St. Louis Photography

[kennedy]

I'd like to share with everyone the photos I take while going about St. Louis and the rest of Missouri. At least, while development is slow in Boston.

These first few to start are from last Friday, when I visited the St. Louis Hindu Temple and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University St. Louis.

Washington University in St. Louis

Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Wash. U.

Calder Mobile outside the Kemper

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum

(if you look closely, you might be able to figure out which reflection is me)

Hindu Temple

 

[czsz]

Kennedy, I'm convinced St. Louis has at least one very nice park and one very nice university campus. Can you maybe show us some of the city city as well? Some shopping streets, residential districts, etc.?

 

[kennedy]

Oh...um...well you see, we're kind of lacking in that regard. I'll try to grab some of the Delmar Loop this weekend, our streetcar suburb neighborhood right near Wash. U, and named one of America's 10 Best Streets by the APA (I think). Not much residential there, though. Soulard is the other big one, and I hardly ever get over there, but whenever I'm in the city I bring the camera.

 

[Ronwell Pudding]

Kennedy, I think you need to get and explore your city some more. I spent 2 days in Saint Louis last November and here is just small sampling of the shots I took.

I now live in Chicago, and St Louis is no Chicago, nor is it Boston. It lacks the energy and vitality of both places. There's no Newbury Street, or Michigan Avenue. Overall the neighborhoods are quiet and downtown is kinda dead.

But I was really impressed with the housing stock and overall vibe of the city. There were plenty of nice neighborhoods if you knew where to look. I had the feeling that there'd be enough going on to entertain me if I lived there.

St Louis has a lot of potential, despite its many problems. Came away impressed in the end. You just have to reset your expectations a little bit. Though you may disagree...

Took all of these from my car. Enjoy

 

[kennedy]

Plenty of nice architecture, plenty of nice housing stock, not so much in terms of walkable, urban neighborhoods. Like I said, I haven't been out to Soulard (or the Central West End) recently, and those are the two 'best' neighborhoods in the city - and where it seems you took most of your pictures. Even those, though, aren't up to the standards of Boston, let alone Chicago (at least, not in my opinion).

 

[Ronwell Pudding]

Kennedy,

From what I saw I agree. Its not the most walkable or urban place in the county. That isn't to say the city is completely un-walkable. Many of the neighborhoods seemed like great places to walk around in if your out for a stroll, or even if you want to go grab a drink. But again they aren't walkable in the sense that that you can walk to all your services and live without a car.

As far as urbanity, I think the city is quite urban. But its just a different standard. St Louis isn't NYC urban, or Boston urban, etc. Few neighborhoods or places are. But there are trade-offs--pros and cons to that urbanity as well. The city seems very easy to navigate by car or bike and if you didn't mind driving it has a lot of amenities close by.

Like I alluded to before if your judging St Louis by best case practices then it falls short in many categories. But if you accept it for how it is and see the potential then it might have something to offer. I don't know why I feel the need to defend St Louis, but for some reason I just liked the place.

BTW I didn't show the pictures but I thought Tower Grove Park, the Missouri Botanical Gardens, Forest Park and the Art Museum were fantastic.

FYI the neighborhoods I photographed were, in loose order, Central West End, Tower Grove Village, Shaw, Benton Park, Soulard, Lafayette Square.

 

[kennedy]

Hmm...maybe we got off on the wrong foot.

I absolutely, definitely, completely agree that St. Louis has a ton of potential, but the fact that this potential is capitalized upon saddens me. I think we just have different perspective when it comes to the city - when you realize what St. Louis once was, what it is today, and where it seems to be going, it's easy to be depressed. At the same time, when you compare it to almost any other city of the same size, especially in the Midwest or the Sunbelt, it is clear how much further along St. Louis is than the rest of the country.

I do tend to compare it to the best the United States has to offer, when it would perhaps be more appropriate to compare it with the average American city. I think that makes more sense, I don't think I was being too reasonable when I responded to czsz's comment.

 

[Ronwell Pudding]

Kennedy,

I think it seems like we're disagreeing more than we actually are. If we were having this conversation face to face I think we'd be nodding our heads in agreement. I did think you were selling the city a little short when you responded to czsz, but hey I don't know the day to day St Louis like you do.

On a side note, I've been enjoying this guy's blog recently. He writes, about the Midwest and cities in general.

http://www.urbanophile.com/

A lot of good stuff there. If you scroll down he has a piece on St Louis, Detroit and other failing Midwest centers, and how they can stay competitive. While it may not be fair to compare St Louis to NYC I think its necessary given the global economy.

 

[Ron Newman]

What I'd like to understand is -- how did a city that once legitimately rivalled Chicago fall so far?

 

[kennedy]

Rivalled? Try dominated. The perfect storm of Levitt, white flight, de-industrialization, shifting from rail freight to air and highway, and modern suburbanization. Oh, and the new stadium seating church movement. But that's just my bitter opinion.

Ronwell, I must confess that I don't live within the city, I live in the terrible sprawling suburbs - just a few minutes from what is billed as the "longest strip mall in the world." So you might be able to imagine my cynicism. That Urbanophile blog is awesome, though. Rust Belt cities are intriguing. Definitely an area I'd like to work in as a future architect/planner.