Hardt Building Unmolested

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While searching through a bottomless sea of 35mm negatives for another building, I ran across the above photo.

Here’s the back story, which will explain why this 2001 photo thrills me so. This is a portion of the original signage that once graced the building.

I remember being utterly dismayed when they stripped away the neon signs and replaced the curved section with sheet metal. That was a gentle touch in comparison to the steroidal vinyl breadbox squatting atop it today.

The 21st century has not been kind to this poor building. At the pace the owner is moving, the building is scheduled to be covered in EIFS by 2009.

Chippewa Modern Church

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Chippewa & January
South St. Louis MO
In comparison to its brick bungalow neighbors, it looks like Johnny Sokko’s Robot. Normally, that kind of contrast would be more than enough to make it noteworthy. But in the 15 years I’ve lived in South St. Louis, no one (even mid-century modern fans) has ever mentioned this little oddball.

Maybe that’s because it is rather understated about its modern precision? Or that even though it’s kept neat and trim, there never seems to be any activity to draw the eye? That last question puzzles me the most; it’s the Gospel Church, a non-denominational congregation, and even when I’ve purposely gone by the place on a Sunday morning, there’s the church, but there’s no steeple with no open door to see all the people.

City records omit any information about the building itself, but with all the brick houses directly around it dating from the mid-1930s, I’m assuming it is basically the same age. The newer, tacked on modern facade has a distinctly mid-to-late 1950s look and materials. The 1959 City Directory lists Public Service Savings & Loan as the front tenant, with Albers Construction occupying the rear of the building. When looking closely at the stainless-steel-under-grey-paint awning (shown above), you can make out the original message: Member -Federal Home Loan Bank System.

The sun shade made of vertical aluminum strips is like the brim of a hat pulled low over a face. Its limited and sedate color palette allows it to blend into the background. All of this contributes to the mystery of the modern cube hiding out in plain sight.

Carondelet Park’s Skateboard Park?

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Every time I go to Carondelet Park and see the above site, this thought ticker tapes through my brain: “…skating rink…skateboard park… skating rink… skateboard park….”

Considering that St. Louis now has near-tropical winters that are jeopardizing the Forest Park skating rink, another rink is not a smart long-term investment. But a skateboard park is totally doable.

I know very little about skateboarding or ‘board parks, other than my eyes were always riveted to the kids wheeling about Keiner Plaza. But the laziest Internet search shows plenty of people know how to turn most anything into a skateboard park, so my gut reaction to this odd, unused space at Carondelet isn’t such a crazy idea.

So far, The St. Louis Parks Department has done a brilliant job of making Carondelet more attractive and useful to 21st century patrons (my eternal thanks to you for putting the water fountains back in working order), and there’s plenty more changes awaiting. Which reminded me that there is a Master Plan for the park, so let’s see what they have planned for this area.

On page 31 of the recommendations, they called for turning the “Bear Pit” into an “adventure playground” with a bear theme. As shown in the above photo (purloined from their Master Plan), to make this idea feasible to parents and security, the top half of the walls would be sheared off. Well, that effectively erases most traces of uniqueness and history, leaving behind what looks like an elaborate sink hole.

The adventure park is a nice idea, but it would then be just one of several new and/or updated playgrounds in Carondelet. Sure would be nice to have something a bit more unique in this curious spot, something that would truly be a must-see destination… skateboard park.

On page 34 of the Master Plan: “Consider diversifying the active recreational programming in the park to include other recreational sports.” Seems a skateboard park would qualify as such, yes?

I’m far too old to know about, or champion the cause, for skateboarders; I’m simply wishing that the city would do a little creative thinking and offer up something with more pizzazz than an “adventure park.” A Request For Ideas could be a great opportunity for the City to truly engage the kids by asking for their thoughts on how to develop this spot, a serpentine site ripe for daydreaming and fantastical tales.

St. Louis Hills Office Center: Hammer To Fall?

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6500 Chippewa, South St. Louis MO
@ the Chippewa / Watson Road Merge
A very recent drive past one of my absolutely favorite buildings revealed something I was in denial about: the fate of the St. Louis Hills Office Center. It now displays every sign of an impending demolition. A city record check confirms the worst-case scenario.

