Wash U Med Contemplates Demolition of Shriners Hospital and Central Institute Buildings

1929 Photo of CID from the Bernard Becker Medical Library site

Shriners Hospital Building

Alderman Joe Roddy has introduced Board Bill #443 which if approved would adopt a new "Community Unit Plan" for the Washington University Medical Center. A Community Unit Plan is a zoning overlay plan that allows development flexibility that otherwise would not be possible under the current single use zoning districts. The bill was first read on January 11th, and will be heard at a meeting of the Housing, Urban Development and Zoning Committee on Wednesday January 30th at 10:00 am. The agenda has nine board bills to be heard in the one hour meeting.

The new plan outlines development of the medical center over the next 10 year from new construction, demolition, to an overall parking plan. Among a long list of items is the proposed possible demolition of both the Central Institute for the Deaf building at the southeast corner of Euclid and Clayton Avenues, and the Shriners Hospital building at the northeast corner of the same intersection.

screen shot of the bill's attachment map
buildings marked for demolition are shown on in red

The plan shows demolition of over a dozen buildings. Arguably the most architecturally significant of these are the Shriners and CID buildings. The Shriner's Hospital for Crippled Children was built in 1922, and the Central Institute for the Deaf in 1929. Both were designed by architect William B. Ittner and executed in variations of the Mediterranean revival style that was popular at that time for institutional buildings. While both buildings may be in need of some renovation, both are clearly in great condition and have been well maintained over the years. Demolition of such buildings of this merit would be inexcusable.

The plan describes dozens of changes contemplated across the medical campus. For Shriners it states "Planning is under way to either demolish or renovate the old Shriner's Hospital at the corner of Euclid and Clayton Avenues" and for CID "Plans to renovate the 818 S. Euclid building are being reviewed at this time to determine the most efficient use for the building, or its demolition".

More photos of the Shriners building can be seen here on my Flickr page, and Doug Duckworth also has photos of both buildings here. I will do a another post in the future covering some of the other buildings included in the plan for demolition.

Under the weather :(

It is unusually cold in Gurgaon this week...

Ideal time to catch those 'elusive' viruses and bacterias

Hang on a second...

Is viruses and bacterias grammatically correct?

I mean, are they the words..

...That remain the same

whether singular or plural?

I will find out

When my dearest unwell laptop recuperates!

Yes, all this cold has not affected me

But my laptop is down with some virus

And hence the absence from posting

My laptop plans to return from its sick leave

In another day or two

And that's when I will be back too!

You take care meanwhile....

[and I hand over Mr. Shaking Head's laptop back to him before he wears out the floor by his anxious pacing! Apparently, "I can't handle sophisticated equipment like laptops"!!]

Bahut Shukriya...

... Katie, Bronwyn, Selya and BudgetCasa for showing love to An Indian Summer Bazaar!

Striped stole in the winter sun, on my favorite rug, with my favorite flower

Striped stole: Available in the bazaar

Favorite Rug: Similar can be made available

Winter Sun: Priceless
:-)

The current lot of goodies are available for another 5 days. Make sure you have picked up what you like before the bazaar closes to prepare for next month!

[Bahut Shukriya means Many Thanks!]

As straight as it gets

I am setting up my home office [fancy name for work table ;-)], and have recently picked up furniture very similar to images below. This place, where I picked up my desk and rest, is quite interesting. While they source and restore old and antique furniture from the corners of the country, they also custom make straight line contemporary furniture with wood that has been treated to look old! The result is quite must-buy-licious!

And as I set up my work place, I might as well pick up something for nap place...

(interieurs)

Ofcourse, I also need a new rug, a lamp, a pen/paint brush holder, chair cushions...among other things before I can start 'working' ;-)

I will share the pics of my home office when it is ready!

[Psst: Let me know if you like the kind of furniture as shown above, or old Indian furniture...am planning to debut small furniture pieces in next month's bazaar! Email me if there is something specific you would like)

I Heart @ Bazaar...

The bazaar has been up for five days now, and is getting a steady, good response :-)

Readers, shoppers and fellow bloggers, have shared appreciation, suggestions, encouragement...hearing from all of you has meant a lot to me. Thank You once again!

