They already have someone chosen for the "Berlin Wall."urbanitas wrote: ↑Jun 01, 2020City Foundry's Instagram page just put up a casting call of sorts for mural artists, because "now we need some help blending the old with the new". It sounds like they are just talking about the pedestrian mall between the Food Hall and the new retail buildings, but maybe it will include the Berlin Wall along Forest Park Avenue as well...
The concrete pedestals that are there will be reused. A few new trestles will need to be built where there are currently some extremely large substantial trees. The planting was put in place so that it could be removed to erect these new podiums. This is waiting on GRG to get the line from the Cortex GRG path up to the site. When that happens construction will begin on linking the path through the site and to the leg thats built going north between the new buildings (Alamo and the Mixed use building) and garage. This photo was taken where the path would turn to connect to the north.urbanitas wrote: ↑May 28, 2020aprice wrote: ↑May 15, 2020The concrete pylons are still there, I'm pretty sure they're re-building the deck as it was.urbanitas wrote: ↑May 15, 2020^Most of the old rail trestle next to the Foundry is gone. I haven't heard anything about it in awhile. Maybe they are restoring the parts somewhere, or plan on rebuilding it from scratch, but I don't see any evidence of either.
Have they done any work on the portion along the highway?
Still don't see it. From the renderings, the new trestle had steel supports on concrete pedestals, and crosses over the "street" between the corner of the Foundry and the Alamo Drafthouse.
I don't see any pedestals, or any rebar sticking up, and they have planted some pretty substantial trees where it seems the trestle would be.
I'm thinking it was put off for a possible Phase II, or eliminated entirely. Or perhaps they won't proceed until funds are secured for the whole Brickline greenway...
Which, from the Brickline greenway thread, seems to be on an indefinite hold...stlnative wrote: ↑Jun 02, 2020This is waiting on GRG to get the line from the Cortex GRG path up to the site. When that happens construction will begin on linking the path through the site and to the leg thats built going north between the new buildings (Alamo and the Mixed use building) and garage.
So, the trestle will only be rebuilt if and when the connections outside of the CF property are completed...?
^ In fairness, without any of those outside connections the trestle wouldn’t really have much of a use though. I suppose some might find it cool to walk down to a dead end by the highway and turn around and walk back, but it seems perfectly reasonable to hold off on building the trestle until there is somewhere for it to go.
Except the trestle was to connect the elevated walkways running along both the historic and new buildings. It's the only thing that makes that outdoor pedestrian mall interesting, other than some of the facade of the historic Foundry building itself:sc4mayor wrote: ↑Jun 05, 2020^ In fairness, without any of those outside connections the trestle wouldn’t really have much of a use though. I suppose some might find it cool to walk down to a dead end by the highway and turn around and walk back, but it seems perfectly reasonable to hold off on building the trestle until there is somewhere for it to go.
Take that trestle away and I think this pedestrian mall is going to look pretty bland, suburban even.
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I bet it'll be a part of it, but the funding and design are in flux. No problem waiting a little longer to know how best to act.
The walkways in front of the new buildings are still connected to the Alamo building. The pathway between the Alamo, garage, and new buildings is in place, and that piece is connected north to Forest Park Ave. The yellow stairs you see in the rendering are in place for circulation up to the path, as well as an exterior elevator.urbanitas wrote: ↑Jun 05, 2020Except the trestle was to connect the elevated walkways running along both the historic and new buildings.sc4mayor wrote: ↑Jun 05, 2020^ In fairness, without any of those outside connections the trestle wouldn’t really have much of a use though. I suppose some might find it cool to walk down to a dead end by the highway and turn around and walk back, but it seems perfectly reasonable to hold off on building the trestle until there is somewhere for it to go.
