There’s a case to be made that the hallmark of a place being legitimately urban is not tall buildings, a subway system or a perfectly intact street grid but rather the presence of alleys. And even if there’s not a case to be made, I’m about to try and make one! Just because alleys are utilitarian by nature doesn’t mean they have to be ugly. Kirkwood has alleys. They’re honestly probably above average. But they could be great. I’ll tell you how in a bit but first let’s take a survey of what we’re working with.
The above is a map is one that I annotated for the Jefferson Re-imagined story. The red squares are surface parking lots that could use infill while the blue lines are existing alleys as well as those that would be created by said infill. Some of these alleys, namely the Argonne Alley complex and the Ice & Fuel Alley, have more potential than others, and because we try to take a triage approach here at the ‘fly, we’ll mostly focus on those. Before we take a look at my amateur suggestions though, let’s take a look at what the experts have to say.
Kirk-walk Proposal
When DPZ presented their masterplan for downtown in March of 2018, a revision of Kirkwood’s alleys was included. Parts of their proposal were to add pedestrian right-of-ways, (i.e. sidewalks), more trees, and build small-scale infill which would primarily serve as incubator spaces to up and coming businesses. This plan is awesome and one I fully endorse but as you probably know I tend to be pessimistic about these kinds of things coming to fruition. Cynicism is not a virtue, it actually sucks, but I also refuse to be naïve that the current regime didn’t see the above rendering and scoffed. So, if the above is the ideal, and the current state is… not that, let’s see if we can negotiate a minimum acceptable improvement middle ground.
Amateur Hour
People use alleys first and foremost because they’re useful shortcuts that allow you to get from one place to another more conveniently or more interestingly than by walking along the street. People like walking in alleys because they feel secret and hidden and local and a tiny bit sketchy. (As I write this I realize that this last quality is probably not all that appealing to women …so maybe not sketchy. Perhaps a better descriptor and more attractive quality would be gritty or grungy). With all that in mind, alleys, as currently construed, are largely wasted space with lots of potential. How do we capitalize on this potential? The key to dynamism, as seems to be the case with so much else in the urban environment, is orienting alleys towards use by people. It seems to me that there are six principal means of achieving this goal:
1. Pedestrian Amenities
As long as alleys are oriented exclusively towards the car, people will be hesitant to use them. Sometimes perhaps this means closing alleys to vehicular traffic (see Ice & Fuel Alley) but more often it just mean leveling the playing field. Whether this means actually building sidewalks in the alleys, closing alleys to cars as Ice & Fuel did, or even just slowing the existing traffic to more comfortable speeds largely depends on the particular location. The one thing that is always unacceptable, however, is whatever the picture above is of. I mean, who wants to walk along that thing any more than they did before the stripes? At least put in some effort. Or save us the paint money.
There are several other pedestrian amenities that in addition in addition to a pedestrian right-of-way could add to the walkers experience. Trees in alleys, while rare, are a great way to temper the elements especially as, due to the narrower width of alleys as compared to streets, they can form a more complete canopy coverage. Way-finder maps/signs that already exist in much of Kirkwood would similarly be a welcome addition. Its always difficult to determine exactly where you are when looking at the backs of buildings when you’re used to navigating the fronts. Finally, benches and bike racks are also always a nice touch.
2. Entrances and Exits
If you have to walk around to the front to get into places anyway, there’s not really that much of a point to “cruising through the alley!” so to speak. This is true of both commercial entrances and exits and residential ones. I don’t think a ton of the latter exist but the more directions from which people can enter and exit an alley the more dynamic and exciting the place.
3. Windows
Windows are important for two primary reasons: First in their capacity for passersby to look in through. While alleys are typically composed of blank brick walls, windows give you the opportunity to people watch, to window shop and to be just plain nosy. Secondly, windows contribute to the vivacity of alleys through their capacity to be seen out of. Typically the more eyes on a street, the safer a street. It follows then the more eyes that can look out on alleys from businesses and residents, the less likely people are to feel that they can get away with illicit activity or crimes in those alleys and the safer people traversing those alleys, feel. In this second sense, residential windows, (typically on second stories, above businesses) are especially important. Things feel and are more dangerous at night. Windows only serve as deterrents to that danger so long as people are behind them to witness said danger. Most businesses are closed at night but most residences are occupied.