And a special thanks to Erinn, nay-k, Jo and Kim, Joanna, Linda, Barb, Shelly for giving a special spot to the bazaar on their beautiful blogs ~ Gracias ladies!

Today, I thought I'll share with you some of my personal favorites in the bazaar...

[From left to right- Code: D25-26; D06-07; P12; P13; D15; P21]

I would love to hear what do you heart @ bazaar! :-)

Random/Weird...Me?

I owe this post to Bronwyn [of the fabulous Smoke and Ochre] for quite some time now. She tagged me to list '7 random and/or weird things about myself, and I thought...only 7?!! I can come up with a good laundary list of these things! ;-)

So, here goes!


I can not stand the 'Arial' and the 'Times New Roman' font. Especially 'Arial'. People who have worked with me for some time know that any document they send me for review, will get back to them with its font changed!

My signature is not consistent. There have been multiple times when I had to write a new cheque just because my signature came out to be so different that the bank rejected the last one. Things that impact my signature: kind of pen, surface I am signing on, my mood...



I like Cerelac. Love it actually. Ofcourse, I am in no way close to being a toddler right now...if I had been, I would have been quite a prodigy...writing a design blog at the age of 1! ;-)

There are two things that I do when I am stressed. One: I clean. Anything and everything I can lay my hands on. And Two: I shop :)

I have a mental block against day to day Maths. I can easily strategize about financial models, understand corporate balance sheets etc; but can not calculate 15% off on a Rs.3500 duvet cover. I call my husband to find out the final discounted price. He had an advanced calculator installed in his brain when he was a child

This weird fact is according to my 'aforementioned husband': He thinks that every night, I use enough moisturizer on my hands to nicely moisturize an elephant. That, ofcourse, is not true. I do have soft hands though... ;-)




The latest random but nice fact is that I have taken a sabbatical from work [after 6.5 years in the same company] to spend some time doing non-corporate work. Like write about design, shop for and run the bazaar, maybe do a couple of interior design projects, travel, learn pottery etc. It feels weird at times, to have moved out of my comfort zone...but most of the other times it feels quite nice :-)



--Thanks for tagging me, Bronwyn!

Being a Slumlord is Hard Work

It's hard work to be a slumlord, so why bother. Tenants are messy and often want you to keep the buildings they live in from falling apart. Most tenants would complain if you bought the building they lived in and the windows and doors mysteriously disappeared. They would also probably get a little aggravated if they came home from work one day to find that the back of the building where they live was gone!
When you buy a building it's much easier to just evict everyone... but then what? It costs a lot of money to have the building demolished yourself. It would be much easier to get the City to condemn your building and order up an "emergency" demolition. For this to happen your building has to be in fairly bad shape, so you may want to enlist some "help" to get the building in the right condition to have the City step in and "take care of it" for you... such as having someone strip off the rear of the building brick by brick!
While its difficult to prove he connection here, the fact stands that there have been many buildings in certain north St. Louis neighborhoods that have fallen victim to what is known as brick rustling, in other words stealing brick, entire walls of brick (or in some cases the entire exterior) from standing buildings. For an alarming look at brick rustling take a look at this entry from Built St. Louis. Like a high percentage of buildings that are being ravaged by brick rustling, these buildings at St. Louis and Glasgow Avenues are owned by a certain developer from St. Charles County, best known for the sprawling, want-to-be a place with an ounce of character, known as Hellhaven. The Serial Building Killer owns literally hundreds of buildings and vacant lots in North St. Louis that he is compiling for some kind of massive new development... maybe "North Hellhaven"?... or maybe a giant industrial park like the one that his company is building east of Lambert Field? For the whole story about this one-man systematic quest to destroy North St. Louis, check out the The World of Blairmont section at Ecology of Absence.
This grouping of buildings, all of which have been ordered demolished by the City, lies at the southeast corner of the intersection. The ensemble consists of a three story multi-unit rowhouse building, a corner store with two stories of apartments above, and an alley house along Glasgow that gives urban form to what would ordinarily have been the side view of a back yard. It is a text-book example of the ubiquitous urbanism that St. Louis is losing at an alarming rate.


