I haven't heard of the Multipurpose Stadium Project before. A few organizations teamed up to build an $8 million stadium complex for St. Louis' Public Schools. The plan was to have a central location were schools would compete as well as have all the costs centralized.



The project was supposed to break ground this September and open in the fall of 2007, but instread has been delayed indefinitely. Unfortunately, the RFT reports that the St. Louis Rams weren't yet ready to provide an unspecified amount of seed money. It looks like the Rams could still work something out or another corporate sponsor(s) could step up.



source:



<A HREF="http://www.riverfronttimes.com/issues/2 ... tml">False Start</A>

A Ladue man gets hit with a time-out just as he nears his goal of building a decent athletic field for city schoolkids.

By Kristen Hinman

Article Published Feb 1, 2006



It wouldn't be a stretch to call Ross Woolsey III a sports fanatic. The 56-year-old Ladue businessman became a long-distance triathlete at age 40. An avid swimmer and tennis player, he's coached Little League games and youth soccer leagues. He's been known to take in several high school basketball games a week ? even while vacationing in Arizona or Florida.



In the fall of 2004, Woolsey's passion for sports prompted him to sit down with Harry Rich, the then-chief financial officer of the St. Louis Public School District. Woolsey wanted to know how he could help the cash-strapped district improve its athletic facilities.



"What do you need? What can I do?" he remembers asking.



<A HREF="http://www.riverfronttimes.com/issues/2 ... /news.html">>>> read more</A>

What a bummer, how nice would it have been to hear something positive about the City's public school system for a change? I'd be nice to get the cities' kids some hope for once and not let them hear only negative things about the world in which they live on a daily basis.

Dude a sports complex would be perfect. Here in KISD they just built one where i will graduate in. Its really cool. ST. Louis school district could use one.

I happened upon this site while doing research for a project for the city of St. Louis. I am an architect and we are doing a masterplan for Fairgrounds Park in North St. Louis. It is the site where the sports complex was slated to be constructed. At the beginning of the process (just recently underway) we were unaware of the existence of this plan for a sport's complex. Since the publication of the RFT article we have inquired about it and were told to continue with the masterplanning with the intent being that the sport's complex was a REAL part of the park.



The masterplanning process is driven by feedback from the surrounding community and other interested parties. There will be a series of public meetings held to gather this feedback. I would be interested if anyone in this forum(especially people from the community)has any opinions on what they would like to see in the park, in regards to the sport's complex or anything else.



And I will certainly post the dates and times of the public meetings for any interested parties.



Feel free to reply with any suggestions, questions, etc.....

Wonderful! Welcome to the forum and yes you will have people at those meetings from here when providing the dates, time, and place.



I imagine you have researched into the history of the park and discovered its prior use as a fairground (obvious isn't it?) with even a horse race track at one point and a circular race stadium.

If you really have done a thorough job then you would know the details on Fairgrounds Park as the World's Fair That Wasn't. The 1904 World's Fair could have been staged at Fairgrounds and it was pushed as so for a time and a book with renderings of the possible buildings can be found in the St. Louis County library system and most assured in the City of St. Louis Library system. I am not sure of the exact title since I am not 10 years old and spending my saturdays in the library anymore (St. Louis section and local reference section), but it exists.



I always promote the necessity of trees and quality landscaping like Olmsteadian designs. All out new/hip/international/cutting edge park designs are not needed since not even Forest Park our jewel was masterly crafted to a T like Central Park. I hope the park is made to be continuously functional for hundreds of years.



Fairgrounds does border Natural Bridge Road, which can be said to be the most northern City of St. Louis main east-west artiery (southeast vy northwest to be exact). It continues out to its terminous at St. Charles Rock Road near I-270. Thus, as an important urban road the park deserves an appropriate urban connection and more so than Forest Park's gateways entrances and more like Lafayette Square's formal entrances or entrance plazas (small is still good). That ends my comments and again I have no doubt that such a qualified professional company can turn a positive and wonderful result.



What company by-the-way? Or does that interfere with personal vs. company relations?



I am happy to see the City take an active role in the northside through pushing rehab of the Ville, Old North St. Louis, and now Fairgrounds Park. I hope the City can continue in its efforts to rebuild quality neighborhoods and public amenities in the northside which is north of Page.

Excellent! I was not sure to expect a reply. I will be sure to post the meetings. The first is scheduled for sometime mid-April.



I do not think it would be out of line to say the name of the firm I am working for. I am at AAIC Inc. and I am going to be the project architect for the project of which there are a number of different firms that are part of the project team.



Farigrounds Park certainly has a long and important history that is going to be a part of the final design. The World's Fair seems to have been the beginning of the end for the park sadly. As a side note, it is probably unfair to compare Forest Park to Central Park.



I know we will do the best we can to make the Park what it should and could be for the immediate community and the city as a whole, and I appreciate your feedback now as well as in the future.

I think the idea of a multipurpose stadium is a good one, but wouldn't a more central location make more sense? Or, would the stadium just be used by those schools that do not currently have their own stadia?

Is Fairgrounds Park really that far off the central corridor for southside school kids to access? Sportman's Park used to be just down the street.

