St. Louis City Board Bill 323 passed. All city-owned new construction over 5000 square feet is directed to achieve Silver LEED status.

Read bill here.

Visit slide show here.

Oscar’s Open House! Come to my open house on Sunday at 3834 DeTonty and screen one of the best picture nominations: Babel with Kate Blanchett and Brad Pitt.

In addition check out all that the Shaw neighborhood has to offer: Missouri Botanical Gardens, Compton Hill Reservoir Park and Tower Grove Park.

nearby Developments: New construction homes in Botanical Heights to the north and DeTonty Place to west in the 4100 block of DeTonty, Millennium Restoration and Development is scheduled to build new construction homes starting in the 350s.

I’m not really sure what my fascination is but I have lately been preoccupied with these recent additions to the St Louis skyline. I think I like the idea of change and growth and the sense of industry and activity that surrounds these.

Which is why I’m still reeling from the “CAVE”man article in the Business Journal. I believe Steve Patterson had is right in his response when he coined Citizens Against Vulgar Environments. I don’t believe the city bloggers are up in arms against virtually everything nor do I think the blogoshphere is necessarily clandestine. Something else contradictory about the article: How can a group so supposedly “misinformed” act so “swiftly?”

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Last night on the NPR program “On Point,” the topic was “Building Greener” and covered the basics and concepts behind building a more energy-conscious living space. I found this especially interesting as my husband and I are just starting to research how this is actually done, and seeing what kind of help is out there to make building a new construction ‘green’ home a financial possibility in St. Louis.

Here is a link to the program:
http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2007/02/20070219_b_main.asp

I’ll be posting more in the coming weeks as I dive in deeper to the process and weigh some of the highs and lows. I have more questions than answers at this point, so if you have any good resources please post away!

The National Association of Realtors completed a review of academic research on the benefits of homeownership. Obviously there was an agenda but according to the study the following are a few of the social benefits that stem from homeownership.

*Higher educational performance and better behavior of children

*Lower community crime rates

*Lessened welfare dependency among households

*More household participation in civic affairs

*Better household health.

See NAR’s Social Benefits of Homeownership and Stable Housing

This is a continuation from A Gilded Box?
In an effort to be part of the solution rather, than simply grumbling about what I don’t like, I did some research on what I thought would be better alternatives to the proposed Georgian Square.

In the course of that search I found a sustainable WalMart in McKinney, TX, a renovated strip mall, Abercorn Common in Savannah, GA, that has earned Silver LEED certification and a new construction open air shopping center in Denver, CO which in addition to being LEED certified has encouraged its tenants to go green as well.

What do all of these developments have in common?

They all could have been large asphalt lots bordered by Big Box retailers.

Instead the developers, Melaver, Inc aimed to have a profound, positive impact on the communities in which they lived and a notable lack of impact on the environments in which those communities existed.

So instead of simply courting retailers to fill physical space and the amenity void, they found a way to make the whole project environmentally and fiscally responsible.

None managed to delete parking lots altogether but adjustments were made to decrease the negative impact on the environment. For example in the Abercorn Common development, porous pavement was used in the parking lots to allow rainwater to drain naturally. Read about the other sustainable features here.

True, it is an eye catching headline. Gilded Age to build $80 million Supervalu project. Read a little further and it sounds even more promising. “It will be an urban design concept store called City Market.” And there is the hint of experience, “Goodson said he partnered with Koman Properties…because of its experience with urban retail development.” But when I looked up other developments by Koman Properties all I saw were big box developments with acres of asphalt parking lots with the exception of the Wildwood Town Center.

The Gist

What: Georgian Square, a retail development with 12-15 stores including a grocery and WalGreens

Where: Directly across from the Georgian condominiums, the old city hospital

Who: Gilded Age and Koman Properties

Why: Needed Amenities

When: Coming Soon

The article is inspiring; the words are exactly what I want to hear, “the retail center will be designed to fit into the neighborhood…the developers will seek input from the neighborhood organizations about the design.” But that aerial rendering in the article leaves much to be desired. Is that really the highest and best use of the 6 acres across the street from the Georgian? A strip mall with a tree-lined parking lot?

Aren’t there already vacant boxes on Jefferson between Lafayette and Park with a parking lot? The rendering in the article doesn’t look much different from this. Just add a couple boxes and a row of trees in the center of the asphalt.

But wait, the Georgian Square retail project will have a masonry exterior! Lovely.

There will be a new apartment complex at 3949 Lindell Blvd. on the site of the old Salad Bowl Cafeteria which will include 197 residential units and 15,000 square feet of retail space.

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Another great Urban Affairs Committee Meeting brought another great guest speaker. Linda Wilson from MoDoT spoke about the closing and reconstruction 64/40. Public Meetings are scheduled for Tuesday, February 6th at the Brentwood Middle School and Tuesday, February 13th at St. Louis County Library Headquarters. Both meetings will have 3 sessions. First session begins at 4pm with new sessions every hour.
The Basics:

$535 million dollar budget

Beginning with a “preparation year” Spring 2007

Finished by 2010

10 miles between Sarah and Spoede

Major concerns are deteriorating bridges and on/off ramps

Timeline:

2007: Some interchanges between I-170 and Sarah will shut down (Tamm, Bellevue and the west bound entry ramp on Hanley)

2008: 4.5 miles between Spoede and I-170 will be closed

2009: 4.5 miles between I-170 and Sarah will shut down. Section between I-170 and Spoede will reopen.

2010: Construction will concern clean-up and landscaping. Entire length will be finished and re-opened.
During the preparation year MoDoT will upgrade all traffic signals on page, Olive, Lindbergh and Manchester in addition to installing message boards, cameras and speed sensors. This way they will be able to remotely control the flow of traffic in real time. In addition they will be re-srtiping the lanes on I-70 between I-270 and I-170 and the lanes on I-44 between 270 and Grand to add extra lanes. Speed limit will be decreased to 55.
Check out the MoDot website to view the simulation of the new interchange at I-170 and I-64 near the Brentwood Promenade.

Reading through another blog, Vanishing STL, I ran across some news regarding what for me has become a landmark for the Forest Park Southeast Neighborhood. It’s the old Laclede Gasometer which hasn’t been in use for quite some time, and sadly it’s scheduled to be demolished very soon.

If you’ve ever driven through St. Louis, you can’t miss the large steel structure that pierces the St. Louis skyline. The one located at Newstead and Chouteau will be demolished to make way for mixed use commerical and residential properties, in an area that has seem some relentless rehabilitations take place.

More information on these structures can be found on Built St. Louis (picture above from Built St. Louis)

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