The sad irony in the loss of this group of buildings is that this very urban typology we are losing is now being emulated in some new outlying developments. Despite its marketing which might lead you otherwise, Hellhaven is a wormy mess of cul-de-sacs with many instances of homes backing, yes backing to the main roads of the development. However not far from Hellhaven a development called New Town at St. Charles is doing things a bit differently. Its planning and building forms emulate the way communities were built prior a century ago, before the automobile was made the sole center of the universe around which all planning rotates. The Aerial photo below is of Glasgow and St. Louis Avenues. Below is photo of a corner at New Town showing almost the same building arrangement with a pair of townhomes facing the main street and an alley house that is a separate residential unit fronting the side street. Parking access for all units is off the alley.


As for the current condition of the buildings, one could say that they are too badly damaged to save, right? I would say however that they are still able to be rehabilitated, based on examples of buildings in similar or worse condition. The corner building has sustained almost no damage, although the alley house admittedly is pretty bad. The photo below is of the rear of a pair of townhomes on Chouteau near Mississippi taken several years ago. The pair has since been fully re-built and restored.

The beautiful turreted corner building below is at the northeast corner of the intersection is known by some area residents as the "flatiron". It's more like a Flatiron in reverse, since it is wide at the front facing St. Louis Avenue, and tapers to almost nothing at the rear. Unlike the buildings to the south, this one has so far not been a victim of brick rustling. While there are signs of neglect, the only major damage to this building seems to be a small portion of the west wall around a window that is falling apart. This would only require some minor masonry re-building, yet the building and the group accross the street are being demolished this week!

Getting ready for final launch today...

First of all, a huge THANK YOU for the amazing response to the bazaar! I am overwhelmed by all the lovely emails and comments you have sent me...It truly feels like I have opened shop for my friends, and not an unknown virtual world :-)

The update for today is:

The bazaar would go offline from 11:00a till 4:00p IST. I will use this time to ready the bazaar for the final opening. From 4:00p IST (that is + 5.30 hrs GMT), you can start buying from the bazaar!

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

*Happy Shopping!* The bazaar is live now!

Mexican Textiles

Cool or weird that I totally dig this embroidered fabric from Mexico? I saw the below article in Domino or Cookie or one of those a while back and couldn't get the bold, graphic print out of my mind.


I saw on design*sponge today that there is a company in California that distributes these pieces of art, embroidered over a three month process by indigenous people in Mexico.

The company sells the fabric in 2x2 or 2x3 meter squares and then you have to have it made into a duvet or headboard (or do it yourself). It's a little on the pricier side for me right now. But if you consider how expensive a random duvet cover is at Anthropologie or a department store, it's not that bad really. And we could use a bedroom makeover.

I think I've decided to let it stew until the summer time (when we'll have some extra cash). That way I can think about the color choices too.

An Indian Summer Bazaar is Live!

With a lot of pleasure

anticipation and excitement

I invite you to the soft launch of

An Indian Summer Bazaar

Click on the link above or on the left sidebar to travel to the bazaar

And do tell me how you like it! :-D

This is Bazaar Reporting Sir. And Maam!

Update [4:00p IST]:

Well, the quick update is that after finally posting everything on the bazaar site [its a wordpress blog], and doing a quick UAT, I found out that a lot of pictures are not visible!! I can view them as the author, but others can't view them! :(

Appreciate your patience hugely as I figure this out! And, if there are any wordpress experts out there- Help!

............................................


Hello!

Right now, as of this very moment, I am working very hard [I'll be modest some other time ;-)] to get the bazaar ready for today evening (ie evening India time). I know a lot of you are clicking on the bazaar link but can't get into the site...that is because I am working on it right now and have disabled access.


Please come again in another 3-4 hours and voila! the bazaar would be open!


See you then! Back to hard work now!

Psst...Sneak Preview of the Bazaar!

The bazaar is finally coming to town!

Quick preview of some of the goodies you can buy from the bazaar

The Good News:

I am getting closer to completing all the prep required to get An Indian Summer Bazaar online and running :-). Some %^&* logistics still need to be closed, for which my fingers and toes are all crossed and I am touching every piece of wood I can lay my hands on [while my best half works to figure them out]!

If everything goes as per plan, and the Gods smile, and the birds sing, and all the good stuff happens, the bazaar will go online at 2p IST on Jan 15th! (yippee and yips!)

