This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, June 19, 2013: The Trestle, an ambitious project aimed at transforming the old Iron Horse Trestle into an elevated park, showcased its new development plans to the public June 18 at an open house.
Directed by Great Rivers Greenway, the event was designed to garner public opinion on project design and popular amenities, such as local art, bike racks and landscape features.
“St. Louis will join ... Paris and New Yorkas the only three cities in the world converting old railway trestles into elevated parkways,” said Susan Trautman, executive director of Great Rivers Greenway. “But for us it will be about St. Louis, and that’s why we’re here tonight.”
The 1.5 mile track, running from 14th Street to Branch Street (see map at the end of the article), aims to be a community gathering area for all St. Louisians and out-of-towners, organizers said. They envision pedestrians and cyclists experiencing vibrant views of downtown, relaxing as the river barges chug by or sitting and talking with friends and family.
“It’s not an area that people in St. Louis tend to go to,” said Dennis Hyland, chief project designer and architect at Kiku Obata. “The riverfront is fascinating, and it will be great for people to get down there and experience it.”
Built in 1930 by the McClintic-Marshall Company of Chicago, Ill., the Trestle served as a commuter line on the Illinois Terminal Railroad Network into St. Louis, last seeing action with the Post-Dispatch, which used it to bring in its paper supply. The Great Rivers Greenway bought the Trestle in 2004 for $1.5 million with ideas of incorporating it into its community development ideas.
“Folks in the community and Greenway saw it as unique opportunity; Iron Horse Resources said they’d be interested in selling so we decided to go through with it,” said Todd Antoine, director of planning for the Great Rivers Greenway District. “But the idea of using the trestle has been tabeled for a number of years,”
Plans for conversion kicked-off in 2007 when it entered a brief conceptual design phase; feedback was collected from the business and residential community over what should be included in the Trestle. In 2008, the design was redefined with a technical action committee straightening out structural issues and eventually polished off in 2009.
“Think of it as a cake,” said Antoine. “We have the basic structural components finished to make the base and now we want to top the icing off with specific amenity requests from the public.”
Though chief designer Hyland points out that public input won’t lead to a giant hold-up of the project.
“If there are some changes, we might have to take a small step back to re-evaluate what we’ve done -- not the constructability just the finer design aspects,” said Hyland. “The icing has been designed now and we just want to test it against what we’re hearing now.”
The next step for the project is interviewing people from the Bloomingdale project, a three-mile elevated trail that is being developed in Chicago, and Manhattan’s High Line, hoping to gain some insight into operational maintenance costs and any changes that need to be implemented before construction begins.
“I think three years until it gets off the ground if we get the necessary funding and donations,” said Antoine when asked about a timeline for construction. “We’re not as fortunate as New York; the likes of Kevin Bacon and Diane Von Furstenberg (aren't here to) just write us a $10 million check.”
The Trestle is just a small piece in a giant network of parkways and trails developed by the Great Rivers Greenway. Initiated in 2000 after the passage of Proposition C, the Greenway District is charged with promoting good health and establishing community connections through regional economic vitality in St. Louis County, St. Louis City and St. Charles County. The organization receives 1/10th of a cent in sales tax, which generates approximately $20 million annually, of which half goes toward funding for projects.
As part of this goal, the Greenway started work on the River Ring; an interconnected system of greenways and trails that total 600 miles aimed at stitching the St. Louis region together. The Trestle will tuck into a 6-mile-long loop, a similar size to the path around Forest Park, connecting the Gateway Mall, the Arch and St. Louis Riverfront. In turn, the loop looks to latch onto trails across the river with its Illinois compliment, the Metro East Park and Recreation District.
There is also hope that these new connections will help revitalize some of the forgotten communities in north St. Louis.
“The opportunity for transforming these areas into entrepreneurial hubs is endless,” said Peter Sparks, owner of the 14th Street Artist Community. “Visitors and businesses will want to re-engage with the community if it becomes a destination, somewhere people want to go.”
The Trestle project event was held Old North St. Louis, a block from the iconic Crown Candy.
