Historical March 1995 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Just as this issue of the Times goes into distribution–March 6– the Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council will receive an update on the plans for gated enrances for our neighborhood and landscaping along the alley facing the Forest Park Parkway. Resident have been invited to attend this meeting and view the plans.
For those unable to attend, we are offering further information here. George Johannes, a neighbor at 60xx Westminster, and member of Johannes/Cohen collaborative, an architectural firm, said that the project’s initial concept was to give a solid, successful neighborhood a clear identity.
The Skinker DeBaliviere neighborhood does not have clear visual edges that instantly demarcate it.
He and the Apartment Owners Association, headed by Alan Hamilton, plan on using three vehicles to establish this neighborhood identity.
First, wherever it is needed, they want to have the same low level planter walls made of brick and limestone.
This would establish consistency and they would like consistency as well in any plantings. Johannes said that in that way you would be able to identify an edge of Skinker DeBaliviere. Second, along the Forest Park Parkway, they would like to plant a row of evergreens.
This planting would in no way affect the roses which appear every spring and summer. SDCC Director Kim Koenig is preparing a grant application to Union Electric to fund the purchase and planting of the evergreens.
Finally, the group would like to see ornamental gates placed at several key intersections. One would be on Des Peres; another would be at Skinker and Waterman and a third would be placed at Waterman and DeBaliviere.
These gates will not close off any part of our neighborhood. Smaller versions of these gates would appear at other intersections. Again there would be consistency throughout the neighborhood.
The design process is in the early stages and Johannes is pricing the project now.
He and Hamilton hope to secure funds from various sources through a neighborhood-wide campaign spearheaded by the Apartment Owners Association, the Skinker DeBaliviere Housing Corporation, and, he hopes, the Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council.
For further information or to arrange to see design renderings, call the SDCC at 862-5122.
Original photograph caption
Proposed neighborhood gate and landscaping design. Artist not credited.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, March 1995.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1995_03.pdf, printed page(s) 1; PDF page(s) 1.
