Kansas City can do it
Why can't St. Louis be this creative??
http://www.dimin.com/project/kc-downtow ... ng-garage/#
Why can't St. Louis be this creative??
http://www.dimin.com/project/kc-downtow ... ng-garage/#
Well, I'm sure something like that - large scale graphics, acknowledgement of post 1910 architecture - would violate the historic sanctity of some crumbling and underused building. Clearly it would be a bad idea.
hebeter wrote:Kansas City can do it
Why can't St. Louis be this creative??
http://www.dimin.com/project/kc-downtow ... ng-garage/#
My guess is one of KC's most influential employers is Hallmark, internationally known for encouraging creativity and employs tons of designers, artists, illustrators and visionaries.
Our most influential employers are aviation engineers, bio-engineers and guys who market beer to frat boys.
It'd be nice to think a peer city got it right, but truth is overall they didn't / aren't. They got one structure 'right' (I think it looks cheap/gaudy)... but overall their downtown is bad if not worse than STL in this regard (ugly above ground garages, ample surface lots etc). As a metro area, at least our downtown garages support 3 active sports venues (argument of football stadiums being placed downtown aside) AKA get used in evenings and on weekends a LOT more. Their sports venues are isolated - surrounded by tens of thousands of surface spaces (both at Truman Sports Complex and near Livestrong Park) - all of which are used just a handful of times a year. Please only give credit where it is due... and overall, in the last several decades, KC deserves less credit than STL.
Both Truman Sports Complex and Livestrong Park aren't even downtown. Actually Livestrong Park has essentially nothing to do with KC, Mo since its located in Kansas. Have you visited Downtown KC and STL in the last 12 months? I am constantly in both cities and I have to say that Downtown KC is much more vibrant than STL. I for one think its a really cool looking garage!
Are you talking about the Kansas City that's on the MO river at the KS/MO border? Because although the Royals don't play in DT, there is a lot going on in DT that has nothing to do with sports. Spend some time in KC - the vibe is really good and it feels like a modern city on the upswing.tbspqr wrote:It'd be nice to think a peer city got it right, but truth is overall they didn't / aren't. They got one structure 'right' (I think it looks cheap/gaudy)... but overall their downtown is bad if not worse than STL in this regard (ugly above ground garages, ample surface lots etc). As a metro area, at least our downtown garages support 3 active sports venues (argument of football stadiums being placed downtown aside) AKA get used in evenings and on weekends a LOT more. Their sports venues are isolated - surrounded by tens of thousands of surface spaces (both at Truman Sports Complex and near Livestrong Park) - all of which are used just a handful of times a year. Please only give credit where it is due... and overall, in the last several decades, KC deserves less credit than STL.
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Count me in also as someone who doesn't get why people think KCs downtown(and BBQ) is that great, but anyway... we tend to overlook things in our own backyard. I think the MX garage conversion was pretty well done.
These examples look cool, but its not revolutionary, just screening which could be added to our existing garages. Unfortunately there is no incentive for garage owners to spend the extra dollars. Perhaps the public garages could lead the way (I'm looking at you Tucker and Clark) and the Partnership could have some incentive to spruce some garages up (I'm looking at you Park Pacific and Century garages).
As far as the Kiener Garages (combined with the Old Court House), I think something like this would be awesome(as part of CityArchRiver?)...
http://mashable.com/2011/04/24/3d-proje ... 80VoAnOpk8
Google "facade mapped projections" or "3d projection mapping" for more examples.
They did something like this about five years back at the Central Library and Soldiers Memorial, but it was just moving pictures with no relation to the building.
These examples look cool, but its not revolutionary, just screening which could be added to our existing garages. Unfortunately there is no incentive for garage owners to spend the extra dollars. Perhaps the public garages could lead the way (I'm looking at you Tucker and Clark) and the Partnership could have some incentive to spruce some garages up (I'm looking at you Park Pacific and Century garages).
As far as the Kiener Garages (combined with the Old Court House), I think something like this would be awesome(as part of CityArchRiver?)...
http://mashable.com/2011/04/24/3d-proje ... 80VoAnOpk8
Google "facade mapped projections" or "3d projection mapping" for more examples.
They did something like this about five years back at the Central Library and Soldiers Memorial, but it was just moving pictures with no relation to the building.
- 11K
nextSTL story about (more) interesting parking garages: http://nextstl.com/transportation/its-t ... ng-garages
The one is KC is for a public library. This would be cool at the Lindell branch garage at Lindell/Euclid.
The one is KC is for a public library. This would be cool at the Lindell branch garage at Lindell/Euclid.
I would say it looks nice, but no street level retail will make it a dead zone. The Tucker and Clark garage is almost identical to one in Chicago while it is by no means an arhcitectural icon, it looks better than most of the garages downtown and does have street level retail with the pizza place opening soon.hebeter wrote:Kansas City can do it
Why can't St. Louis be this creative??
http://www.dimin.com/project/kc-downtow ... ng-garage/#
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Put me down as well for not seeing this KC parking garage as some sort of statement about lack of creativity in St. Louis; essentially this is public art for a new public library and not a municipal (or private) garage. Had our remodeled library needed a new garage, then we could have made some kind of comparison on creative vision. Further, while we have had too many new parking garages here downtown, at least they have street level retail and one has a viable and decent-sized grocery store. I think a better comparison to KC would be to see what their newer municipal garages look like; e.g. at the P&L District.
Agreed. Their downtown just feels cleaner, more sparkly and modern, and far more lively than ours.onecity wrote:Are you talking about the Kansas City that's on the MO river at the KS/MO border? Because although the Royals don't play in DT, there is a lot going on in DT that has nothing to do with sports. Spend some time in KC - the vibe is really good and it feels like a modern city on the upswing.tbspqr wrote:It'd be nice to think a peer city got it right, but truth is overall they didn't / aren't. They got one structure 'right' (I think it looks cheap/gaudy)... but overall their downtown is bad if not worse than STL in this regard (ugly above ground garages, ample surface lots etc). As a metro area, at least our downtown garages support 3 active sports venues (argument of football stadiums being placed downtown aside) AKA get used in evenings and on weekends a LOT more. Their sports venues are isolated - surrounded by tens of thousands of surface spaces (both at Truman Sports Complex and near Livestrong Park) - all of which are used just a handful of times a year. Please only give credit where it is due... and overall, in the last several decades, KC deserves less credit than STL.
- 11K
Seems that the point should be that not only can STL do better with its parking garages (what city can't?), several high profile garages are among our worst and could benefit greatly from some creativity (ballpark and Kiener).
Ironically, I'll be visiting KC next weekend. Based on my past experiences, depending on the day you visit either downtown, it may seem as if the other is more lively.rawest1 wrote:Agreed. Their downtown just feels cleaner, more sparkly and modern, and far more lively than ours.
With that said, downtown KC does offer, it seems, more glass structures in its downtown than St. Louis' downtown, which gives it a more modern look. Project such as Roberts Tower, 600 Washington, and the Four Seasons Hotel were important because they do help to "gloss up" downtown St. Louis.
KC, in some ways, doesn't appear to be "married" to red brick or stone, which is common there, in the way St. Louis is married to red brick and conservative design. KC is married to fountains.
I do hope that new downtown garages, which I believe are totally unnecessary at this time, are designed in a more contemporary fashion when the time comes to build new ones.
It appears that Voce, a music venue, has opened in the garage retail space next to the recently moved Maurizios.
http://vocestl.com/
http://vocestl.com/