Nov

14

Ideas for covering the Downtown Loop

November 14, 2008 | 5 Comments

Shortly after the city and MoDOT surrounded our Downtown with a ring of eight lane highways in the 1950s, it became apparent that it wasn’t such a great idea.  An island was created apart from the rest of the city, severing Downtown from neighborhoods like the River Market, West Side, Columbus Park, and 18th & Vine. The city has spent the last fifty years dreaming of ways to undo the damage.

Now there is yet another movement towards covering parts of the loop.  Specifically, the city and MoDOT are studying options for the south loop where I-670 passes between the Central Business District and the Crossroads Arts District. The project is called the South Loop Link, and there are two opportunities coming up for you to see some of the ideas and provid your own input.

Tuesday, November 19th – Conceptual Ideas
Presentation at 5:30 p.m.
Monday November 24th – Formal presentation of options

Both meetings are 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the KC Design Center
1018 Baltimore, one block south of the Central Library

Categories: Downtown, Transportation


Comments

5 Comments so far

  1. Bryan on November 14, 2008 1:56 pm

    Fantastic idea. I’d love to see more green space – grass, trees, walking paths, etc. It’d go a long way to beautifying our city.

  2. DKC on November 14, 2008 6:21 pm

    Just call Christo.

  3. ChrisM70 on November 15, 2008 5:28 pm

    How about covering it with metal plates?

    It’s something the city knows how to do, and they probably have some extras lying around…

  4. Joe Medley on November 16, 2008 11:17 pm

    Forget green space. If you had a choice between going to a place with large trees and going to a place without large trees, which would you pick? If I-670 is capped with a park, how big can the trees get sitting in what amounts to a giant flower pot?

    How about this? For green space, use one of the enormous surface lots in the area south of the loop. Build high rises over 670. They can be condos, offices, or hotels–whatever the local market needs. They’ll provide more customers for the P&L and the businesses South of the loop.

    One final thing: whatever they are, they need to have store fronts at street level. If the goal is to unify the two parts of downtown, then they need to unify the P&L store fronts with the store front in the North Crossroads.

  5. ChrisM70 on November 17, 2008 1:54 am

    I think that green space over the south loop could actually work – if it is done in a way that makes people USE that space and has shops, businesses and usable space around it, and not just parking lots. Perhaps creating a few more (cheaper) restaurants just to the south of the P&L District that could have outdoor patio/park seating? How about an outdoor beer garden next to the Sprint Center? These areas could be grassy spaces with small trees on either side of the space, since you couldn’t plant trees in a “flower pot”.

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