New streetlights on 7th

boombox · PostMar 19, 2010#12010-03-19T16:05+00:00

Driving home down 7th street yesterday I noticed the ugly cobra head streetlights have all been replaced with neat looking old style street lamps.

I am pretty surprised to see them here considering the only notable businesses on this stretch of 7th are the Old Rock House and Eat Rite. Is there some sort of plan in place to build more throughout the city?

stldotage · PostMar 19, 2010#22010-03-19T17:36+00:00

Take a picture for us, please?

I love little infrastructure updates that would never make the news. Thanks you, UrbanSTL!

Alex Ihnen · PostMar 19, 2010#32010-03-19T17:49+00:00

^^ Can we get a pic?

A lot of times these little projects are from infrastructure funds managed by an alderman or neighborhood development committee. Their piecemeal and some are good while some are not.

debaliviere · PostMar 19, 2010#42010-03-19T17:54+00:00

It would be nice if all the street lights looked the same. The replica lights on Washington look different than the replica lights in front of the Federal Reserve and Marquette building on Broadway, which look different than the cobra lights on the other blocks, which look different than the...

Alex Ihnen · PostMar 19, 2010#52010-03-19T18:04+00:00

Right. I literally took all 10 photos above within one block on Taylor Avenue near the WU/BJC medical campus. There are three entities involved in the area (if you include WU and BJC as one): St. Louis City, WU/BJC and MODOT. There's now lighting plan for the area, though WU/BJC seem to have settled on a cast iron streetlight replica and color-match cobra head from all the new lighting. Blog post here: http://urbanstl.com/index.php?option=co ... &Itemid=10

boombox · PostMar 19, 2010#62010-03-19T18:26+00:00

I will work on getting a picture on my way home from work. I've noticed some graffiti painted over and small little streetscape improvements on this stretch the past couple of months. I wonder if the money was allocated to this area due to the large amount of Cardinals fans that congregate around here before and after games.

PostMar 19, 2010#72010-03-19T19:54+00:00

Here are some crappy iphone pics. I apologize for being too lazy to get out of my car, but I had to rush home.

Alex Ihnen · PostMar 19, 2010#82010-03-19T20:20+00:00

Nice! These appear to be the same as the lights on South Grand between SLU med and Arsenal. They're a bit tall, but that's necessary to put enough light on the road to meet lighting standards and allow for the removal of the cobrahead lights. Well done I say!

Oh, and not everyone loves the granitoid (pink-ish formed stone posts), but they've been around St. Louis for about 80 years so there is some historic precedent for them.

brickandmortar · PostMar 19, 2010#92010-03-19T20:35+00:00

This project is funded with federal transportation enhancement funds. It involves obviously the lighting as well as some sidewalk improvements (bringing them into compliance with ADA) from around Park to around Cerre). I think there's going to be some benches, trashcans, and lighting under the highway as well. It's in the general area of the Icehouse District.

Alex Ihnen · PostMar 19, 2010#102010-03-19T21:14+00:00

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! BIG government telling us how are streets should look!!!! AHHHHH!

(sorry, couldn't resist)

It does make me mad that projects like this can only seemingly be done with one-time grants or windfalls. We have simply over-built our infrastructure and cannot maintain it. That's why we should be very careful about adding more roads, bridges, etc. (even MetroLink).

jakektu · PostMar 20, 2010#112010-03-20T00:41+00:00

Who makes the design decision for the light posts?

It seems ridiculous that they chose the pink design. All the recently redone stoplights and posts near the Stadium where the pink starts are black. And all the nearby lighting like this along Tucker, Lafayette, Soulard parks, etc are also black.

framer · PostMar 21, 2010#122010-03-21T03:59+00:00

alexihnen wrote:Oh, and not everyone loves the granitoid (pink-ish formed stone posts), but they've been around St. Louis for about 80 years so there is some historic precedent for them.

Yup. These are the ones I remember growing up with, and I have a nostalgic fondness for them. Besides, so many of the black bases are just cheap plastic, and look it.

Alex Ihnen · PostMar 21, 2010#132010-03-21T14:41+00:00

I agree that they should seek some uniformity - maybe the cast iron poles are better for the Lafayette Square/Soulard/etc. area. The cast iron poles also require more maintenance and it can likely be assumed that they won't be well maintained.

threeonefour · PostMar 22, 2010#142010-03-22T13:55+00:00

I like the pink granite lights since there is a historic precedent for them as others have noted, but the city really needs to establish some consistency with their placement. Neighborhoods at least should have some sort of uniform design for lighting.

Cobrahead lights aren't necessarily attractive when compared to their decorative replacements, but I always liked the dual cobrahead lights that can still be seen on some downtown streets for some odd reason.

framer · PostMar 23, 2010#152010-03-23T04:11+00:00

Thirty years from now, all of the really cool urban lovers will be screaming for the return of those historically-significant Cobra Heads.