Once Films and Michael Thomas
Michael Allen, director of the preservation research office and a senior lecturer in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design at Washington University
Michael Allen is something of a detective, searching for small clues that explain the past. An architectural historian, he says that some places are defined by absence—the memory of what was once there but is no longer.
“To be a detective, you have to know what you’re looking at or what you’re looking for, and then furthermore, why,” he says. “There are traces that still tell a story.”
For Allen, studying and working to preserve St. Louis’ built environment—the streets, homes and commercial buildings that make up our city—is both a career and a passion. As director of the Preservation Research Office and a senior lecturer in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University, he spends most of his time thinking and talking about architecture and its place in St. Louis’ overall past, present, and future.
With its makeup of unique neighborhoods, St. Louis is a patchwork of different architectural styles. From the stately turn-of-the-century mansions of the Central West End and Victorian “painted ladies” of Lafayette Square to the working class brick row houses of Soulard all the way out to the Mid-century Modern ranches of Crestwood and Creve Coeur, architecture tells the many stories of our region.
“My background really began with a strong interest in the ways in which cultural narratives and cultural history are embedded in the shape and form of the built environment,” Allen says. “I actually studied literature and history, but I felt this pull to the curiosity for all embedded information in the built environment. So rather than look for stories in books, I ended up in a career where I look for stories in bricks and mortar.”
Local architecture blogger and journalist Chris Naffziger also sees stories to be told through the built environment. Naffziger has documented St. Louis’ built environment for more than a decade on his blog, St. Louis Patina.
“Having lived in other parts of America and having traveled extensively in Europe, I can guarantee you that St. Louis competes very well against far more expensive and far more famous cities,” Naffziger says.
Both he and Allen have a special appreciation for these lesser-known areas of the city and the greater meaning of why some areas exist in crumbling states in direct juxtaposition to those that remain vital and pristine.
“I’ve spent a lot of my career fighting against the impulse of the profession to ignore places like downtown East St. Louis, which I worked on designating as a National Historic District, despite 60 percent of the buildings that were there in 1960 being now gone,” says Allen. “Unfortunately, a lot of the tools for urban renewal are tied to the built environment being designated as a historic place. So if it can’t achieve that designation, financial incentives, historic tax credits aren’t available.”
Once films and Michael Thomas
To historians like Allen, preserving St. Louis’ architectural history means including not just the areas of its greatest pride. “The whole reason we’re preserving things is to tell the story of this country. So if we’re omitting the parts that are unpleasant or the record of injustice in the past, well, then we’re not telling the full story,” he says. “By inscribing certain things as historic and ignoring the others, we’re deciding what’s still going to be around and whose history then gets told and taught.”
In some of St. Louis’ best-rehabilitated neighborhoods, such as Lafayette Square and Old North, it is residents and grassroots neighborhood organizations that facilitate preservation and change. The all-volunteer Old North St. Louis Restoration Group is a community-based nonprofit organization that has worked for almost 30 years to revitalize the community through its award-winning community development corporation.
“Old North has been tremendously successful with managing multimillion-dollar public programs, including 14th Street, which was $37 million. You’re not going to be given that money if you don’t have a responsibly led organization that has a track record,” says Allen, “so neighborhoods need to organize and stay organized.”
He hopes that people will begin to take a stronger individual interest in maintaining the built environment in all parts of St. Louis, so it remains accessible to everyone. And he remains optimistic about the city’s overall future.
“St. Louis is starting to be a little bit more on the national map, and I think that’s a good thing, but it’s a reason to start planning for how we’re going to care for this great treasure,” he says. “This great treasure is something that anybody could think of living in, not just somebody with means. That’s important.”