Yes, I understood all those connections between the new retail and garage would have to be there. I was talking about the trestle over the "street", and what I assumed would be some direct connection between the trestle and the second level of the historic Foundry buildings, but maybe the latter was never part of the plan.stlnative wrote: ↑Jun 05, 2020The walkways in front of the new buildings are still connected to the Alamo building. The pathway between the Alamo, garage, and new buildings is in place, and that piece is connected north to Forest Park Ave. The yellow stairs you see in the rendering are in place for circulation up to the path, as well as an exterior elevator.urbanitas wrote: ↑Jun 05, 2020Except the trestle was to connect the elevated walkways running along both the historic and new buildings.sc4mayor wrote: ↑Jun 05, 2020^ In fairness, without any of those outside connections the trestle wouldn’t really have much of a use though. I suppose some might find it cool to walk down to a dead end by the highway and turn around and walk back, but it seems perfectly reasonable to hold off on building the trestle until there is somewhere for it to go.
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OxBlue Webcams - SM Wilson, City Foundry
City Foundry (presumably) reinstalled some giant metal thing today, a coal hopper perhaps...looks like something Bob Cassily would have loved for City Museum...
OxBlue Webcams - SM Wilson, City Foundry
City Foundry (presumably) reinstalled some giant metal thing today, a coal hopper perhaps...looks like something Bob Cassily would have loved for City Museum...
I initially thought there would be some sort of elevated walkway connecting the north and south parts of the development too, but that doesn't appear to be the case.
That wasn't possible due to historic restrictions. Attaching a new structure to a historic building was turned down by NPS. Anything involving new construction/demo had to be approved by them. Sometime they were lenient, sometimes they were strict.urbanitas wrote: ↑Jun 12, 2020some direct connection between the trestle and the second level of the historic Foundry buildings, but maybe the latter was never part of the plan.stlnative wrote: ↑Jun 05, 2020The walkways in front of the new buildings are still connected to the Alamo building. The pathway between the Alamo, garage, and new buildings is in place, and that piece is connected north to Forest Park Ave. The yellow stairs you see in the rendering are in place for circulation up to the path, as well as an exterior elevator.urbanitas wrote: ↑Jun 05, 2020Except the trestle was to connect the elevated walkways running along both the historic and new buildings.
^ Considering how many times it’s been mentioned here, I’m still pretty amused at how many folks here don’t seem to understand the role the NPS plays in the design of these types of historic reuse projects.
^I think we're all just in disbelief that they couldn't have come up with something better. What they settled on is pretty much a worst-case-scenario.
Are you suggesting that the trains just pulled up to the end of the trestle, and the workers opened the railcars and pushed deliveries out the door to crash 20' below?stlnative wrote: ↑Jun 16, 2020That wasn't possible due to historic restrictions. Attaching a new structure to a historic building was turned down by NPS. Anything involving new construction/demo had to be approved by them. Sometime they were lenient, sometimes they were strict.urbanitas wrote: ↑Jun 12, 2020some direct connection between the trestle and the second level of the historic Foundry buildings, but maybe the latter was never part of the plan.stlnative wrote: ↑Jun 05, 2020The walkways in front of the new buildings are still connected to the Alamo building. The pathway between the Alamo, garage, and new buildings is in place, and that piece is connected north to Forest Park Ave. The yellow stairs you see in the rendering are in place for circulation up to the path, as well as an exterior elevator.
Or maybe, at some point during nearly a century of continuous operations, Century Electric figured out that building a direct connection between the rails and the foundry building made more sense, something like say, a loading dock. (and yes I am aware of the crane rail over the tracks).
So, we aren't talking about a "new structure". We are talking about rebuilding an existing or demolished structure...the kind of thing the NPS would always encourage.
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I'd always gotten the impression that trestle was primarily used to dump hoppers so . . . yes, that might well be more or less what they did. Park your hopper over the relevant bin, open the chutes, and let gravity do the rest. You wouldn't do that with scrap metal, most likely, but you just might with metalurgical coal, lime, sand, or any number of other raw materials a foundry might use. You can see several such trestles at Granite City to this day where they do precisely that: pull up to the end of the trestle and drop the contents onto a pile twenty feet below. You can't do that for everything, but for a lot of dry goods it works. That's pretty much the way hoppers always work, and there are a lot of hopper cars. Probably the single most common car type these days.