The Not So Great News

I am still waiting for the ^%&* licence that will allow me to sell within India. Can you imagine it is easier (relatively) to set up to transact outside India than within India! So, unfortunately, my fellow countrymen and women will have to wait for next month's bazaar :(

What to expect in the bazaar?

1. I have handpicked unique items straight from the craftsmen for the bazaar :) My bit towards Fair Trade

2. For the soft launch tomorrow, I have products under furnishing, wall art, decor knickknacks and some interesting items for personal use. You will get a chance to browse leisurely through the products tomorrow...the bazaar will start accepting orders from Jan 16th

3. Each item is unique, which means that I don't have a ready mass stock for any one item. The first person to place an order will be the lucky buyer. You will find simple and clear instructions on 'how to' on the bazaar site

4. I will ship every Tuesday and Friday, in lots, to be able to get better shipping rates for you :)

5. The bazaar site and operations are quite simple (that means non high-tech!) and personally handled right now. That means no shopping cart right now... but all payment and shipping is secure and trackable

6. Want something and didn't find it on the bazaar? No worries! Just drop in a request form to your *Personal Shopper* (i.e. Moi!), and I will help you procure that special product :)

Have a question or a suggestion? Drop in a comment! :-)

To be or not to be. That's not really a question.

...love that Jean-Luc Godard quote

Craving a detox of heart and mind, I was very grateful to listen as Sadani recited the following poem at YYTT over the weekend. To me, it's a message of simplicity, aiming to clear our hearts for receiving so that we always have capacity to give. Sadani beautifully states that acceptance of these counter-intuitive truths doubles the size of the universe. I like that.

THE USES OF NOT
by Lao Tzu from Tao Te Ching

Thirty spokes
Meet in the hub,
Where the wheel isn't
Is where it's useful.

Hollowed out,
Clay makes a pot.
Where the pot's not
Is where it's useful.

Cut doors and windows
To make a room.
Where the room isn't,
There's room for you.

So the profit in what is
Is in the use of what isn't.

And then Ivanhoe said...

My dear Masha, you paint so well!

Adorable water colors from Masha D'yans who is originally from Russia, and now stays in the US. She is a professional graphic designer, and loves to paint and illustrate

She also has a product line of cards, bedding, T-shirts and prints!

Cathoe says:

"I so agree with you Ivanhoe!"

Find more of Masha's beautiful work here

Take a deep breath and...

Be Calm.

I need to do some deep breathing
and, Relax.

As I frantically try to set up everything for the bazaar
New bottlenecks come up
While my explorer runs some god forsaken thing called active scripts
and nicely jams up my internet

If I had my way
I would turn all the red tape in the world to green tape
Don't know if that would help too much
But at least it would be green...
...and eco friendly

Totally random. I know.
This burst of randomness happens
when I am very happy
or very stressed

What calms me
is
looking at images like these

Coz, I too have white couches
And through these images
I appreciate their future potential

Where am I headed
If I feel calm
By looking at nicely done interiors

Wherever it is
The one consolation I have is
That at the least, the place would be
Aesthetically pleasing

Ha!

[some of my favorite images from Marie Claire]

USED-HOME SALES RISE IN NOVEMBER

Chief Economist for National Association of Realtors, Lawrence Yun, said the market appears to be stabilizing. He noted mortgage interest rates are near historic lows, decelerating price declines, and a modest reduction in the number of homes on the market. NAR President Richard Gaylord said that Congress should expand its efforts to provide affordable finances and suggested raising the limit on conforming loans to help credit-worthy buyers in hard-hit regions such as FL and CA by greatly increasing access to low-interest-rate mortgages. Perhaps now we begin to see a light at the end of the tunnel in the housing market. Editor’s note: Perhaps the best buys will be made between now and early summer, and then “only the pickings” will be left in market inventory. With a national election coming up, perhaps the economy WILL improve and right now the perception is that the economy depends on the rise and fall of home sales across the country.

Good work, Iowa

Really excited about these two... come on New Hampshire!

My faith is my life - it defines me. My faith doesn't influence my decisions, it drives them. ... Real faith makes us humble and mindful, not of the faults of others, but of our own.

I ask you to believe - not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington. I'm asking you to believe in yours.

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