I didn't want to rewrite the entire nextSTL Twitter feed of the Preservation Board meeting, so I chose to use Storify to retell the story of the meeting below. For the back story read St. Louis University Seeks Demolition for Historic Pevely Complex and Have Your Voice Heard Now on the Pevely Complex Demolition. The headline gives you the result of the meeting, but as usual, there's more to the story. Of note is the force with which SLU presented their argument. It was a veritable kitchen sink performance. The issue isn't as clear cut as many wanted the Board to believe. SLU needs to succeed and our built environment needs to be preserved. I truly believe that we can do both.
{rendering of SLUCare facility - landscaping in foreground is current site of Pevely corner building}
{site plan shows ~100ft setback and a fountain/driveway at site of existing corner building - Grand Avenue is to the right, Chouteau is at top, neither showing a sidewalk}
The result of the meeting followed the CRO's new recommendation that the garage and milk plant could be demolished but that the smokestack and corner building should remain. What does that look like? The image below shows why SLU should be able to design a facility that works on the site, despite the presence of the corner building. Many of the homes pictured at the top of the photo have been purchased and demolished by SLU.
{red = demo applications approved, blue = demo denied, green = warehouse with pending SLU contract, yellow = building lost to fire}
UPDATE: The final agenda for the December 19 Preservation Board meeting has been posted and the city's Cultural Resources Office has recommended that two of the four demolition permits sought by St. Louis University be approved. The CRO recommendation as it appears on the agenda can be read below.
The historic corner Pevely Dairy office building would remain, as would the iconic smokestack. Gone would be the milk plant on located on Chouteau adjacent to the office building, and the garage. In short, the CRO claims that the corner building and smokestack are of "high merit", while the two other structures are not and would be difficult to repurpose.
{blue = demo permits recommended denied, red = permits recommended approved, yellow = building lost to 2009 fire, green = building not (yet) owned by SLU}
Tucked away in the recent Preservation Board agenda, easily overlooked amongst both Cupples Warehouse #7 and the Pevely Dairy complex (Pevely was eventually pulled from the agenda), sat 4760 Westminster Place. It's zoned as a single-family residence, but listed as an office on the Geo St. Louis website and it doesn't appear when looking at residential property on various real estate information sites. The wedge shaped lot has a commercial entrance that uses a 424 N. Euclid Avenue address.
None of that is particularly interesting, except to illustrate that this is not your average Central West End home. It's awkward, rather homely and quite out of place. All of which makes the proposed conversion to a single-family residence with the addition of a modern second floor, notable. Creativity in architecture and design is often the product of constraints, the solution to a real or perceived problem.
The big news on the preliminary Cultural Resources Office Preservation Board agenda for this month are the Cupples Station 7 building and Pevely Dairly Complex. The City of St. Louis has denied demolition permits for each and respective owners are appealing that decision. Michael Allen has an excellent story of the Cupples building, which has been owned by Kevin McGowan since 2004. McGowan has allowed the building to deteriorate and the city recently closed adjacent streets for fear of collapse. The possible demolition of the Pevely complex has been covered on this site and a public design charrette is scheduled for this Saturday.
Also of interest are two residential projects in the city's Central West End and Lafayette Square neighborhoods. A proposal in the CWE would convert an awkward single-story longtime office into a two-story single family residence. Studio Durham Architects (Terrace View Cafe at City Garden) are designing the conversion. Although an office entrance is located on Euclid Avenue, the building, dating from 1927, isn't suitable for retail or modern office space. The conversion will be the most dramatic in the city since 2035 Park Avenue in Lafayette Square.
The urban design challenges in St. Louis often deserve more than a blog post. More than an academic exercise, a charrette allows for and encourages community input to consider varied and diverse solutions. This coming Saturday, we invite you to join Landmarks Association of St. Louis, the Preservation Research Office and nextSTL to focus on the future of the Pevely Dairy complex. Professional, amateur designers and the general public is invited to participate in an open, group design exercise to develop creative alternatives to demolition.
If you haven't been following, the National Register of Historic Places designated Pevely Dairly complex was long believed to be on its way to residential conversion. Rick Yackey and Bruce Development had the property under contract with an asking price of $5.9M when a fire destroyed one of the larger buildings in 2009. They eventually bought the building in April, 2010 for $2.2M. Redevelopment plans for 165 market-rate apartments and retail were announced and a rendering released.