Historical April–May 2008 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Over forty Skinker-DeBaliviere residents gathered at the Des Peres Big Picture elementary school on Saturday, April 5, 2008 to redesign the Des Peres Avenue Corridor.
The event, called the Des Peres Greenway Design Day, is a big part in the efforts of the Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council Great Rivers Greenways Committee and a group of nine Washington University students (all Skinker-DeBalviere residents but one) to produce a neighborhood specific redesign for the currently lackluster Des Peres Avenue, the underutilized central axis of Skinker-DeBaliviere.
The opportunity to pursue such a redevelopment project is provided by the Great Rivers Greenways District, an initiative to install a network of “Greenways”, bike and pedestrian paths, in the St. Louis metropolitan area to promote a healthy lifestyle of exercise and non-vehicular travel, as well as spur economic development in the region’s neighborhoods. Great Rivers Greenways District has hired a landscape design firm from Colorado to design the network of greenways. Currently Skinker-DeBaliviere is expecting a ten foot wide asphalt and concrete path to connect Forest Park and Delmar via Des Peres.
The SDCC Great Rivers Greenways committee saw with the new construction the chance to really change the character and use of the Des Peres corridor and asked the Wash U students to produce a neighborhood specific design.
The committee’s goal is to use the Skinker-DeBaliviere specific design, and the community’s support as leverage, in discussing with the Great Rivers Greenways District how construction of a corridor more beneficial to the neighborhood than just an asphalt path can be achieved.
The key phrase is community supported, and the Greenway Design Day was part of an effort to gather community support by including residents in the process. Together with four Wash U professors in the school of Architecture and Urban Design, the Wash U students facilitated activities to help brainstorm ideas for how the Des Peres Corridor could be designed to be Skinker-DeBaliviere specific, fitting in with the neighborhood’s existing character and charm, while meeting the needs and wants of the community.
In the next phase, the Wash U students will produce initial design concepts for the corridor, to be presented to the community on April 28 (time and location TBA) for review.
Please keep an eye out for information about the presentation.
The more residents that get involved with the design of the corridor, the better the design will be.
Original photograph caption
Residents participate in Des Peres Greenway Design Day, April 5, 2008. Photographer not credited.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April–May 2008.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2008_04.pdf, printed page(s) 10; PDF page(s) 10.