On May 1, 2007, City Hall issued a second demolition permit for the building, with the first one granted in August 2006. The last identified owner of the building is Mardel Equity, LLC from March 2005. If a For Sale sign ever appeared on the building, I need someone to verify it, because I never saw one. It would be hard to miss a sign on that building because it is in a prime location.

So, did this building go from emptied to demolition without a chance of redemption?

It’s been said that the 16th ward alderwoman, Donna Barringer, couldn’t find medical practices that would relocate there. I can follow her thought process, since it has primarily served as an office for physicians and dentists since it opened in 1958. And, yes, it is an absolute certainty that no modern medical office would even entertain the thought of using that building.

But why did the thought and effort stop there?
Deciding that this building can only be used as its original incarnation is decidedly antiquated, and fiscally short-sighted.

Stepping into an adaptive reuse frame of mind, I have longed to turn this building into a book store along the lines of the still-achingly-missed Library Ltd. The South Side desperately needs a substantial bookstore, and after reconfiguring the interior, there’d be plenty of room in the St. Louis Hills Office Center for a Border-style bookstore.

It would be even cooler if our local book publishers could share the space with a bookstore. Maybe some of the smaller independent record stores could use some space. Wow, an entire St. Louis Creative Co-Op would be cool!

If you allow for possibility, the list of what could be done with that building could be endless. And it seems an easy sell because:
1. Prime, High Traffic Area for High Visibility
2. TWO levels of parking already on-site
3. Vast square footage requiring interior renovation (think “loft”)

This building is the crown in the retail tip of St. Louis Hills, a commercial strip that curves over to end with LeGrand’s Market & Catering, and kisses the Starbucks/Bread Co. intersection. Oh, and the Donut-Drive-In, which is across the street. If the Macklind Avenue Business District can come roaring back to life (hallelujah!!!!), then mid-century commercial buildings in St. Louis Hills can thrive (just ask LeGrand’s).

We have just scratched the surface of possibility for this building, and the area it belongs to. This is why the perception of pre-determined extinction of the building based on narrow thought is so upsetting. There needs to be more to this story, and it prompts the questions:
Is there still a possibility of a visionary developer being able to buy the place?

Or, is there a new building and businesses already contracted to go in this space?

What do the residents of St. Louis Hills (and the 16th ward) think about this?

UPDATE
I now have the tragic story of why this building is currently under demolition. The blame falls squarely on the building owners. All the details will be shared in a future post.

Marla Court

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I was pedaling around a previously-unexplored section of South St. Louis, the very hilly part wedged in the area between Highway 55 and the St. Louis County line. A majority of the homes near the City/County border are the quickly-erected, simple tract homes necessitated by the baby boom. Sprinkled among them are 1920s & 30s brick bungalows, and a couple of much older homes in the “farm mansion” style.

I pedaled up Waddell, and on my right I saw a line of 5 houses that stuck out like a white rose in a red rose bouquet (see photo above). Simple, square homes with an abundance of glass and carports providing a sense of sweeping asymmetry. A glance down Comstock revealed an even longer line of the same houses. A pedal down the street revealed two courts full of variations on this theme!

As I stood at the entrance to Marla Court (map, above), memories of Darla Court rushed forth; Darla Court being a Jetsons duplex village I accidentally discovered in the bowels of Jennings, MO. Darla in the North… Marla in the South… freaking out, in a good way.

Above is a good example of a relatively untouched version of the homes in this little mid-century pocket. All of the homes in this style were built between 1957 and 1958. Each one was originally 952 square feet with one bathroom and central air. These small homes were given a bit of modern drama by treating the standard-height front rooms to 5 transom windows following the slope of the roof line. The steel tubes supporting the roof overhang and carport are placed at the jaunty angles which separated modern from traditional.

This being South St. Louis, tinkering with our homes is a pre-requisite, so of course there is some remodeling. “Stone” siding and shutters were an original cosmetic variation on the theme, while the boarding up of the transom windows and the curly-cue iron columns (above) feels like a form of beating back some of the peskier modern features.

Most of the homes have opted to cover the wood roof soffits with vinyl, which is a normal function of upkeep. But I was charmed by how most everyone kept the wide variety of colors when it came time to replace the siding (above).

