Update
(05/06/2019)
More details (and perhaps most excitingly a rendering) have emerged regarding the recently green lighted condominiums at the corner of Clay & Madison. Chris Stritzel of CityScene STL reports that the building, marketed as “The Barclay” will cost approximately 12 million dollars and take a little over a year to complete. While the design could more fully engage with the street, the Madison facing wall seems like it will be well fronted with landscaping. As suspected the overall aesthetic is very similar to The Madison. While similar looking buildings so close together is perhaps not the most visually exciting trend, it at the very least, is a good repetitive design and one that blends will with the surrounding buildings. Other than the added density it is my hope that this project could also improve the walkability of the area in another way: by pushing the addition of a four-way stop sign/crosswalk at the intersection.
In addition to assisting residents of the surrounding condos cross Clay safely and slowing down traffic to a more relaxed pace, a stop would also assist bicyclists make the left hand turn onto Clay, a turn currently made treacherous by the inability to see cars coming from the North until after they have crested the top of the bridge. This is my own personal hobby horse as this is the route I take when I bike home from Kaldi’s but hey I think it’d be a good change nonetheless.
Previous Story
(02/19/2019)
Downtown Kirkwood’s slow march towards respectable density will receive another big boost if Savoy can successfully navigate City Hall’s approval process in the coming weeks. The proposed project at 204 S. Clay will strongly resemble Savoy’s previous foray into DTK luxury projects just down the street, The Madison. The yet to be named project’s seemingly only real departure from the design of The Madison is the inclusion of two additional units bringing the total for the proposed development to 14; four units (~1800 sf) per floor on floors 1-3 and two penthouses (2400 sf) on floor four.
The proposal will require both rezoning and site plan approval to get the go ahead, but there doesn’t seem to be nearly the organized opposition to the project as the proposed 48 unit apartments on Big Bend that the proposal shared the February 7th public hearing docket with. While there were no public comments, the Webster-Kirkwood Times reported that the most severe blowback came from the counselors themselves who questioned the revision to the plan that changed the 18-lot parking arrangement of the building from that of an underground garage to instead occupying the first floor of the now 8ft taller structure. More debate is sure to accompany the first reading of the proposal at the February 21st meeting.
Analysis:
This eight foot increase in height is fine from a height perspective but has negative implications for how the building interacts with the street. The height is not the problem so much as parking, instead of people-centric activities, occupying the first floor is. This is most evident on the Madison side of the building on which, due to the slope of the lot, leaves the first floor unit an estimated 15 feet above street level. Pedestrians walking by will get to look at a retaining wall. Residents living on the bottom floor wont get to walk off their porch to the park across the street unless they have a passing interest in rappelling. On the one hand I get it, below ground parking parking garages are incredibly expensive compared to their above ground counterparts, but it all reeks of Savoy trying to pull a quick one. These changes weren’t made until after initial approval by P&Z was granted for a reason. Savoy is betting that that initial approval and the hesitancy of people to change their mind regarding the established status quo of that approval, will get them by.
