Centre of Failure

Steve Patterson of Urban Review St. Louis reports that an announcement on the future of the failed St. Louis Centre Mall downtown will be made sometime this week. I'll make judgement when I see the announcement, but I'll say right now that I am not necessarilly optomistic. Hopefully it will at least include plans to immediately remove the bridge over Washington Ave. That can not happen soon enough. Done right, a redeveloped St. Louis Centre could be a great asset to downtown, but done poorly like it is now, the centre will continue to be a drag on the area. Not completely sure exactly what I want in St. Louis Centre's place, but I know it is definitely not going to succeed as an enclosed mall.

Searching Google

*This post is for my class*

Personally, I do not mind if the government sees what I search for. I have nothing to hide. I have not searched or how to make a backpack nuclear bomb or how the effectively take out a bridge. I don’t think many people would have anything to hide either. That brings up the point of how much good a subpoena will really do. What does the government actually need one million random web addresses for? If the government wants to have the addresses to protect children as they claim, why don’t the investigators look them up? Private businesses should not have to do the work for the government.

The whole situation with searching and wiretapping is ridiculous to me. In general I do not have a problem with either; I just don’t think devoting so many resources to domestic surveillance is a worthwhile use of what we have. How many people is the government really going to catch in America? Were the thousands of wiretaps actually successful? It just doesn't seem worth it to me.

Ballpark Village

After all the talk that it would never happen, it is finally official. Ballpark Village will be built. It was made official in a story on Fox 2 News tonight. I have had the renderings since November 10, but it is nice to see that Ballpark Village is now officially designed and will be under construction by the end of the baseball season. Cordish of baltimore is the lead developer.

Ballpark Village will be a $450 million project covering six city blocks adjacent to the new Busch Stadium. The new development will have 1,200 condos in four towers, 450,000 square feet of retail, and 400,000 square feet of office space.

In my mind, the best feature of Ballpark Village is that it restores the street grid. The old Busch and the parking lot where the new Busch is was a giant superblock. While the new park is a superblack, it is in a spot where I think the stadium works well for it's size, right up against the highway where no through streets are anyway. Ballpark Village will be able to tie together the south end of downtown with the north end of downtown much better than the old Busch did. The village will be urban.

I find the design of the buildings to be good for the most part. Good mix of styles. Brick for the mid-rise buildings on the west end of the site, and all glass for the east end of the site. These buildings will make a dramatic difference in the skyline, and they offer a different style than much of downtown. The new towers should add a nice modern contrast to the surrounding historic buildings in Cupple's Station and the Tum's factory, along with the retro designed ballpark. I did a rough count of floor heights and it looks like there is one at 15, two buildings in the 15-20 range, one at 25, One at 26-27, and one at about 34 floors. And these towers will be in camera views shipped all over the country.

1,200 residents in a six block area also brings badly needed residential density to the south end of downtown, an area lacking much besides offices and useless parks. There needs to be many year round residents, not just fans and office workers, for an area to really thrive. Look at the area around Washington Ave. for an example of what good density can do.

But I am glad to here that office space will be in the project. There are several firms looking for large Class A spaces downtown, so hopefully some will consider Ballpark Village.

Being next to the new ballpark and having so many residents and shops should make for some nice pedestrian traffic on the streets. Another great urban aspect of this development. The open section of Busch should make for large crowds on Clark catching some of the games for free.

Overall, Cordish does good urban developments.

Now if we could just get something done about the ugly and anti-urban stadium parking garages.

Snow Angels In The Outfield

The snow falling today in St. Louis made for some neat scenes around town. Check out ballparkconstruction.com for more of my snow pics of the new Cardinal's Ballpark.

Note to Readers

As you may have noticed, this blog has come back to life. While I will be doing St. Louis and Urban based posts, I will also be doing a post once a week for my Tech Apps class. You can read them if you want, but they will probably have absolutely nothing to do with cities. Just think of it as my user fee.

Reflection on "The Net Gen Goes to College"

College professors are being told to use technology in the classroom. Video, powerpoint, and computer software are in demand by the new generation of students, often called the Millenials. But is the use of technology in the classroom really necessary? Some say yes, and some say absolutely not.

I agree with both sides in this case. Technology is great as a tool for learning, but so are traditional teaching methods. There is no doubt that todays students are different than past generations. We grew up with technology. We have been checking websites while doing a reading asignment and Instant Messaging at the same time for years. Students are bored when they go to class and get the same old lecture over and over again. Different technologies allow a professor to vary the class instruction. But technology should not be the only device used in teaching. The lecture is just as good of a tool now as it was fifty years ago. Traditional research papers are just as useful as a powerpoint presentation. I think it is more important to use all of the different teaching tools effectively instead of just one tool on either side of the spectrum.

This quote sums it up for me quite well. " We find that they like Multi-media -- they want text, video, and sound," according to Mike Turner of Case Western Reserve University. I agree, I don't want just one tool, I want them all.