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All posts written by St. Louis City Talk contributors unless otherwise noted.
The park is the first I've visited with a swimming pool. It appeared to be in really nice condition and it was good to see. Moms with kids in tow ranging from little ones to teens were present cooling off on a typically scorching July St. Louis day. There was a lifeguard and security guard on duty and this pool is free to all St. Louis residents.
Carondelet Lions Park...no not that Carondelet Park, the other one. This park is located in the Carondelet Neighborhood, right in the shadow of the awesome, recently renovated Coca-Cola syrup plant, now called the Temtor that houses the delicious Perennial Artisan Ales...and has a lot of people living there now within its apartments.
This part of the park looks used and with a little more hard work could become a real asset to the neighborhood. The curb appeal of the park would improve by with more hardscape to define the space around the center planting and provide some structure and curb appeal.
The southern section of the park is a blank slate...literally just a mowed field of grass/weeds and a couple random trees. There was a recent bump out along the sidewalk for a water fountain that does not work or is not turned on, but it looks nice.
This isn't really a park at all rather a narrow strip of land between Broadway and Calvary Avenue which splits the 2 historic cemeteries. If I weren't a completist, I'd have skipped this "park".
Nothing to report here other than some new trees planted and a crumbling stairway that is impassable and unusable.
Famous poet and writer Maya Angelou grew up near Buder Park on Caroline street and attended Toussaint L'Ouverture Grammar School just around the way. I wish the African-American community did a better job of embracing the history and the meaningful black contributions to this city. There should be something commemorating Ms. Angelou's time here but I couldn't find anything. If anyone knows the exact address that Ms. Angelou spent parts of her childhood, please let me know.
Sadly, the park has seen a lack of interest from the neighbors over time. I doubt anyone would say this is a positive space nor asset to the neighborhood. That's not to say there isn't tremendous potential as the park was built up to rise above Hickory Street and providing excellent views of Downtown and Midtown.
The park shares the local Italian-American heritage and pride...and it's only getting better. Support of the local business community is evident from the trash cans to the monuments within the park.
The baseball fields are maintained and in excellent condition, the best I've seen. Note the nod to the Italian flag, the locked equipment boxes and painted utilities and clean/intact bleachers.
If you don't know, Benton Park is one of those south city neighborhoods that has seen amazing grassroots rehabs throughout the neighborhood. This trend continues even in these slow markets, as nearly all the homes on the north side of the park are "done"; there was rehab work on one of the remaining board ups on my visit today.
On Saturday, June 29, I took part of my family to visit the new east building expansion of the St. Louis Art Museum (SLAM). This $160M expansion had us pretty excited as the SLAM is a national treasure...and we've missed the collections that were not on display during the construction.
If you have followed the Grand Opening as I have, you've probably read what the pundits are saying. Largely a mixed bag of tempered praise to mild disapproval.
Anyhow, this is my take as a casual observer of the building itself and the galleries within.
Not unlike the recent $70M renovation of the Central Library, I was anxious to see this historic addition.
Now to me, art, architecture, writing and music are all about feel. It's amazingly powerful to get a feel from a song or a painting or a book or a building. I'm a simpleton, but the feel of a place can change a so-so experience into a great one. Yet, buildings have soul only if the things within them have soul. I feel the venue usually affects the performance or showing...the general experience overall.
When I walked into the recently renovated Central Library...I got the
rush of pride and excitement and awe
. THIS is why I live in St. Louis...this is why I'll continue to brag about this city...we just pulled off something amazing and unforgettable at that library. I just want to BE in that space it. I drove home and insisted that my family go see it and we were all in awe together, ages 6-42.
Upon first visit, this new building does not make me feel the same way. Although, some of the artwork I've never seen before certainly did. My wife and kids were excited about the works on the walls or in the middle of the floors, but they didn't say anything about the building...nothing, they just wanted to talk about the art. They are usually vocal about the place too, not today.