Bring it up with NPS bud. And yeah, that trestle never was attached to the building. Where those piles stopped was where the trestle stopped. Everything past there was at grade. Not sure if you remember the amount of excavation that was done at the site.urbanitas wrote: ↑Jun 18, 2020Are you suggesting that the trains just pulled up to the end of the trestle, and the workers opened the railcars and pushed deliveries out the door to crash 20' below?stlnative wrote: ↑Jun 16, 2020That wasn't possible due to historic restrictions. Attaching a new structure to a historic building was turned down by NPS. Anything involving new construction/demo had to be approved by them. Sometime they were lenient, sometimes they were strict.urbanitas wrote: ↑Jun 12, 2020some direct connection between the trestle and the second level of the historic Foundry buildings, but maybe the latter was never part of the plan.
Or maybe, at some point during nearly a century of continuous operations, Century Electric figured out that building a direct connection between the rails and the foundry building made more sense, something like say, a loading dock. (and yes I am aware of the crane rail over the tracks).
So, we aren't talking about a "new structure". We are talking about rebuilding an existing or demolished structure...the kind of thing the NPS would always encourage.
Check out the historic aerials. It looks like the bit over Vandeventer was put is sometime between 1971 and 1985
Right, but they used a lot of steel, as it was a foundry, and it's unlikely they made their own. Over the history of the plant, Century Electric made engines, appliance motors, brakes, wheels, and assorted parts for them.symphonicpoet wrote: ↑Jun 18, 2020I'd always gotten the impression that trestle was primarily used to dump hoppers so . . . yes, that might well be more or less what they did. Park your hopper over the relevant bin, open the chutes, and let gravity do the rest. You wouldn't do that with scrap metal, most likely, but you just might with metalurgical coal, lime, sand, or any number of other raw materials a foundry might use. You can see several such trestles at Granite City to this day where they do precisely that: pull up to the end of the trestle and drop the contents onto a pile twenty feet below. You can't do that for everything, but for a lot of dry goods it works. That's pretty much the way hoppers always work, and there are a lot of hopper cars. Probably the single most common car type these days.
So they were shipping a whole lot of stuff out by rail as well. And I don't think that trestle only served the Foundry, it also served the plants to the north. That would have been a very busy rail spur back in the day.
What I haven't been able to confirm yet is whether that rail spur continued to the east over Spring and if so, where it went from there... Maybe you have a good source for that?
The elevated portion of the tracks continued to the loading dock, which ran along at least half of the north side of the foundry complex over to Spring Ave. During the restoration, they excavated another 10' or so below the former rail bed to make the new pedestrian strip mall and parking garage ramp (right next to the historic Byco Building *coughs*).stlnative wrote: ↑Jun 18, 2020Bring it up with NPS bud. And yeah, that trestle never was attached to the building. Where those piles stopped was where the trestle stopped. Everything past there was at grade. Not sure if you remember the amount of excavation that was done at the site.urbanitas wrote: ↑Jun 18, 2020Are you suggesting that the trains just pulled up to the end of the trestle, and the workers opened the railcars and pushed deliveries out the door to crash 20' below?stlnative wrote: ↑Jun 16, 2020That wasn't possible due to historic restrictions. Attaching a new structure to a historic building was turned down by NPS. Anything involving new construction/demo had to be approved by them. Sometime they were lenient, sometimes they were strict.
Or maybe, at some point during nearly a century of continuous operations, Century Electric figured out that building a direct connection between the rails and the foundry building made more sense, something like say, a loading dock. (and yes I am aware of the crane rail over the tracks).
So, we aren't talking about a "new structure". We are talking about rebuilding an existing or demolished structure...the kind of thing the NPS would always encourage.
They also have made extensive modifications to the north side of the historic foundry structures to accommodate windows, doors, railings, stairs, etc. And if it is ever rebuilt, the trestle itself will have to be modified to connect to the new structures, and because the original was quite ugly...
Can't the NPS grant reasonable waivers for things like the Forest Park Blvd. frontage?
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.framer wrote: ↑Jun 19, 2020Can't the NPS grant reasonable waivers for things like the Forest Park Blvd. frontage?
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I suppose it might at one time have crossed Spring at grade to the brewery. Let me ask a couple of WRHS folks, see if we have a map.