All of the houses were the same, yet there is just enough original – and new – detail to make each one interesting in its own right. I was also pleased to see every home occupied and in pristine condition, with neighbors of all ages playing in the street and puttering around the yards. I wonder if being part of a slightly secluded neighborhood of similar houses contributes to the distinct community feel.

Check out the above drastic remodel. Not only did they change the orientation of the siding and the windows from horizontal to vertical, they also added a second story. I love that they went for such radical departures while still honoring the basic lines of the house, and thus the neighborhood. Also, it’s a bit shocking that they are the only house to add a 2nd story in order to gain some square footage.

In the court part of Comstock comes a variation on the basic architectural theme, what I refer to as the Flat Front Model. These homes went in later, from 1961 – 1965, and were slightly larger at 988 square feet and with 2 bathrooms. There was one of these models for sale at the time I took these pictures, and according to the realty listing, that house added a great room to the backside for more square footage, while leaving the front relatively untouched. It had a list price of $149,900.

The Flat Fronts are riper for renovation, with most of them converting carports into garages. Or in the case of the home directly above, the carport became a sunroom, and everything gets a rustic look with cedar siding. But in general, I am impressed with how much of the original stylistic intent remains among all the remodeling; it’s a testament to the flexibility of these homes that so much D.I.Y. can occur without altering the basic flavor of this one-off development.

Kirkwood Paranoia?

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East Monroe Avenue, Kirkwood MO
Does it seem like we’re being watched?
It kinda feels like someone is breathing down my neck.
Is my privacy being violated, or am I just paranoid?

There is Teardown Fever in Kirkwood. I swear to you that every other block has at least one house demolished to build anew. These new developers deserve a prop: They leave up as many trees as possible. They even fence off what is to be saved so no accidental bulldozing happens. Not sure if it’s a Kirkwood City Hall requirement, or just some really savvy home builders. Either way, it’s an appreciated gesture.

But in the case of the in-fill home pictured above right… I hope the people in the single-story Grey House know the owners of the new Victorian mansion being built right up against it. And know them well enough to not mind being seen by them in their underwear. If they don’t know each other, the back side of the Grey House may be awfully dark with the blinds drawn 24/7.

The new Victorian’s front does face out onto the side street, but it has a rather broad, tall and looming north side that pretty much bullies the house in front of it. The Victorian’s detached garage is even right up against the Grey House backyard fence. Nothing stopped it from being built like that, so I guess no zoning laws are being violated.. other than privacy.

Alternatives To The Absurd: Retail Development

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Bravo to Steve Patterson for this achingly good re-think of how Loughborough Commons could have been. This plan – and the other ideas it inspired – is so damn good that I can picture myself there, lovin’ it. Now I’m absolutely irritated that we don’t have something as utterly cool as this. Makes the waste of such a humungous piece of urban land even more galling and sad.

Hey, Desco, does anything in the Urban Review plan make you smack your forehead with a “D’oh!”? Perhaps a “shit” hissed under your breath as you realized the profit potentials completely missed because of stilted copy cat thinking? At least try to contemplate more logical ways of doing things, and then check this out.

Manchester Avenue & Rock Hill, St. Louis County, MO

This is what used to be at the location shown above.

I adored it. It was senselessly demolished. That still irritates me. So, there’s no disguising my dislike for anything Market at McKnight.

So, I don’t actually “see” the buildings so much as I see how they are placed. The above photo is looking west down Manchester, and all buildings as far as the eye can see are part of this new plaza. And they are up against the street!

This part of Manchester has never looked like this. Rock Hill was the manifestation of the mid-century suburban ideal. Most of the buildings are in First Period Automobile, meaning buildings that were purposely designed with a strip of single-width parking directly in front to accommodate motorists. Hell, that’s the very reason they put the dearly departed double bat wing at this intersection: It Was Motor City.

This is also a part of town where sidewalks are very erratic, if they exist at all. Because the original line of thinking had been: who needs sidewalks in the car-centric ‘burbs? But suddenly, here is a new version of the strip mall forcing sidewalks to be poured because it’s pushing the curb?
How bizarre.