Maybe that's the point...the expansion was not meant to compete with the 1904
Beaux Arts gem to the north. This expansion seems to respect the original. And I think that's all it takes to understand why it isn't really a blow your mind kind of expansion.
I walked away not underwhelmed, not overwhelmed...just happy to live in St. Louis and enjoy an art museum whenever I want...for free. Happy to see new installations that my kids will have as part of their up-bringing...mixed with the old classics from my fond memories. Happy that we once welcomed
to live and work here and be appreciated here forever.
Most of all, I've got to give props for the...get ready St. Louis...underground parking lot!!! No, we don't have a disgusting parking lot mucking up our old classic stock a la the Park Pacific.
WTF
Underground parking! $15.00...a reasonable fee for those who don't want to walk; after all, admission is free.
The landscape is awesome as well. The structured use of various species of birch is PERFECT for my liking as we are a river city and these elegant riverside, bluff natives are oft painted in European and American art. They'll look good in the winter too.
7 year old liked the view in this room
The pundits are calling the addition "quiet and reserved". Gaudy, revolutionary or bold are certainly not words that came to my mind, so I guess I agree. Sleek and modern are the words I would use to describe the feeling I got. The space made me happier from the inside than the out, which I guess is the point.
So that's my humble 2 cents.
Now let's see what the pundits have to say.
From
:
David Chipperfield’s design for the more than 200,000-square-foot East Building presents a contemporary counterpart to the Museum’s neo-classical 1904 Main Building. Awarded LEED Gold status by the U.S. Green Building Council, the design organically links the two buildings, and a new Grand Stair provides a seamless transition between the main and the lower-level galleries and visitor amenities. Museum visitors may use the fully accessible new entrance to the East Building or the existing Sculpture Hall entrance to the Main Building, where the original floor plan has been restored as part of the expansion project.
The façade of the East Building features floor-to-ceiling windows and 23 monumental panels of dark polished concrete, with highlights of Missouri river aggregates. Inside the galleries, innovative coffered ceilings made of light concrete provide abundant but controlled natural light, supplemented with artificial illumination which is managed by a computerized sensor system that automatically adjusts to changing light levels throughout the day. Wide-plank white oak floors and stainless steel floor vents are designed to provide a distraction-free setting for the works of art.
From
:
Improving the quality of visitors’ experience, modernising the original building and marrying new and old were key parts of the project. Brent Benjamin (director SLAM) praises Chipperfield’s “deep respect” for the Gilbert building and his sensitivity to its setting, a park bigger than New York’s Central Park. The extension, which is built into a hillside, is largely underground. Clad in polished concrete panels that incorporate Missouri River stones, the wing features views of the surrounding park, a restaurant and provides facilities museum visitors now expect, including a car park. Another first for the museum is a “real coat check”, Benjamin says. He praises the “wonderfully quiet and reserved” setting for art that the architect has created in the new wing. The galleries have distinctive coffered ceiling but are otherwise pristine white cubes.
From
:
Known for his rigorous design approach, Chipperfield was appointed unanimously by Museum commissioners in 2005 to design an expansion to SLAM. No stranger to merging old and new, Chipperfield received the prestigious Mies van der Rohe Award in 2011 for his restoration of the Neues Museum in Berlin. But unlike his other cultural projects in the U.S.—for the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, and Alaska’s Anchorage Museum expansion—that feature predominantly glass facades, the St. Louis project, in what is perhaps its boldest design statement, is defined by dark, massive panels of polished concrete that contrast sharply with the light-colored masonry of the existing Beaux Arts structure.
The other defining feature of the one-story “pavilion in the park,” as Chipperfield calls it, is the 4’-deep concrete coffered ceiling containing skylights that provide daylight to almost all of the new building’s 21 galleries. Used primarily to display modern and contemporary art, the flexible galleries accommodate temporary walls and feature under-floor air distribution and hidden building services. HOK served as architect-of-record, working with Chipperfield’s office to achieve LEED Gold accreditation. Paris-based Landscape Architect Michel Desvigne is designing the museum campus, including a future sculpture garden, in phases.