As a side note, it is probably unfair to compare Forest Park to Central Park.

I am not trying to compare the parks except for their parameters and that Forest Park on two sides does not have an appropriate urban gateway to the surrounding neighborhoods as Central Park. I admit CP is not the best comparison and Lafayette Square's entranceways are the most similar to my vision for what is appropriate.



Another dream I had was having the art classes of the surrounding high schools to the park which I believe are Beaumont, Sumner, & Vashion contribute something like mosaics in stone to replace a patch of concrete pathway or something permanent to make the entranceways more appealing and connected to the community. As you know people are more willing to use and care for a place if they have a vested interest or stake in it, and having the schools make something permanent would be one of those ways. It is also cost-effective. Mosaics (simple or something big if great community support and cooperation like from churches, schools, and businesses), murals on park structures with a plain wall, banners for lamp post, planting flowerbeds & trees & butterfly bushes, and wooden signs (wood shop classes) are all examples of ways that the community, and schools can create a lasting and permanent connection to the park. It is their park afterall, they need a reason or encouraging slogan to make them aware of their collective ownership of the park. A Dr. MLK Jr. or civil rights memorial would also be great if designed and made by a local hired artist.



Thanks for being daring to post and I am excited for you and the company to take on this fun project. Good luck, God Speed, and Huzzah!

Thank you very much SMS for your kind words as well as your suggestions. I think you hit the nail on the head when you spoke of creating opportunities in the park for the surrounding communities/schools/etc. to have a vested interest in the park. In my mind it is key. Your ideas are well received.



Connections, Connections, Connections........

Did anyone go to this and can report how it went and what are the future time tables for this project?

Plans to convert park spaces draw public concern

Shawn Clubb

Of the Suburban Journals

07/12/2006



Proposals to take land in three city parks for new purposes has some residents wondering whether their parks are for sale.



The plans include leasing 12 acres of Forest Park to BJC HealthCare, building a dog pound in Ellendale-Arsenal Park and building a privately-financed public school stadium in Fairgrounds Park.



Peggy Hermes, a longtime volunteer with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, lives near Forest Park in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood. She said the three park deals could set a precedent that would leave other park land up for the taking.



[...snip...]



Hermes would prefer brownspace to be used for a public stadium instead of land at Fairgrounds Park. She said she only recently found out about the proposed project.



"City life is livable because we have kept our open spaces," Hermes said. "If you give up that land, it's gone."



[...snip...]



Jim Shrewsbury, president of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, said people should be careful when considering using park land for any other purpose. However, he said each instance should be taken on its own merits.



Shrewsbury opposes the current plan for the lease of Forest Park land to BJC. He said he hopes there can be a compromise that could include BJC constructing a smaller building on the site that would leave more green space, having BJC construct an environmentally-friendly building, retaining public access to the area, or paying more money for park maintenance.



Whatever the case, Shrewsbury said there has to be more public input.



Shrewsbury said the other two park issues involve taking public park land and converting it for other public use. He said the animal facility proposal at Ellendale-Arsenal Park includes plans for improving other parts of the park, while the land it would take is part of the park that isn't used. He said a stadium at Fairgrounds Park could also mean improvements for the rest of the park.



>>> read more

^And even the BJC deal means improvements for the rest of the park. I wish Shrewsbury would follow his own logic, whether benefitting his pet animal shelter project, or the financial future of our city's largest park.



In all cases, Fairgrounds, Ellendale, and Forest Parks all could become enhanced spaces by converting a small portion of their official parkland into something more productive. Ironically, all three spaces within these parks also already have a histrory of being used for something other than open space. Fairgrounds used to have a small zoo, Forest already has a parking garage, and Ellendale currently has maintenance and storage facilities. In other words, these aren't untouched green spaces, but already overlooked corners of otherwise great parks.

Why not the former Pruitt-Igoe space for this proposed City School stadium complex? It's central, access is good thanks to Jefferson and last time I checked, not too many people were using it for much of anything.



I realize that there may be hazardous material issues, but nowadays where aren't there hazardous material issues?



It doesn't make amy sense to clutter or reduce what park system we do have when there are plenty of "brown" spaces just north and east of downton that are begging to be used.

I don't think it would make sense to take Pruitt-Igoe, our City's largest site for economic development, forever off the tax rolls. The Carondelet Coke site could have made a cool park near the confluence of River Des Peres and the Mississippi, but as a taxpayer, I'm very grateful it will now be redeveloped into new light industries.



Besides, reusing sections of parks that already have a history of not being open space is completely sound policy. The space in Fairgounds used to have bear pits as part of a very small zoo. While natural landscapes are key to parks, cultural and recreational amenities round out their attractiveness. I hope you don't think Marquette Park should be rid of its pool, or Forest Park rid of its attractions. Parks, especially urban parks, are much more than natural preserves.

I'm not suggesting that we take amenities away from city parks because they are cluttered. What I am saying is that maybe we should rethink adding buildings/structure to existing park space. If we just keep adding buildings to our parks, eventually the greenspace vanishes under new structures and parking for those structures.