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When the Art World Came to St. Louis: The Noonan-Kocian Art Company at Tenth & Locust
St. Louis Zoo Rethinks Almost Everything, Offers Transformative Vision of Expansion
Biondi Before and After
CVS Finally Gets Its Lindell Boulevard Store, Elliptical AAA Building Remains
Urban Chestnut Brewing Company to Open 100K bbls Capacity Brewery, Retail Location in The Grove

One Image to Help Explain the Boulevard v. I-70 Issue in St. Louis

Published on Sunday, 21 April 2013 10:59

Written by Alex Ihnen

It may not be immediately clear to everyone how significant the difference is between the image on the right and that on the left, but it should be. The image to the left as taken well after the Arch grounds were cleared. A widened Third Street serves as a downtown boulevard. One can see human-scaled commercial buildings on its west side. One sees the Old Cathedral as connected to downtown. The image to the right shows a completed Interstate 70. The difference in appearance, the new disconnectedness is stunning. No longer does it seem that any human-scaled activity belongs here, and in fact, it no longer exists here. To some, the difference above may seem less than definitive, but it's made all the difference on the eastern edge of downtown St. Louis.

Category: Downtown

Drury, Lawrence Group Eye Residential Development, Parking Garages for Laclede's Landing

Published on Thursday, 18 April 2013 07:50

Written by Alex Ihnen

{conceptual rendering of Drury proposal for Laclede's Landing infill - image by geoffksu}

The Drury Development Corporation in partnership with the Lawrence Group are in the preliminary design stages of transforming the two block surface parking lot in the southwest corner of Laclede's Landing adjacent to Eads Bridge and Third Street. The site has been discussed as the location of a parking garage if it is determined one is needed to replace the North Arch Garage. CityArchRiver plans to demolish the Arch garage as part of the revamp of the grounds.

The Drury proposal is considering a residential tower in the southwest corner bordered by Eads Bridge, Second Street, Lucas Avenue and Third Street, with an attached two-level parking structure and a separate parking structure at the block just north bordered by Morgan Street Brewery, Second Street, Lucas Avenue and Third Street. The new parking structure could consolidate parking for Bi-State (Metro), Abstrakt Marketing Group and Landshire employees, who currently use the Arch garage and scattered surface lots. Metro is currently considering moving out of Laclede's Landing.

Category: Downtown

CVS Finally Gets Its Lindell Boulevard Store, Elliptical AAA Building Remains

Published on Wednesday, 17 April 2013 07:10

Written by Alex Ihnen

After years of effort to put its stake somewhere on Lindell, CVS Pharmacy has finally broken ground on a new 13,000 square foot store located between the rebuilt 3949 Lindell apartments and the eliptical Mid-Century AAA building. While the neighborhood wasn't lacking a pharmacy, CVS has made a habit of locating as near their primary competition as possible. A Walgreens sits roughly 1/3 mile to the west.

CVS had previously persued the idea of demolishing the former St. Louis Housing Corporation building at Sarah Street and Lindell, but met neighborhood resistance. Other locations were scouted, but CVS settled on the home of AAA and Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Enterprise moved out of what was once the AAA garage to a new facility nearer downtown. AAA then agreed to sell to CVS, demolish their building and occupy a storefront in a new building on the site.

Category: Central Corridor

Urban Chestnut Brewing Company to Open 100K bbls Capacity Brewery, Retail Location in The Grove

Published on Monday, 15 April 2013 23:19

Written by Alex Ihnen

{a re-imagined Renard as Urban Chestnut - image by Trivers Associates}

As first reported by nextSTL.com, Urban Chestnut Brewing Company is set to expand in a big way, opening a second location in the 67,000 square foot Renard Paper Company building in The Grove (Forest Park Southeast). To be developed by Green Street St. Louis, the planned LEED certified $10M development will include brewing, bottling and warehouse facilities as well as indoor and outdoor retail tasting rooms.

UCBC opened in January 2011 in an 8,000 square-foot renovated service station in Midtown. Just more than two years later, the effort by former Anheuser-Busch employees David Wolfe and Florian Kuplent is set to expand in a big way. Green Street has purchased the Renard building at Taylor and Manchester and is leasing the property to UCBC. Trivers Associates has been selected as the architect for the project. The new location in expected to open in early 2014.

Category: Central Corridor

From the Nation's "Most Dangerous" City: St. Louisans Say they Feel Safe Walking Alone at Night

Published on Monday, 15 April 2013 07:11

Written by Alex Ihnen

In a recent Gallup survey 74% of St. Louisans report that they feel more safe walking alone at night in the city or area where they live. That places the St. Louis MSA 14th among the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the US. St. Louisans report feeling safer than residents of Kansas City, Philadelphia, Nashville, San Francisco, Charlotte, Louisville. St. Louis is safe and we know it. It's not that St. Louis doesn't have a crime problem, it's that the crime problem here shouldn't define us any more or any less than it defines Phoenix, Columbus, Sacramento or Seattle.

St. Louis is a safe metropolitan region, a large majority of people who call themselves St. Louisans are safe and feel safe. The City of St. Louis has a crime problem, with the violent crime and homicide rates among the highest in the nation. Yet, if the city were to somehow simply push that crime across the county line, all the sudden the metropolitan area and the city would be labeled safe, without a single change in the number or types of crimes committed. The MSA rankings include the city numbers, meaning that the high rate of crime within the defined geographic boundary of the city isn't of a magnitude that substantially pushes the MSA up the "dangerous" rankings.

Category: Urban Living