Monday, September 26, 2005
At the Preservation Board Today
The agenda for today's St. Louis Preservation Board meeting contains some interesting items. Under the item "4104-54 DeTonty" we find that McBride and Son is pushing its Botanical Heights scheme southward, and has actually learned a lesson or two -- McBride wants to retain some of the existing buildings on the block. Still, McBride wants to level two great Craftsman-style four-flats that, while derelict, are structurally stable enough for rehab (and vastly superior in materials and detail to any new houses I've seen in the city). Under "4008 N. 25th Street" -- one of two Hyde Park items on the agenda -- the Cultural Resources staff is urging preservation of a sound, small fachwerk (part brick, part timber) building that Alderman Freeman Bosley wants demolished.
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3 comments:
If the 4100 block of DeTonty is successful in Shaw, you can expect McBride to seek similar "infill" development in the 4100 blocks of McRee Town. These are the blocks immediately west of those fully demolished for Botanical Heights-Phase II between Lawrence and Thurman (Phase I between 39th and Lawrence is nearing completion now).
I wonder, though,how many buildings in western McRee City will come down even under an "infill" project. McBride has shown little sensitivity toward continuity, as the hideous Phase I demonstrates.
That's just my point. If McBride does "infill" in McRee Town to the west of its Botanical Heights development, you can bet such "infill" will mirror the 4100 block of DeTonty in Shaw. IOW, demolish empty structures and replat for new homes.
You can see what few homes remain west of Thurman (areas outside Botanical Heights' clear-cutting). But these few remaining flats if empty may likely be torn down just like the two empty buildings on DeTonty to make way for more McBride homes.
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