Urban Planning

A Tale of Two City Centers

By Craig Barner

Hoping to echo Chicago’s success with Millennium Park, two Midwest cities have started projects featuring open space and cultural attractions aimed at attracting people and investment.

Construction materials and activity abound in the City Garden, an element of St. Louis’ $100-million Gateway Mall. (Photo courtesy of BSI Constructors Inc.)

St. Louis started the approximately $100-million Gateway Mall in June, and Indianapolis launched its $55-million Cultural Trail in 2007.

“We think the trail will do for Indianapolis what Millennium Park has done for Chicago,” says Brian Payne, president of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, the originator of the concept and fundraiser. “Chicago gets publicity nationally due to that project.”

Also taking cue from the Windy City, the 65-page master plan for St. Louis’ Gateway Mall contains pictures of successful downtown realms for public enjoyment, including Millennium Park. New York-based designer Thomas Balsley and the Toronto-based Urban Strategies Inc. design firm crafted the plan.

River City Revival

The approach of the two cities to downtown planning differs, with St. Louis focusing on revival.

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Once among the five most populous cities in the United States, St. Louis peaked in population in the 1950s with 855,000 city residents, but like other Rust Belt burgs, it ultimately suffered the erosion of population and its economic base.

The high-octane economies of the 1990s and mid-2000s brought some residents back. Another boost came when the beloved St. Louis Cardinals baseball team completed the replacement Busch Stadium in 2006. Now, the city population is about 355,000, according to Mayor Francis Slay’s office.

Seizing the moment, St. Louis turned to history to come up with a plan to help ensure stability, says Tricia Roland-Hamilton, director of the Gateway Mall project, which is being overseen by the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis, a group of business and political leaders. The mall was envisioned in the city’s 1907 Plan as a Beaux Arts-inspired design by landscape architect and planner George Kessler but never built.

“We don’t have a good public, open space in downtown,” Roland-Hamilton says. “There is no central theme or corridor, and we want residents downtown to have a space they can use.” In the 1980s several buildings on the site were razed, setting the stage for the project to proceed.

Not far from the Mississippi River, the Gateway Mall will extend for 16 blocks west of Eero Saarinen’s Gateway Arch or about 1.2 mi between the Old Court House and Union Station, Roland-Hamilton says. The mall varies in width from one block on the site’s east and west edges to three blocks in its center or between 160 ft to 740 ft, respectively. The park area comprises 22 acres, and the road area makes up 29 acres.

Several major elements are planned, starting from the east with approximate costs:

• The $30-million renovation of the below-grade Kiener Plaza where people often rally when the Cardinals are playing.
• The $35-million City Garden, which started in 2008 and is expected to be finished in June just before the All-Star game, says Joe Kaiser, executive vice president of St. Louis-based BSI Constructors Inc., the contractor.
• The Civic Room near the Soldiers’ Memorial Military Museum, War Memorial and Schiller Memorial. It will hold a $16-million stage and events area for concerts, markets and festivals.
• The $6-million Neighborhood Room to include a children’s playground, dog run and playing fields.
• The Terminus and $6-million renovation of Aloe Plaza that will serve as the western end of the Gateway and as an entry to downtown St. Louis. Plans call for an “iconic building” to serve as the mall’s bookend.

Unity is sought through an Urban Hallway—trees, benches, textures and other elements—along the mall’s south edge. Other concepts include art and culture in the form of sculpture and annexes to existing museums; ornamental gardens with the prevalence of native species; channels and fountains; and seating areas, food emporia and restrooms.

Completion is expected in 10 years, Roland-Hamilton says.

“The mayor has included in his economic stimulus request to the federal government funding to renovate Kiener Plaza and the events space,” Roland-Hamilton says.

Greening Indianapolis

Unlike its Midwest neighbor, Indianapolis sometimes battles to be seen as a major urban center.

For instance, the Pew Charitable Trust, a nonpartisan public-policy organization, did a survey asking people where they would live if they could choose from among 30 metropolitan areas, says the Central Indiana Community Foundation’s Payne. Indianapolis was not even a choice though it had a city population in 2000 of 792,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“People who come here to visit or take a new job are always surprised by what a livable city it is and the dynamic downtown we have,” Payne says.

Seeking an idea to draw investment and crowds, the city hit on the 8-mi-long cultural trail—formally, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene & Marilyn Glick (local philanthropists)—in part to add to the number of greenways in Central Indiana and contribute to a theme. Central Indiana has the 15-mi-long Monon Trail and seven other paths for strolling, biking or canoeing, according to the Indiana Greenways Foundation.

“We think the theme of the 21st Century is connectivity and think greenway trails will be known as a cool amenity,” Payne adds. The trail will loop around the downtown with a couple extensions.

Also, the trail will go through five of the six neighborhoods formally designated by the city as cultural districts: Massachusetts Avenue, Fountain Square, the Wholesale District, the Canal & White River State Park and Indiana Avenue.

Plans call for 60% of the trail to be 36 ft wide and feature a pedestrian way, linear landscaping and a bicycle trail, says Melody Park, vice president of Indianapolis-based R.W. Armstrong, the program manager and construction manager. The remainder is 24 ft wide for pedestrians and those on bicycles.

Four destinations are planned, Park says:

• The Gene & Marilyn Glick Luminary Monuments will feature 12 works of lighted art dedicated to humanitarians.
• An existing parking garage, which the trail will go through, will contain a light installation by New York artist Vito Acconci.
• People often think of those moving lights [beneath Terminal One] at O’Hare airport,” Payne says. “This one in Indianapolis will have sensors and show you the way to the trail.”
• An alley in the Massachusetts Avenue restaurant and shopping district will feature art.
• Six other works of art will be installed troughout the trail. The first, “Ann Dancing,” a work of moving light emitting diodes of a curvaceous woman dancing, is from British artist Julian Opie and already installed on Alabama Street.

Indianapolis-based Rundell Ernstberger Associates LLC is the trail’s designer. A half-mile has been completed along Alabama Street. The cultural trail is expected to finish in February 2012, when Indianapolis will host the Super Bowl.

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