They even carry part of this “urbanity” up Rock Hill Road (above), putting mass where mass never was before. Sure, they blow the use of the actual corner with what I mentally refer to as the Phillips 66 Double Wing Memorial Park & Mausoleum. Unless it transforms into an elaborate bus stop, ain’t a single soul that will ever use that prime piece of real estate. But, hey, not my problem…

So, suburban Rock Hill goes “urban” while current and planned retail developments in the city are just clapped out retreads of interstate design that’s been boring customers since the late 1990s. The lack of emotional and financial intelligence on the part of our City Money Fathers can sometimes manifest itself as silly smear slogans, which just prove they don’t get it, and stubbornly refuse to get it. Then I read the following, which is so correctly and brilliantly put that anyone can understand it:

There are few harsher indictments against architecture than the sadness we feel at the arrival of the bulldozers, for our grief is, in almost all cases, fuelled more by a distaste for what is to be built than by any hatred of the idea of development itself.
Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness

The above passage already has an editorial comment, courtesy of Bohemian Hill:

Mr. Yummy’s

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Mr. Yummy’s @ Bates & Ulena
South St. Louis, MO
“Livers, Gizzards & Wings… oh my.”
It’s an oft-heard reaction to one of the signs on the Mr. Yummy’s building. Mr. Yummy’s is my neighborhood’s touchstone; it’s unique and endearing with a curious connection to the past. Because of all this, I’ve been sitting on some information about the place for most of the year.

This past winter, the owner and proprietor of this venerable take-out burger and shake shop tacked up a For Sale sign. While this tiny little sign rattled my cranium, I also realized that he hadn’t bothered to include his contact information. Rather than a serious bid to sell the place, maybe it was just a physical manifestation of some form of frustration he felt?

My worry is what the sale of this place could do to the neighborhood. Is it possible for someone to buy it and continue to run it as a neighborhood burger joint? Or is it more likely that someone could buy it for the property alone and do something heinous to it (like rezone and build a McMansion!)?

Mr. Yummy’s is an odd little anachronism that could only survive in this part of town. The owner is a war veteran (I’m assuming Vietnam, because he doesn’t look old enough to have been in the Korean) who freely dispenses liberal political views as he grills up burgers so greasy that they saturate their brown paper bags, and will slip out onto the pavement if you don’t know better than to hold it from the bottom.

He has always had the ultimate working hours: 10 a.m. – 5-ish p.m. There was always a huge lunchtime crowd of construction and utility company workers dining in their trucks, scattered across the large parking lot. Then there was the underage after school crowd who bought sodas and ice cream treats as a pass to simply hang out. And then there’s the newspaper machine and the only working pay phone within a mile radius, which still has people hanging from it all hours of the day.

Taking a look at the public records of Mr. Yummy’s, seems that very pay phone was “grandfathered” in a 1998 permit transaction. Surprising to me is the age of the building: Fast Food – No Seating 520 s.f. brick and wood structure built in 1925! Was it a gas station at one point, or always some kind of food establishment?

I have talked with some 40- to 50-something folks who grew up in the neighborhood, and it has been “an ice cream stand” for as long as they could remember. The current owner bought the place in 1978 for $10,000, and now he just must be tired. He was lightly adhering to his abbreviated winter hours when the For Sale sign went up. Now that it’s spring, it seems he opens up on a whim; I drive by every evening hoping to see his doors open, hoping that he’ll get back into the swing of it and reconsider. If he’s open twice a week, it’s a miracle.

Very recently, the owner added a 2nd For Sale sign smack on the outside corner of the lot. It’s very tiny, and still lacks contact information, but now more people are noticing that the place is on the sale block. Look to the right of the above picture and see how a neighborhood car salvage guy is now using the back part of the parking lot for his overflow. This is not a good thing, not good at all.

A 5.11.07 building inspection turned up 5 violations that remain unresolved. I’m supposin’ the owner put up his 2nd For Sale sign in reaction to that. I decided to finally say something about it with the hopes that someone will want to save the place… none of us want our neighborhood mascot to go away or be radically altered. It’s hard to bear the weight of an era sighing to an end. Fingers crossed that there’s an optimistic new chapter.

EcoUrban & Bill Clinton

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Pennsylvania & Juniata, South St. Louis, MO
If it’s Wednesday, it must be green!

