urbanSTL

^

I think you can actually get to the lobby through the library.

^Not to mention that there are three grammatical and spelling errors in that short story.

Send them to me. I will get them up.

More tidbits from the St Louis Front Page:



Old Post Office Plaza to Feature Signature Sculpture



http://www.slfp.com/CitySide.htm



This quote will interest the Greek scholars in the forum:

He (Baird Sampson) said that the public art purchased by Gateway Foundation, a sculpture "Torso di Ikaro", inspired the design for the area. "We became quite interested in the name which is a reference to Icarus, son of Daedalus.



"In renewing our knowledge of the classical myth, we discovered that Daedalus was associated with public squares in ancient Greece," said Sampson. "We thought it would be appropriate to use this urban figure, who was also the designer of the Labyrinth."

St. Louis To Get New Downtown Plaza



Created: 8/8/2007 7:41:07 PM

Last updated: 8/8/2007 9:06:12 PM



VIDEO

Click here to watch this report.















By BETSY TAYLOR

Associated Press Writer



ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A new plaza in downtown St. Louis -- scheduled to open next spring with an outdoor balcony, cascading water and sculpture -- will also be a place for lunchtime and evening music, movie screenings and street performances.Advertisement







The roughly $8 million project, across the street from the redeveloped Old Post Office building, will include a sculpture by Igor Mitoraj.



Architect Barry Sampson said Wednesday that the sculpture's reference to the ancient Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus helped inspire the plaza's design, by the firm Baird Sampson Neuert of Toronto.



Daedalus created the labyrinth on Crete and sometimes is described as the first architect. He was associated with public squares in ancient Greece, Sampson said. In the myth, Daedalus constructed wings for himself and Icarus to leave Crete, but when Icarus flew too close to the sun, the wings softened in the heat and Icarus fell into the sea.



Sampson said the new 30,000-square-foot plaza includes a central square, and a glade of trees at the east, with benches forming a symbolic labyrinth. A walkway at the back of the plaza will lead to a balcony, tying into the idea of flight and creating a high location where visitors can take in the view. A water basin wraps around the square, with a three-story water cascade next to the balcony.



A wall at the rear of the plaza, near the Roberts Orpheum Theater, will provide a site to view movies and other images.



The Gateway Foundation, the Danforth Foundation, Downtown St. Louis Partnership and Downtown Now! worked on the plaza, with additional financial support from other groups. The privately owned plaza will be open to the public.



(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)





AP/KSDK



It's a good thing that we here already have a good idea of what this is...otherwise we would be a "little confused" after this description! GEEEESH Louise!!

The Greek theme sounds like it could be cool.

Say what you will, but the OPO Plaza has received positive coverage by nearly every media outlet in town. I believe every TV station covered it last night and it was mentioned again on KWMU. IMO - the more often this type of announcement/reception can repeat the better for the perception of downtown. I like the plaza, but will be somewhat surprised if the huge screen in the rendering is actually put up - it seems that every public space designed these days has a huge screen.

Grover wrote:Say what you will, but the OPO Plaza has received positive coverage by nearly every media outlet in town. I believe every TV station covered it last night and it was mentioned again on KWMU. IMO - the more often this type of announcement/reception can repeat the better for the perception of downtown. I like the plaza, but will be somewhat surprised if the huge screen in the rendering is actually put up - it seems that every public space designed these days has a huge screen.

Good point. Turning a vacant lot into a nice plaza is something that people who don't know much about downtown St. Louis or urbanism will take as a positive for downtown, and the design is good enough that most of us who follow downtown issues on a daily basis will be happy with it.



I like the design of this plaza and was glad to hear that there is planned programming to draw people to it at different times of the day throughout the year. They should hire this design team to give Kiener Plaza a makeover.

They should hire this design team to give Kiener Plaza a makeover.

They should! unlike the current plans to completely demolish it.



I think this OPO Plaza looks excellent. very big city. way to go St. Louis! They better include that screen. Places such as this define downtown as being the TRUE urban living refuge for the region, not places like downtown Clayton.

Another mediocre plaza to complement the ones downtown that nobody uses. So if they build a plaza here, does that mean we can never construct a building on it in the future. At least there's plenty of parking nearby

Putting past negatives aside, this is really an exciting project and if/when the Roberts Tower gets built the Old Post district will be the best part of downtown.

brickandmortar wrote:Another mediocre plaza to complement the ones downtown that nobody uses. So if they build a plaza here, does that mean we can never construct a building on it in the future.

Maybe the plaza will be so popular that we won't want to build a building on it.



Now the "plaza" (or rather, driveway) in front of the U.S. Bank Building, that's another story.

I like it and think it's a really cool idea. The outdoor screen reminds me of the new W Hotel in Victory Park in Dallas, except ours is stationary.



Good stuff.

It's definitely a plus sign for downtown that they were able to get so many digitial people into the rendering! I'd heard that digitalized people, fed up with the lack of city services and angry at the highcost of broadband, were moving to St. Charles County in droves.

Is the Icarus theme supposed to serve as a conservative cautionary reminder to Saint Louis? Why not Apollo?



Like the overall design though, and it's always nice when downtown gets positive fanfare.

I just walked by, and work is underway!

Good to see they aren't waiting around to get started after the ground breaking.

Quick somebody call the ACLU……...

you know - homeless or not - i can see the appeal of taking a bath next to the torso of Icarus