The 211,000-square-foot addition—more than half of which comprises below-grade parking for 300 cars—increases the museum’s total gallery space by 30 percent. It also allowed for the renovation and reinstallation of 68 galleries in the Cass Gilbert building. Chipperfield’s intervention there was minimal, save for a new Grand Stair in the main entry leading to that structure’s lower level.
Chipperfield’s project is marked by deference to an illustrious past, both architectural and symbolic, but it is clearly a building of its time. It remains to be seen if his elegant restraint will bring the increased recognition this world-class institution in an oft-overlooked American city seeks.
Just like the Central Library's new addition, I was in awe of how the north entry connects the old and new with just a small strip of glass. This addition marries the old and new in another imaginative way, with a stone sculpture called "Stone Sea" by British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy.
The connection from the exterior
sculpture between old and new sections
Here's what
Fox 4 News in Kansas City had to say
:
There are no rules set in stone when trying to connect the present with the past. But British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy might have set the bar with his piece — Stone Sea.
“Which is literally as he says eloquently, To draw fluidity from static stone.” said Tricia Paik, assistant curator of modern & contemporary art at the St. Louis Art Museum. “So you have this whole sea of arches, 25 arches weighing 300 tons. Not the weight of water of course and he’s given an extraordinary gift to the city of St. Louis with this project.”
A project the St. Louis Art Museum commissioned as a permanent way to bridge David Chipperfeild’s new East building with the Cass Gilbert designed Main building.
“We rest, St. Louis and the Midwest rests on a bed of rock of limestone,” Paik said. “This is a stone of marine origin. So many centuries in the prehistoric era this was once a sea an inland shallow sea.”
This is a rare inside look at this marriage of something new with something old. These stone arches are the same bedrock used to build the 1904 original building.
“We had a wonderful art critic come in and he gave a very great word to describe which Andy loved which is episodic,” Paik explained. “You experience it in moments and you actually experience it throughout our new expanded campus.”
Most will experience the installation from indoors or looking down from this outdoor courtyard. Over time Mother Nature will change the complexion of these arches.
“It’s a work that’s responding to nature,” Paik said. “From the sun, rain, darkened clouds, it’s going to be brightly lit on some days, shadow as we are here right now. So it’s going to be something that will change with time.
Anyhow, art is subjective and beauty is in the eye of the beholder; and I think this is a beautiful addition to Forest Park and St. Louis.
Do you agree?
7 years old: we are not two we are one
9 years old: painting the painting
There is also an information desk, coat check, gift shop, snack shop and full restaurant.
light snacks available
fine dining upstairs
What's your take?
I ran into a guy with a metal detector, and we struck up a conversation about what we were both doing, me with a camera, him with a metal detector. We chatted for ~ 10 minutes on the history of the park and the neighborhood. He has been in Wells Goodfellow since the 1960s and told some great stories. He said there was a large population of Jewish and Italian Americans living around the park leading up to the 1950s. They started to leave in the 60s and that's when black folks settled in (the 2010 Census data indicates 98% black population). This part of the city is bleeding residents. People can't get out fast enough as 28% of the residential base took off for greener pastures from 2000-2010.
Man, do I love North City. The way these neighborhoods were laid out is simply amazing. It seems like there was more wealth in its heyday, meaning more mansions than the South Side which I know much better. Today my visit took place on a Sunday, a great day to witness the scores of middle aged and older black people dressed to the T's and looking sharp, socializing and showing up in droves to the many, many churches. It's a scene I love.
Anyhow, Amherst Park is one of those parks that is brimming with potential.
As the city started losing population at a staggering rate, there was less need for business and housing...hence, we get more building demolition and are left with easier to maintain park space. Unfortunately, as go the buildings and people so goes the well planned, dense city. Anyhow, we lost a lot of tax generating, vibrancy-creating properties and now we have parks. Albeit...a very beautiful one in the case of Aloe Plaza.
Aloe Plaza West is really nothing more than grass, a few trees and homeless tents and debris.
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