The Eternal Debate: Graf as Art

{Powell Square, November 2012 - image by Thomas Crone}

When the Powell Square building was demolished earlier this year, there was a decent strain of support for the demolition, even from some unlikely folks, who are strong civic, city backers. And one of their key arguments was this: the hulking structure had become an eyesore. In this viewpoint, the Powell Square’s proximity to the eastbound lanes of the Poplar Street Bridge was a clear negative, with the muscular, graffiti-strewn building an extreme black eye for the City of St. Louis, a reminder of urban neglect for tourists and locals alike.

Proponents of saving the building argued a different tale, suggesting that the significant graf on the side of the building was no more than a cosmetic flaw, if that. The structure, they argued, was sound. That the windows had been taken out during a previous redevelopment scheme, in many respects, invited in the graf writers, with the guts of the building easily accessible by all manners of constituents, really: urban explorers, photographers, the homeless, July 4th celebrants; even school and church groups wandered through. To this end, supporters of the Powell could’ve argued that demo of the building was akin to putting a human being down for the crime of having too many tattoos.