Laced columns, riveted

Downtown St. Louis.
Laced columns are sexy, you know they are.


Eads Bridge:

Tension Member

A few weeks ago I was sitting in a Doctor's waiting room looking at a magazine when I noticed an article about the book my friends were praising: American City: St. Louis Architecture: Three Centuries of Design (click on the tile) and noticed the photographer was William ZBaren, an old friend I haven't see since my 20s. I emailed him through his web site and learned he was visiting St. Louis last week and I met with Bill and his partner, Robert Sharoff, for dinner.

I mentioned to Bill that it was serendipitous that we had both lived on Flad Ave. Flad was Eads chief engineer on the bridge and Bill, knowing my appreciation of the bridge, gave me a print of his photo.
I grinned the entire drive home.

***

Yesterday I drove down to the river just to focus on the eyebars (tension members) on the bridge:

Ohio and Utah

I strolled the 26 and 2700 blocks of Utah today.




Narrow:


Listing Houses and Chimney:





For Chris over at St. Louis Patina:

Marble staircase:

Fleur-de-lis anchor plate and an elevation designed to enclose the original copper downspout:



Decorative anchor plates or wall washers:

TGS Architecture Walking Tour

I'm hosting a TGS Architecture Walking Tour on Sunday, Sept 18. The tour will begin at Utah and Grand and will be lead by Architect, David Lott. David has volunteered to conduct two tours, one at 1PM, the next at 3PM.

The tours are a fundraiser for the TGS Block Captain Fund and the donation is 10.00 per person.

Please save the date and join us for an hour long walk through TGS and learn about our historic built environment.

Interview with Writer Peter Plate

Click on the title to read an interview I did in 1986 with then emerging writer, Peter Plate.

Sidewalk Marks

Also see the updated article:
http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?nid=67179

Click on the title and thanks to BF Pat Fish for providing the link.

Pat Fish

Leading Celtic tattoo artist Pat Fish of Tattoo Santa Barbara:

Earlier in the evening

Dinner with my bodyguard at Three Monkeys on MGF where I spotted these unusual bricks.

Devastation on 4000 Utah Street

4000 Utah is one of my favorite blocks in TGS and is populated with perfect Craftsman Bungalows. Note that all the trees along the south side of the street have been removed.


The post below was written by Marsha who lives on 4100 Utah.

MSD work on Utah to replace aged storm sewers from Roger to Bent began about two
months ago. Homeowners on the 4000-4100 blocks were notified by a brief letter
that the work was to take place, which included only the name of the contractor
(Gershenson Inc.) and that the work could take up to a year to complete and
would impact Utah, Roger, Oak Hill and Bent.

After the work began at the corner of Utah and Roger, it was determined that
Laclede Gas should initiate work on gas supply lines on the same two blocks of
Utah, ahead of the sewer line replacement work. Since April or early May,
Laclede has been working their way up the two blocks, while MSD remained in the
area of the Utah/Roger intersection.

About 10 days ago I heard via rumor that MSD would be destorying all street
trees on the south side of 40-41 Utah (about 20) while trenching the entire tree
lawn on the two blocks to a depth of 9 ft.

The scope of the sewer replacement project was not shared in any detail at all
with homeowners, or apparently with officials of the City. (Is it true that
there is some kind of covenant that MSD has no obligation to obtain approval
from the City for the scope and method used to make repairs?)

Last night several large sections of new sewer pipe were laid out on top of the
tree lawn heading west from Roger on the south side of Utah. At the end of the
day today, all but one of the street trees on 4000 Utah had vanished, cut to
almost grass level by chain saws.

Is there no other way to accomplish sewer line replacement than to devastate a
neighborhood, destroying decades old trees that provide shade, noise and toxic
pollution reduction, habitat for wildlife and great character and charm to the
homes on the block? The fact that the tree lawn would be trenched and trees
destroyed was never communicated in any way to property owners.

Surely this can't be the only two blocks in the City to require sewer line
replacement -- does the same devastation occur on every block where MSD does
replacement work?

Burn.Question

I move with a relentless force that radiates while staring out the window at clouds, Cooper's hawks, the limestone cornice, and terra cotta rosettes.

I asked: What is your experience with or how would you define freedom?
You looked back with cautiously expressionless eyes.

This is where I engage movement and it articulates and defines me. This is where I achieve validity with constant motion, constant, and it's my only understanding of being free. It's an abstraction that I glimpse when moving, the abstract movement of contrasts, the gentle rub of resistance that is hot and comforting.

You are extensive like light or gravity, a massive incontrovertible force. Substantial. Fluid. Moving.

Freedom is just more capitalism.


----------------
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow.
- T.S. Eliot


---------------------------------------

The site:

View from the window:

What's left of Mo State Hospital retains some fascinating details: limestone columns, limestone dentil molding, capitals with melting eagles, rotunda roof (painted, that's not copper patina), massive terra cotta rosettes. The original arched windows are missing. They've been replaced and a concrete lentil rests above each window. Arched windows still remain in the rotunda roof.

I estimate the superb limestone capitals on the front of the building to be 5 feet in height.

Behind the Brick

Brick awaiting repointing on my back porch after being raked. Behind the fine mortar finish was a variety of small rocks which had me wondering about the mechanics of hand selection in 1912.

Fist size

My neighbor holding a piece of hail after the storm. More massive chunks can be seen in the background on the lawns.

Two white guys

Click on the title above for a hilarious story.

My neighbor/friend/contractor being supervised by another white guy:

Gary told me a couple of days ago the world was ending Saturday which made me wonder why both of us were working.
We're cooking up a Rapture Party since I'm taking the pup with me.

Adnan Kadir

Read a book by Sissela Bok called: Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life

Whoops

No, not there either

The Kingshighway Viaduct and Skate Park

I read (click on the title) that the demo of the KHW viaduct is starting soon and wanted to revisit the area below the deck. I had the willies driving down the rumble strewn road along the east side but was enchanted to encounter a large group of friendly men and their underground DIY skate park complete with freestanding ramps and a recently created 'pool'.

I also had a great chat with the author of http://we-are-the-city.blogspot.com/

It was baffling to discover a dumpster under the bridge.
I called my 10th ward alderman Joe Vollmer. He said he's supportive of them being there -hence the dumpster - and wants to work with them to develop skate parks in our ward.

Reinforced piers:






Missing parapet:


In the middle of the photo there's a small figure, one of a group of boys who'd discovered the LRA board up had been removed:

Cracks in the piers






Entrance to the viaduct from South Kingshighway

Downspout encased in concrete: