New Ideas Must Use Old Buildings

The several blocks that make up the heart of the South Grand neighborhood constitute one of the most immediately likable and definitively urban stretches in St. Louis. The aged beauty of Tower Grove Park to the North, the beautiful architecture of the buildings fronting the street, the eclectic mix of stores and ethnic restaurants, and the consistently diverse crowds walking the sidewalks all contribute to making it a special place. While in the area recently, it dawned on me that South Grand also clearly illustrates a key insight Jane Jacobs had in her classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities: “Old ideas can sometime use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.” Like many of Jacobs’ unpretentious observations, this one has stood the test of time surprisingly well.

The basis for Jacobs’ point is simple economics: It costs a lot of money to build a new building. In order to finance the sticker price of construction, rent in new buildings is correspondingly higher. Thus, the enterprises that occupy new buildings tend to be those with strong financial backing and little risk involved—often chains or cookie-cutter iterations of an idea that has proven successful. The kind of original, local places that give an area its charm are not only less likely to be well-financed; they are a much higher-risk endeavor precisely because of their originality.