The rumors of the Kirkwood Apartments’ demise are greatly exaggerated. Just a few months after the 300 N. Kirkwood Rd project was finally pronounced dead, a new developer, TriStar Properties, has revived it in much of its original form —60 apartments, 2,940 square feet of retail, and 111 parking spaces across four stories— utilizing the same architectural firm, Stock & Associates. The project is scheduled to go before the Planning & Zoning Commission on Wednesday.
Beyond the inclusion of one additional parking space, the primary changes involve the project’s retail component. Whereas the previous proposal called for 2,000 square feet of restaurant space, 2,000 square feet of retail space, and 1,300 square feet of office space for a total of 5,300 square feet of commercial space, the new version’s plans include commercial spaces of ~1,900 square feet, ~1,000 square feet, and a clubhouse (an amenity space for tenants) of ~1,900 square feet.
The exact bedroom mix for the new project remains unclear, but from squinting at the plans included in the application materials, it seems to largely consist of one and two-bedroom units. The old version of the project included 14 3-bedroom units, so I’m hopeful that those more family-friendly units will again be included.
The project remains a near lock for Council approval as the proposal as submitted would only require one small site-plan modification to the city’s buffering standards. That modification is needed to continue the cut through pedestrian access between Adams and Washington that was included in the adjacent Commerce Bank development at the behest of the Council, and thus seems likely to be approved.
Aesthetics & Walkability
While I’m glad to see this project return, it’s a bit disappointing that the new project does little to improve on the design of the previous proposal. The continued lack of commercial space along Adams, for example, strikes me as a missed opportunity to activate the streetscape of a major Downtown Kirkwood thoroughfare. Instead, the Adam’s St (South), East, and North facades will consist, almost exclusively, of screening for the parking garage contained within the building.
The aesthetics of the building (in so much as they can be gleaned from these early renderings) also leave a lot to be desired, as the building utilizes the infamous broken-up massing that is incentivized by architectural design guidelines across the country, including Kirkwood’s:
Monotonous design should be avoided. Variation of detail and form should be used to provide visual interest.
While this approach is supposed to make large buildings appear smaller and thus more palatable to the eye, in practice, they simply tend to make large buildings incoherent and ugly compared to a single cohesive design. I’m sure the Architectural Review Board (ARB) will help clean up the project somewhat, but they could do even better by cleaning up this language at the source.
If we’re after smaller buildings themselves instead of just trying to visually trick people into thinking large buildings are smaller than they actually are, the Council should look into re-legalizing the kinds of modest single-stair buildings that make up much of Kirkwood’s intact historic core (as well as Europe, where they are the default for mid-rise residential development).
The one aesthetic/historic silver lining for the project is that the cover letter declares the developer’s intention to rehabilitate the stone wall at the rear of the site —which is believed to be the last remaining piece of the historic Pitman Elementary School, which used to occupy the site— by removing “the existing modular block wall that is enclosing the existing stone retaining wall”. The developers do not yet seem to have settled on a name for a project, but I hope the Council again encourages them to use “Pitman Place” as they did during the approval process for the prior proposal. It’s important to preserve Kirkwood’s sense of place even as it continues to grow and change.
You’re right–this is an ugly building.That said, I’m not sure what would be a model to improve it. The large development at Station Plaza, which we’re used to now after about 20 years, uses an arcade on one building (the one with Minifig) and an awning structure on the other (where Kaldis is). This proposal at Adams doesn’t seem to have the room for either to reduce the mass at sidewalk level, and they already are short of parking–there’s not two spaces for each apartment, which means increased pressure on street parking and on the lot next to the Presbyterian church, and probably on parking for the YMCA. We’ve already seen increased illegal parking in the Alpine Shop lot to accommodate the shortage of parking at The James. In terms of missed opportunity for retail along Adams, I think the church, the YMCA, and the the existing condos make that street busy enough already.
Adams Place across the street might act as a model (and might also act as a model for design–it’s visually more appealing than the design proposed for the apartments in this proposal), but that’s already a heavily trafficked street. If you look at retail across Kirkwood Road, you’ll see some empty storefronts where Fortel’s Pizza and the spa store were. maybe that’s an indicator that more retail may not be achievable.
People will go into shock when they see the open space at the corner turned into something so over-sized, ugly and imposing. Permanent shade cast on the gorgeous stained glass windows of the Presbyterian church across the street, depicting the four seasons in nature and designed by the Freis, international stained glass artists who have lived in Kirkwood for generations. Those windows are the most beautiful art in Kirkwood. Their community connection is special and unique. It would be a travesty to have them degraded by a light blocking monolith, especially one so cookie-cutter, pedestrian and uninspired.
The presbyterian church is south of the proposed apartment so there would be no issue regarding shading.
[…] Thursday, Kirkwood City Council will decide the fate of 300 N. Kirkwood, a proposed four-story mixed-use development at the corner of Adams and Kirkwood. The project includes 60 apartments and retail space, and […]