urbanSTL

Vandeventer - Manchester triangle.

The one at the southeast corner of Kingshighway and Southwest is an underutilized, high-profile bummer.

brickandmortar wrote:I'll go with the parking lot at 6th and Olive. It's a shame to have surface lot in our CBD. I know parking is needed in DT and Chicago has surface lots close to theirs, but it seems like a big hole.

The Boyd's store stood there until it was demolished in the 1980s. You can thank May Company for that bold display of vision.



I think the absolute worst waste of space in the city is on the other side of the Railway Exchange Building and Macy's- US Bank Plaza at Seventh and Locust streets where the Ambassador Theater stood until the mid-1990s. Its massing and exterior details complemented the adjacent Railway Exchange and Mercantile Trust buildings nicely. Also, a row of solid if undistinguished buildings along Seventh Street made way for the garish St. Louis Centre in the 1980s, but the ultimate crime was committed when the Ambassador Theater's ornate interior was mercilessly stripped away before the building was demolished in the mid 1990s for a concrete plaza that's as useless as it is unattractive and unwelcoming.



At least where the Century stood there will be a Schnucks at Ninth and Olive streets that will serve downtown workers and the growing number of residents- while there's no chance to recapture the Ambassador Theater- or even anything that will make the land where it once stood useful and attractive again.

What about the most egregious parking garage?

STLCardsBlues1989 wrote:What about the most egregious parking garage?

Tough question, as most downtown garages are poorly designed IMHO. You could take your pick- the Kiener garages, Stadium East and Stadium West garages, or the Cupples Station garage closest to Interstate 64/Highway 40. Of course, this is only a partial list.



The funny thing is, the garage that angers preservationists the most is perhaps one of the better designed garages downtown- and that's the Ninth Street Garage that will soon be home to the downtown Schnucks location. Say what you will about the loss of the Century Building as I don't like it either, but that garage looks far better than the horribly designed Plain Jane garages that litter our downtown and limit the full potential of our urban landscape.



Beyond Skinker Boulevard, I agree with Juice, as the garage behind The Meridian at Brentwood is hideous.

A different kind of garage, perhaps even more damaging:



The Debaliviere and Delmar MetroBus garage. What a terrible place for this monstrosity. Sadly it sits right in the middle of the proposed Loop Trolley route, Presenting a huge barrier to the entire Loop/Delmar/Debaliviere corridor.



Metro needs some money, and they are decreasing services. Why don't they leave a small fraction of the site as a yard for trolleys and sell the rest. Someone could develop it as a mixed use/mixed income public housing area with a pocket full of tax credits, a la Old North St. Louis. The development would have the loop 4 blocks away, Metrolink 3 blocks away (on either side), Forest Park 5 blocks away, and a trolley at its doorstep.



Also the stadium garages are horrible.

JuiceInDogtown wrote:

STLCardsBlues1989 wrote:What about the most egregious parking garage?

Not in the city, but that huge parking garage you can see off of 64 in Brentwood that was recently built is pretty terrible. Not to mention it lights up the sky.

I don't think there is anything bad about the garage itself. It's a very nice garage to use on the inside. In my opinion, the only bad thing about the garage is that it is so much bigger in size than all the buildings it is attached to.



I've been interested in exploring all the downtown parking garages and rating them. Some of them are very nice: the garage at the NW corner of 7th & Pine is very open and airy on the inside, it's clean, easy to enter and exit, and has an excellent set of stairs with windows to the outside. Others are absolutely horrible: cramped, dark, and smelly dungeons with odd configurations that make you wonder where the hell is the exit (I'm looking at you, Kiener). Some garages make you wonder whether their designers even considered the need for people to walk from their vehicles to their destinations and back; most seem to have left this as an afterthought.

stlmark wrote:The one at the southeast corner of Kingshighway and Southwest is an underutilized, high-profile bummer.

You know what always bugs me about that intersection? It's the way the library turns it's back on the City. Instead of putting the main entrance facing the two major streets, they put it in back, facing a parking lot. For that matter, Southwest Bank across the street does the same thing.

stlgasm wrote: ↑

Jan 22, 2020

This is such a great thread and I think it’s time to revive it.  Here are a couple head-scratchers, besides the ones mentioned above):
-Forest Park Pkwy & Vandeventer, NW corner
-DeBaliviere Ave across from Crossroads School
-Delmar & Des Peres Ave, NW corner (empty taxi garage adjacent to Metro station, What?)
-Shaw & Tower Grove Ave, NW corner (seems like prime real estate across from Botanical Garden and resurgent Botanical Heights commercial district)
-Chouteau Ave- basically every intersection between Jefferson & Grand

These are technically in the County but worth mentioning:
-Seminary Place & San Bonita Ave (DeMun) NE & NW corners
-FPP & Forsyth- “Clayton hole” right next to Metro station
-Forsyth & Lee Ave across from new Centene garage (Downtown Clayton)

So many more that I’m forgetting, but I’m sure others can fill in the blanks... literally!

Are the lots on Delmar just west of Kingshighway still empty? I remember there being the sunflower field there a few years ago. 

Does Delmar + Euclid count? 

Parking lot on the corner of Grand and Lafayette just north of I-44.  I believe SLU hospital owns this lot because it is across Grand from one of their buildings.  In all my years I have never seen even one single car parked on this lot and the weeds are typically overgrown.  Could easily be built on as an apartment building and has a great location.  Notice how often SLU is mentioned in this thread?  They really are a problem in this regard.

There are a lot that come to mind for me.  Serra Sculpture Park, 11th and Spruce, 9th and Spruce, northern part of BPV, most parking south of Busch Stadium, the list could go on and on.  

MRNHS wrote: ↑

Jan 22, 2020

 Serra Sculpture Park, 

Can we stop suggesting that we build in the Gateway Mall? Yeah, it sucks but there's plenty of more wasteful land downtown. 

chaifetz10 wrote: ↑

Jan 22, 2020

SouthCityJR wrote: ↑

Jan 22, 2020

Parking lot on the corner of Grand and Lafayette just north of I-44.  I believe SLU hospital owns this lot because it is across Grand from one of their buildings.  In all my years I have never seen even one single car parked on this lot and the weeds are typically overgrown.  Could easily be built on as an apartment building and has a great location.  Notice how often SLU is mentioned in this thread?  They really are a problem in this regard.

At one point SLU used this lot to store student cars that they towed for multiple parking infractions / unpaid tickets on campus. I think they only did that for a short period though as students would just use their (or a friend's) parking pass to open the gate and drive their car back home.

Wow!  I hadn't heard about that.  Seems like a classic example of wasted prime real estate.

I thought Grand/Lafayette was going to become a QT. 

Lindell/Euclid is one of the most egregious empty lots in St. Louis. 

aprice wrote: ↑

Jan 22, 2020

MRNHS wrote: ↑

Jan 22, 2020

 Serra Sculpture Park, 

Can we stop suggesting that we build in the Gateway Mall? Yeah, it sucks but there's plenty of more wasteful land downtown. 

I heavily agree with this to a point. Something still needs to be done about the block to at least make it feel like a useable space because right now its dog poop central. We should not build on the gateway mall as its our urban green space and instead, we need to build on all the wasteful parking lots in downtown.... 

LArchitecture wrote: ↑

Jan 22, 2020

aprice wrote: ↑

Jan 22, 2020

MRNHS wrote: ↑

Jan 22, 2020

 Serra Sculpture Park, 

Can we stop suggesting that we build in the Gateway Mall? Yeah, it sucks but there's plenty of more wasteful land downtown. 

I heavily agree with this to a point. Something still needs to be done about the block to at least make it feel like a useable space because right now its dog poop central. We should not build on the gateway mall as its our urban green space and instead, we need to build on all the wasteful parking lots in downtown.... 

I wouldn't be so sure that is dog poop, especially inside the Serra sculpture...

Here are a few that stand out to me:

Broadway and Washington, NE corner - perfect for a high-rise

Broadway and Spruce - right across from Busch
9th and Spruce - site of Koman's proposed building
11th and Spruce - site of a demolished Cupples warehouse

11th and St. Charles/Locust

2nd and Lucas - Laclede's Landing
1st and Lucas - Laclede's Landing
2nd and Morgan - Laclede's Landing

The lots around the Eat-Rite where I never see any cars parked