Central Corridor

The project to rebuild the Manchester Avenue streetscape has been in the works for nearly two years. In March 2009 it was announced that East-West Gateway had awarded $1.45M for lighting enhancements along the corridor and other funds had been allocated to create a better streetscape. The neighborhood and commercial strip have made remarkable strides over the past decade, but Manchester Avenue remained marked by broken sidewalks, poor lighting and signage, and accessibility issues.

While South Grand has received a lot of attention with its sewer pot experiment and the winning-over of the City streets department and local aldermen, Manchester has quietly begun to be transformed. Construction started several weeks ago and is quickly moving from east to west. Similar to South Grand, the project will reduce traffic lanes from four to two between Taylor and Sarah Avenues. For those of you into construction drawings, particulars of pedestrian lighting, street furniture, bike racks and more, check out the documents below (recently posted by the excellent Park Central Development/17th Ward blog).

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I'm a recreational user of Forest Park. I love the museums, the zoo and Muny, but the vast majority of my time in the park in spent on the walking and biking trails. In the past I've lamented the loss of a particularly useful path and general focus on paying visitors (golf courses) and visitors driving to destination attractions.

The reality is that millions of visitor need to be able to get to the various attractions and the wonderful institutions need room to expand. It's a difficult balancing act. The good news is that the recreational dual path network is currently being expanded and a central park dual path connector may be coming soon.

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The St. Louis Beacon recently put together a dazzling info-graphic depicting parking in Grand Center. Seriously, it's really good. The graphic shows the location and number of all parking in the area in a very clear way. In fact it's so good that it obfuscates the question that should be asked: How much parking does Grand Center need?  Is 4,200 parking spots a ridiculous amount for half a dozen performance venues, just two of which account for 7,000+ seats?

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{rendering of St. Louis Science Center addition}

The St. Louis Science Center will add 13,000 feet of permanent exhibition space to replace the aging and temporary Exploradome inflatable space erected in 1997. The new hall will be a single floor with 38-foot ceilings to accommodate travelling exhibits and annual events. The Post-Dispatch story can be found here.

But what may be more significant is the possibility of the Science Center adding new exhibit space in the existing building. More than 12,000 square feet could be added by moving offices that currently occupy the third floor of the building. Doing so would increase exhibit space by 50%. According to a 2009 St. Louis Beacon article, offices could be moved to a nearby property at Macklind and Berthold.

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