Last Wednesday (5.16) was the Skyhouse reception, full of beautiful people checking out a beautiful building. After pouring over the impressive model of the LEED-certified building, a designer friend and I – at different times – both asked one of the developers if there would be any restrictions on what kind of window treatments could go up. Wisely, the architects and developers are leaving that up to the future condo owners. But trust me, the minute a plaid curtain goes up in one of those sleek, reflective windows, a charter will be created to abolish it. Rightly so.

This Wednesday was the “sneak peek” of the EcoUrban home under construction in Benton Park. I couldn’t make the official tour, but did pedal over this evening to take an informal snoop around (above left – the front, above right – the back).

Nestled mid-block, the sight of the building is pleasantly startling, while the scale is absolutely appropriate to its neighbors. Then the sound of a nailgun sounded from within the house, and thus I met the guys working overtime inside. As a marketing coordinator for a design-builder, I know the tricks to conveying a message. But if you want the truth, talk to the carpenters on site.

(Above, southern light pouring in the 2nd story window) Green construction is a new adventure for experienced carpenters, and in the case of this EcoUrban home, it’s been a smooth job. They are loving the low-VOC paint because it doesn’t burn their nostrils and it dries ultra fast. They are digging the materials being installed: bamboo plank flooring, cement board siding and ultra sleek Italian kitchen cabinets. They know this house is built well and built to last, which just proves one of the basic concepts of green building: build it right, build it tight. Such an old fashioned concept now so modern.

After years of hearing carpenter complaints about the crappy quality of so many new homes, it’s a rare treat to have them wax enthusiastic over this one. Makes me wish I could afford one of these babies.

(Above, the front room at ground level) Last Wednesday was also a green day for Bill Clinton as he spoke at the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit. The New York Post reported that:

Clinton talked of “greening up” all the black tar roofs he sees from his Harlem office. Besides lowering the temperature inside on a 90-degree day to 80 and saving energy, the landscaping needed to do this on 950,000 city buildings would create jobs for unskilled workers. “You can’t outsource that work,” Clinton said. “Someone has to be up there . . . and you can’t do that from India.”

Architectural Synchronicity

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A few years ago, a carpenter I know bought the book (shown above) at an estate sale. Collecting old books on building and architecture is a hobby of his, and explains how he has so much historical and practical knowledge while being so, relatively, young.

Upon cracking open the book he bought for 25 cents, he saw the picture above and realized it was a rendering very much like the house he bought the book at.

The floor plan (above) confirmed that, yes, this was the book the homeowner used to build the house that the book was bought from. So obviously, the writer’s guidance was sound, as the house appeared to be rather sound itself. But the carpenter couldn’t go back to ask if they really were able to build it for less than $3500, because the model book house was demolished.

The estate sale took place because that Fenton neighborhood was being cleared in order to build newer, larger homes. Considering how cheaply and poorly constructed many of these McMansions are, the exaggerated irony is that the new developer may have built each one for not much over $3500, yet sold them for “starting in the low $200s.”

After seriously browsing the book, it was surprising just how little has changed in residential construction since 1950. Aside from insulation, electrical and cladding material improvements, that 1950s ranch house model (shown above) could still be built just by following the instructions in this old book. To quote from Chapter 26: “A Ranch House”:


“Any housewife who looks at the floor plan of the Ranch House (plan shown above) will be struck by the fact that all the rooms are on one floor. This does away with climbing up and down stairs a hundred times a day, which, as everyone knows, is extremely exhausting.”

Stats show that the McMansion is quickly becoming the SUV of the housing market. One of the key principles of universal design (which dovetails with aging in-place principles) is one-level living, and the timing on that is good because aging Baby Boomers want single-level homes – enough with the stairs.

Many Boomers grew up in suburban ranch houses, and their senior living requirements often describe the ranches they grew up in. If someone could properly market the luxury of the ease of living that can be achieved within a retro ranch home, then the best examples of the ranch could inadvertently be preserved. The more one contemplates this logical re-use, the more apparent it becomes that crap loads of money could be made, while doing our planet and our communities a lot of good.

And as St. Louis ends another fabulous Preservation (actually 10 days, but we call it a) Week celebration, that’s my two cents on new preservation ideas for the 21st century.