Indianapolis and St. Louis. None of this is meant to put down Indy, but as an attempt to understand the rave reviews and why a city like St. Louis may never gain such a reputation.