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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Convenient Parking at Seventh and Locust

News about the conversion of St. Louis Centre into a parking garage for the "convenience" of tenants of One City Center brought to mind a page from the brochure published by the developers of Ambassador Building when the building opened in 1926. An entire page is devoted to the "convenient parking" near this building, although the definition of "convenient" allows for parking facilities over eight blocks away.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, like, are you being sarcastic? I hope not. Meanwhile, St. Louis has devoted a lot of effort to providing convenient parking for Ballpark Village. Plus, they even went and built a baseball stadium nearby so, like, after shopping at BP, you can just hop on the moving sidewalk and shoosh into the stadium for a couple of innings. Thanks Mayor Slay. And Phyllis Young, too, who has worked like a demon to get all that parking space. Both are real leaders.

PeterXCV said...

Most of these garages in this picture no longer exist. It would be interesting to seem some closer up pictures of them.

Haus said...

Why are people so lazy. Eight blocks is nothing to walk. This is why American is getting fat, people are to lazy that they can't even walk down the street. Walking eigth blocks or so is excersise and you dont even notice it and its not that hard.

Chris said...

Anonymous's comment makes no sense.

Michael R. Allen said...

Anonymous, not sure what you mean about sarcasm.

PeterXCV, I have a few photos, and will try to dig them up soon.

Haus, indeed, eight blocks is no big deal except to people who want a walk no farther than the length of a skybridge.

Anonymous said...

The new St. Louis tourist marketing tagline should be:

"St. Louis Missouri ... There's Ample Parking."

Anonymous said...

Parking convenience is a important aspect to MetroLink's management and their use of public funds. Along the Extension, numerous new parking lots next to stations (largest ones in Clayton and Hanley-Eager) have been built.

In addition, the new lot built by Metro at Galleria Parkway provides FREE parking for the public. The nearby sidewalks have never been expanded or upgraded as promised by MoDOT-StL County. The property was donated to Metro by MoDOT to show how they "support alternatives".

The point? Our attitudes and use of public resources refuses to acknowledge that the auto culture can ever be secondary to alternatives.
john

Unknown said...

Michael, I'd like to know your opinion of the st. louis centre conversion.

Thanks!

Michael R. Allen said...

St. Louis Centre was not built to be very adaptable. The ceiling heights, column spacing and center atrium are significant drawbacks. Also, the floor plates are thin and flex under heavy loads -- not a pleasant feeling, and not one anyone would want in their home or office. Also, the build-out over the sidewalk is terrible.

Thus, I see a parking garage as one of the most logical reuse plans, save reopening it for retail. Yet I think the best plan would be demolition of most of the mall structure around One City Center as well as the old parking garage between Sixth and Seventh, and complete reconstruction of the two sites.