My latest
Vital Voice column,
"Lumiere Place Looms Over Historic Warehouses", tells the tale of three industrial buildings on Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard between Biddle and Carr streets about to be wrecked by the city government because Lumiere Place claims the buildings are hurting its revenue.
That twisted logic could be twisted straight to demonstrate why the casino owners should use their own money to buy and renovate the buildings, but it won't be. Read the bad news in the article, and then come back here to look at these images of the splendid, sturdy masonry of these warehouses, one of which may be the oldest surviving cold storage building in the city. (It's always frustrating when that determination becomes a matter of trivia about a lost place, rather than part of the narrative that helps people understand their extant built environment.)
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8 comments:
I work for Arthur Wells which has cold storage in a cave way out in Warrenton. If it wasn't being demolished I would suggest they look into this building, since it's down the street and could have tax credits; an unfortunate waste of our built environment. The North RiverFront has a surplus of buildings which could be put into reuse, whether residential or their original use. We must also consider Paul McKee's Chinese dealings. If that is successful then he could use these buildings, or similar ones, for storage and logisitics. Our leadership would rather demolish viable, stable buildings because they have no vision. That's why St. Louis is second rate.
Ah, the last refuge of management scoundrels: It's somebody else's fault. My guess is that rather than blame the buildings("Look at them, how they sneer at our brand-new fabulous light show. Shameful."), they could blame the location, or the competition, the tanking economy, or the fact that the luster of newness has rubbed off, or the flooding, or their "management". But, since this is St. Louis, the go-to excuse for bad management of resources or economic reality is "the building did it". Which not only defies logic, but common sense. Although, since common sense seems not to be so common anymore, perhaps we should refer to it as inherent sense. Either way, Lumiere has neither. And the incompetents at City Hall continue to destroy our industrial heritage, with no eye to the future.
Hey, you know what would look much better in that location? A GIANT GLOWING VIDEO EYESORE.
Lumiere aren't getting (and likely aren't GOING to get) any of my revenue not because of nearby buildings, but because the more I see of Lumiere itself, the less I want anything to do with anything so cheesy!
that stone low-rise has got to be ancient.
It was a foundation before it was a low-rise. You can see alot of structures like that around town.
I was thinking the construction method reminds me of a lot of the older buildings in the Carondelet area.
but the base of a lopped off building makes sense too.
As I stated in the article, the one-story section was built in 1883 as a one-story cold storage warehouse.
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