Elements of Urbanism: Downtown St. Louis

[Metro Jacksonville]

Elements of Urbanism: Downtown St. Louis



Metro Jacksonville visits the downtown of a city that has finally turned around after five decades of decline: St. Louis, Missouri.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-aug-elements-of-urbanism-downtown-st-louis

[Keith-N-Jax]

Cool city. I had no idea that muesum was under ground there when I visited. If you havent been up in the arch you should put it on your list of things to do.

[Overstreet]

They forgot the zoo. Free admission. Last time I was there the local music grinders were having a grind in.  Everywhere you turned there was a vintage "organ grinder" making music. Don't remember any of them having monkeys though. Strange to see snow on the ground and all the flamingos huddled under the infrared heat lamps.

Best Burger is Tom's Bar in the Central West End.   Best Beer is Shafley's Tap Room.

[thelakelander]

We didn't.  There's a second St. Louis photo tour that will be released later this week that focuses on urban neighborhoods (ex. Delmar Loop, Central West End, etc.) and attractions (Forest Park, AB Brewery, etc.) outside of the downtown area.

[simms3]

Love love love St. Louis.  Went to a Cardinals game the there year the new Busch Stadium opened (before I was of age ), but there were a ton of small little pizza places and bars downtown that were extremely friendly and lenient.  Great culture there and I don't think I have ever met someone from St. Louis I didn't absolutely love!

Did you make it to Clayton/Wash U/Forest Park/LaDue?  Beautiful area that is like Avondale on steroids with a better park, more restored and absolutely beautiful homes, and a "downtown".

[thelakelander]

Made to most of the city except for the Northside.  I also missed the time I would have spent in Clayton and East St. Louis by electing to drive over to Kansas City for a couple of days.

[HPC_Autumn]

This makes me homesick.  I was born in St Louis and my family lives right across the river.  Union Station is awesome and beautiful and when I discovered the floor of City Museum dedicated to Sullivan and Elmslie I felt like a kid in a candy store.

Beautiful essay, thank you!

[north miami]

I spent a couple of days in St.Louis four years ago. Very nice.Made me appreciate Jacksonville's proximity to big open waters,and overall weather.

St.Louis summers no better than jax,certified worse even and our Sea Breeze Summer conditions often better.

[spuwho]

Great City, has come a long way since the 70's. Everyone should check out the "City Museum". It is a "hands on" museum made up of famous parts from city history. You will not be disappointed.

Art museum, very good. Architecture, great examples of modernism. Of course the Arch, the museum underneath is excellent.

The only thing they have to work on.......the river tours!  The start and end at the arch is excellent, but the rest is a drab flight through abandoned power plants, coal loaders and river bank erosion.

There is a little of everything in St Louis. Rail history, road history (US 66) River History (Lewis & Clark), sports (Busch & E. James Dome).

Also go up to St Charles to the French Colonial District or down to Kaskaskia and the French Prairie Settlements.

See the Clark Bridge in Alton, unique engineering!

Lots to do!

[JeffreyS]

Love St. Louis if I did not own a business here moving there would be a strong consideration. For the last twenty years St. Louis has taken the position of how can we make our nice place even better and invested in itself. Conversely Jacksonville for the most part has said how can we take our nice place and make it cheaper for corporations.  So one city achieved Urban renewal to compliment their sprawl and one just about wiped out it's Urban core and maintains only it's sprawl.

[Todd_Parker]

As a fellow St. Louis native, I could really go for a Ted Drewes right about now.

[urbaknight]

This is what I think downtown Jacksonville could and should be like.

[JeffreyS]

This is one of the best examples we could follow.

[heights unknown]

I am jealous.  What a beautiful, clean, density packed downtown, just what we envision and/or would like for Jacksonville to look like.  Nice bunch of scrapers too, not too tall, but in the 400 to 500 range that really rounds out the look of St. Louis' skyline.

"HU"

[Overstreet]

I am jealous.  What a beautiful, clean, density packed downtown, ...................

It has it's not so clean down town areas too.