Committee votes against SLU 3-2
On Dec. 19, it may have seemed as if Saint Louis University students were the only people not preparing for the holidays and were instead cramming and power-napping in preparation for final exams. However, there were others besides SLU students who were not yet on Christmas vacation. The St. Louis Preservation Board held a meeting to discuss the city’s Cultural Resource Office’s denial of SLU’s request for a demolition permit for the Pevely Dairy plant building.
The board voted 3-2 at the meeting in favor of the Cultural Resource Office’s decision. The panel denied SLU’s request to tear down the existing building structure. According to his January 2012 message, SLU President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., said that he, along with the Lawrence Group and SLU School of Medicine, “made a strong case for the need for this state-of-the-art facility.”
The presentation can be viewed through a link in the message that was emailed to students on Jan. 17. While it is known that the Pevely building is on the National Register of Historic Places, Biondi said that the building was added to the register for tax purposes.
“No one pushed for Pevely Dairy — built in 1915 — to be on the National Register of Historic Places until the most recent owner, developer Rick Yackey, sought the status in 2009 to obtain tax credits for a housing project that was unable to move forward,” Biondi said.
In addition, the architectural importance of the building was not referenced on the application. For SLU, this decision means that in terms of the Pevely building, nothing can be done for one year. In his message, Biondi said that the University is investigating further options. He said he is still confident that they will ultimately be successful.
“I firmly believe that St. Louis should not have to compromise the health of its citizens to preserve blighted, unusable industrial buildings,” Biondi said.
Leading the request for a compromise is Randy Vines, a St. Louis native, Cherokee St. shop owner and a member of the Pevely Preservation Coalition. The Coalition notes that “SLU is a major employer and healthcare provider in the St. Louis region, and we support its need to expand.”
Vines feels that it is both the strong educational institutions, of which SLU is certainly included, and the irreplaceable urban fabric that make St. Louis so phenomenal. He said that the situation has the perfect makings to create a “truly visionary and state-of-the-art medical complex.”
Vines has great respect for the Lawrence group and is impressed with some of their previous projects. However, “Someone has to stand up for these buildings,” he said.
Vines explained that before the board voted, the Preservation Research Office held the Pevely Dairy design charrette. Urban designers, planners and architects were invited to share their plans and ideas for the SLU expansion that included the preservation of the Pevely site.
The event was well attended, and Vines said that the coalition hopes to publicize some of the plans, which will hopefully help SLU rethink vision for this site. “There is nothing greener than using what’s already there.,” Vines said.
He added that preservation is an important topic and it is “about what we value as a city.” When the coalition announced the decision of the Preservation Board on Dec. 19 under the “Save the Historic Pevely Dairy Complex” Facebook page, they wrote, “Don’t underestimate grassroots action!”
While students were celebrating the end of finals and going home for the holidays, the members of this local grassroots movement were also finding reasons to celebrate.
