“We’re trying to work through those things, but we have very little money for renovations and it’s not a civic priority,” said Lewis Reed, the president of the Board of Aldermen. “But we do hear complaints about the building from some people. Particularly artists are concerned about preserving a lot of the artwork in the building.”
“There isn’t money for any renovation or improvements” to City Hall, Bradley said.
Bradley said workers are just aimed at fixing the bare necessities, like rigging air conditioners to last 30 years, when their normal life cycle is 10.
... in St. Louis, “there isn’t a real public awareness of City Hall,” said Michael Allen...
“People drive by and they think it’s dirty,” said Mack Bradley, a spokesman for Mardi Gras Inc., which puts on the city’s annual Mardi Gras celebration. “There was a time when people cared about City Hall. It said something about them. But go out to St. Louis County and you’ll see people aren’t willing to spend a lot of money on city halls.”
I agree. I did a double take when I was reading through city official's comments. From the architecture to the paintings on the wall to the business that takes place at City Hall, I look at this place as a living museum and it deserves much better.City Hall is a museum.
Perhaps, but in this day and age of austerity it doesn't seem politically savvy to bring extravagance back to City Hall. Talk of public-private partnership in City Hall, however, makes one wary of corruption and outside influence. People like Rex Sinquefeld have enough power, eh.olvidarte wrote:I agree. I did a double take when I was reading through city official's comments. From the architecture to the paintings on the wall to the business that takes place at City Hall, I look at this place as a living museum and it deserves much better.City Hall is a museum.
It's already extravagant. I think we should maintain and preserve what we have, which doesn't seem to be happening.Perhaps, but in this day and age of austerity it doesn't seem politically savvy to bring extravagance back to City Hall.
I would imagine it happened gradually over time, matching up with whenever people started moving away from the city.onecity wrote:This is a little broader than the OT, but does anyone know when/why the STL culture shifted from one of building highly architectural and permanent structures, like City Hall etc - investment grade architecture if you will - to being so public investment averse as it is now? What created this local mentality of letting things rot versus continuous investment and continuous improvement...I haven't come across this topic in my own reading yet.
I don't think that it is a local mentality. It is a shift in our society and government. The government provides more services than they did ever before. I think that makes it more difficult to build grand projects. I also suspect that there has been a shift towards the federal government for funding of these bigger projects.rawest1 wrote:I would imagine it happened gradually over time, matching up with whenever people started moving away from the city.onecity wrote:This is a little broader than the OT, but does anyone know when/why the STL culture shifted from one of building highly architectural and permanent structures, like City Hall etc - investment grade architecture if you will - to being so public investment averse as it is now? What created this local mentality of letting things rot versus continuous investment and continuous improvement...I haven't come across this topic in my own reading yet.
Ward 25 Alderman Shane Cohn introduced a bill on Friday that would create a "City Hall Restoration Fund."
The fund would house "money in excess of the amount due on any water bill, personal property or real estate tax bill in the City of St. Louis which is designated by any person, firm or corporation for the 'The City Hall Restoration Fund' program."
This is the first municipal effort to address the building's decay in many years. Previous private efforts have failed.
