Everyone is familiar with the Budweiser Eagle sign that sits in sight of the westbound lanes of Highway 40 in Grand Center. But have you ever taken a look at the building it sits on? Apparently it was one of the few buildings not torn down in the leveling of the Mill Creek Valley, of…
Search Results for: Council Plaza
Council Plaza and Grand Center Part 6: The Brick Mural
Update: The brick mural was completely restored and lit dramatically at night in 2012. I watched in sadness as the giant abstract brick mural came down brick by brick over the last two months. Unique, and so 1960’s in its composition, I saw it just about every day I passed through the intersection of Compton…
Council Plaza and Grand Center Part 5: The Old Del Taco Building
Update: The building was preserved, and renovated into a Starbucks in 2012. I like how the curve of the Del Taco building contrasts with the other buildings included in the National Register nomination. Once a gas station and then a taco stand, the building cuts a distinct profile at the corner of Grand and Forest…
Council Plaza and Grand Center Part 4: Accessability and Social Justice
I couldn’t help but notice what a horrible pedestrian environment Grand Boulevard provides south of Laclede to Chouteau. Perhaps the most galling problem is the double-decker interstate that cuts right through the middle of the area. Imagine being in a wheelchair, or even maybe a little less mobile than the average person, and walking through…
Council Plaza and Grand Center Part 3: The Apartment Towers
Out in the middle of the open, right on Highway 40 but largely forgotten by just about everyone in town, I became fascinated with the two large apartment buildings of the Teamsters’ Plaza development, designed by Schwarz and Van Hoefen. The shorter, Grand View Apartments, facing east-west, and the taller Council Tower, which faces north-south….
Council Plaza and Grand Center Part 2: Urban Renewal
Above is a Sanborn Fire Insurance map of the intersection of Forest Park and Grand Boulevards, where the Council Plaza would later rise in the 1960’s. As can be seen in the map, Forest Park used to dead-end at Grand, at a now gone Handlan Park. Looking to the east on the map, one can…
Council Plaza and Grand Center Part 1: Beginnings
There has been much talk recently about the fate of the former Del Taco building in Grand Center; the gas station turned taco stand was part of the Council Plaza development, which transformed the area in the 1950’s and 60’s as the nearby Mill Creek Valley was demolished to the east of Grand, creating what…
Council Tower and Grand View Apartments
Update: The brick mural was completely removed and restored to its original beauty in 2012, and the storefronts have been converted into apartments. The Del Taco has been converted into a Starbucks and Chipotle. I wrote a series of posts about the history of Midtown and Council Plaza. The two story buildings facing Grand have…
Under the Viaducts in the Mill Creek Valley, Part 3
Update: The building above was demolished in the fall of 2022. There are still some buildings just south of Highway 40 that were designed when Market Street still passed by their northern facades, such as the one above. But when the highway was built after World War II, they suddenly found themselves in limbo. See…
Five Year Anniversary Post: A Manichaean Choice? Preservation vs. Development
Five years ago today, when I started this website, I never imagined that I would be posting close to every day. In the first year, I posted anywhere from two to three times a week, at most. Somewhere along the line, though, I posted seven times in one week, and I’ve never stopped. Looking back,…