N. Grand & 20th 4.08.2008 | 4 Comment(s)

The intersection of Grand and N. 20th street intrigues me. Looking past the fact that one of the city's remaining 3 water towers stands right in the middle of the intersection, take a look at the gentle curve of the street. I bet before everything was demolished, the buildings that once stood there hugged and respected that slight curve. What a detail that would've been to see! Red brick buildings forming a slightly curved street wall. I'm sure turrets and corner store fronts would have been the norm as well.



It feels like we've lost so much...and that we're still losing. It feels like every blog I visit has a new post about another building being demolished. This isn't progress.

By  goat314, at 5:15 PM

I would love to see neighborhoods redeveloped around all 3 remaining water towers, we cant afford to lose these. You just dont see stuff like this in newer american boom towns this is the kind of character that makes St. Louis great.

By  john w., at 10:20 AM

You got it... that's EXACTLY why we should be fighting to save what history we have because it is IRREPLACEABLE. Forces are currently in play to remove whatever possible in certain neighborhoods, by whatever means necessary in some instances, and they'll surely claim these great monuments to balancing water pressure (these towers are actually standpipes and contain no water, and never did) are tokens of the new vinyl-sided suburban style housing tracts and name their subdivisions accordingly (e.g. Water Tower Heights, or The Column Square Homes).

By  goat314, at 12:50 PM

John W how often are you at Urbanstl.com?, because I love your optimism and I'm sure others would too. I'm a former St. Louis resident that is in college for urban planning at Florida State University, but I'm just fascinated with my hometown. I always tell people that St. Louis has the bones of a world class city, we just need to rehabilitate her. I cant help to think how great this place could be with a little vision, leadership, and love, because lets face it these Atlantas, Charlottes, and Houstons have nothing culturally on St. Louis and I doubt they ever will. When I'm done with school I plan on coming back and getting into rehabilitation and probably start a few businesses. I feel like what Joe Edwards did for the loop can be done for the whole city.

By  Lolololori, at 10:37 AM

it is eally (incredibly, overwhelmingly, etc...) disappointing, but there are SOME good things going on...they're just not as easy to notice.