4. Dining
Outdoor restaurant seating in alleys is awesome. It offers a quieter and less car-exhaust prevalent dining experience than road-side sidewalk dining. It also services alleys in much the same way windows do. It puts more eyes on them and gives alley-pedestrians something to look at and talk about. It also can lead to a pretty fun bar-hopping scene within the same alley. The two restaurants currently contributing to this scene are Amigos in Argonne Alley and Ice & Fuel in the I&F Alley. Some other restaurants would contribute greatly to the alley scene but already have solid outdoor spaces (Billy G’s, Duffy’s) and others could really use some solid outdoor seating but are ill-positioned to add outdoor seating in the alley (One 19 North). So are there any restaurants/bars that hit the sweet spot of “could use” an improved outdoor space and “have room” to do it? Yes indeed: the bastion of the Kirkwood dining experience, the cultural institution that is: PJ’s.
PJ’s does have a patio space but it is very underwhelming. Mostly the problem seems to be that the whole thing is surrounded by a ten foot high fence. The whole point of sitting outside is to witness some street life and soak up some natural light, both of which are in this case rendered impossible. The good news for Pj’s is two-fold. First, if PJ’s should choose to pull down that old fence, they have plenty of room to expand their patio space. Secondly, a potential alley patio is very well positioned. Not only would it be located across a (hopefully soon to be infilled upon) parking lot from Ice & Fuel’s fun outdoor space and directly adjacent to no fewer than three new businesses coming to PJ’s West on this side of Jefferson, all of which have the potential to add outdoor spaces of their own.
5. A Sense of Place
So… here I am, beating the mural drum again BUT there are other ways of establishing a sense of place. Imagine string lights crossing back and forth over the already great alley above illuminating and making inviting a already pretty great (if slightly dark) corridor.
Even something as simple as naming the alleys with signs, as seen on the back of the Summa Jewelers building above (a building that, architecturally really needs to be a restaurant by the way). By naming a place you make a place.
6. Make More of ’em
Nothing kills the intimacy of an alley like being exposed to a parking lot on one side. Think of a corn maze that is missing one whole side so that every time you turned a corner in that direction you could just walk right out. Or say you wanted to cheat and walk right into the middle, you could just go for it. It’s not all that exhilarating. So if alleys are to be complete and should terminate at streets, as I believe they should, infill is required. While the image above is of hypothetical infill in the Duffy’s lot to extend Argonne Alley, perhaps an even more substantial impact is to be had at the PJ’s lot. A PJ’s-Ice Fuel corridor the night before Thanksgiving could be a goooood time.
…Not to mention, parking lots are a shitty wasteful use of space anyway.
Residential Alley Supplemental
While perhaps not as interesting or as dynamic as a commercial alley, residential alleys are important and good too! Residential alleys mean fewer curb cuts in the sidewalk, allow for denser constructions patterns and, probably most importantly, residential alleys help to facilitate the viability of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), also known as granny flats. ADU’s allow for extra space in low density, single family zoning areas to be used as apartments and rented out and provide an easy way to increase density in a way that directly returns value to existing property owners.
The most common form these ADU’s take is that of a second story above a detached garage positioned along an alley. This setup provides for independence between the residents of the house and the renter of the granny flat. Kirkwood currently only allows granny flats on a case-by-case special use basis, however, the zoning reform process currently underway, Kirkwood By Design, has shown some signs that changes might be coming when their full list of suggested changes is released. Unfortunately only one and a half Kirkwood residential blocks have possess alleys, so any change will likely be minimal. Nonetheless! We’re all about the little tweaks here at the Gadfly.
As always, thanks so much for reading; go try to make some ish happen, baby