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Everywhere thanks for joining us for Last Call this is where we take on those topics we didn't get to in the first half hour but before we get to the topics I want to wish a happy birthday to our director and she's not even here tonight she's Anne-Marie Berger who's been running the show for so long I can't even remember we love her but this is a big birthday she is 50 and nifty so have fun in the big The Big Easy.

Anne-Marie is in New Orleans is she yeah okay yeah she is yes she is well we miss her and we brought cake and champagne to celebrate so we'll just save it next all right uh let's start with Wendy on the cordish tower last week you folks discussed the big announcement that cordish which has developed Ballpark Village wants to redevelop the property where the Millennium Hotel is right now right and since that broadcast uh there have been a couple of developments one we found out that the losing entry in this competition was actually a Bavarian village Village type concept where you know oapa bands and architecture reminiscent of Munich and all that yeah then there's a story by Jacob ker in the Business Journal that hey uh looks like occupancy is so high when it comes to uh residential Apartments do we really need 600 more units in downtown St is there a demand for that and as you saw in the letter on the first half of the show uh John Gunther local architect and author questioned the height the 41 story height of the proposed building by cordish thinking that it might dwarf the iconic Gateway Arch what do you think and was it Mr Gunther who had problems with raising the Millennium Hotel I thought it was I thought it was him but I I was under the impression the engineers had decided that and that it couldn't be salvaged and all of all of the people who' been on the project said it's just undable right and I mean I hate to sound like such an architectural neoy but when it comes to and you know in terms of the German thing I that kind of is interesting when you look at City Hall Joe don't raise your German eyebrow at me I mean I think when you look at City Hall that is a very German structure look at the bush mansion out at Grant's Farm it's a it's it is a nod to a Bavarian type architecture but I just want it to be occupied and successful I was just I was going to say that here we go St Louis it ain't been five minutes since hey we're going to finally get rid of this iore and we're going to do this like oh well the beer garden would have been nice oh it's too tall oh it's this oh it's that and I mean it's been 30 seconds I just want to be successful I just want to go on record that I I am happy uh for the cordish proposal for two reasons one we will not have a German Village down there grown-ups and leader hosen we have enough we're good okay and bands well who that would be fine too okay the other part is all of a sudden the Millennium Hotel has become the Arc D Triumph I mean you know it's like oh they're going to tear that down good riddens the thing never circled like it was supposed to I mean nobody says when I think I think Lou I think of the Millennium Tower get out Sarah what do you think I I'm I'm of mixed feelings on this I'm very sad that like schnit horse closed I think a town like St Louis with the German Heritage that it has there should be something that you could like take people to bring back to celebrate that yes I I would like to Westport westport's kind of I like that this was something unusual because what I'm really worried about and I lie awake at night worrying about this is they're going to try to do basic like Ballpark Village part three and it's like we don't need another Ballpark Village what can we do that's successful that will that will work and so I'm for whatever works I get why they went with the proposal they went with cordish companies knows how to do this the people on the Oompa band don't have this the history of doing something to this scale G Gunther is consistent because when they were talking about tearing down the Karis building he wanted to save that in in Clayton but uh you know if if you read the book amazing St Louis by Charlie Brennan you'll see that the man he a genius the mansion house Towers came in at 300 feet and Aeros saronin whose original art was 500 original Arch was 590 ft tall changed the height of the arch to 630 because he thought that the arch had to be at least twice as tall as the nearby buildings otherwise it's not going to be impressive and I think that that should be seriously considered um to have a large 41 store t 41 story tall building near the arch might make the arch look less impressive one I think they're already regulations and rules in St Louis because of the arch as to how high buildings can be above sea level so on and so forth I so it's going to be run through Architectural Review boards and Heritage commissions it's not like the artist rendering is ever what you get in the end okay and the the other part of it is let's have a little faith in the gateway art it is one of the finest monuments ever created it's always going to be the key to the St Louis River Front and it is what will always draw your eye given that you have at least a modicum of restraint first of all city hall is based Masterpiece City Hall is actually based on a French building the hotel deil in Paris oh I'm sorry I thought it was German but in looks like it does kind of look that way but uh Boston had this issue uh they had a custom house which was a tall tower and then it got dwarfed by a lot of buildings in the business district not far from fanel Hall and a lot of people in Boston feel that it's never been quite the same I remember when the late Bob Duffy said don't build the Eagleton where it is because it's going to Mar the view from people for people who are driving down 6440 and he was right sometimes you can make mistakes Mar the view of what well for traffic when they're driving down 644 blocking what do you see you don't see the arch anymore I'd like him to see the cars in i' like me too I like well that's asking to Stadium which touches 6440 I mean nobody you always against that why why do they let them build all those buildings in Philadelphia around Constitution Hall like we can't have that right I mean it is what it is the arch abides oh well no the arch will always be there and if we shine the arch like Alvin wants to do then it will gleam even prettier than when it was built thank you uh sounds like an sldc Grant some worthy organization um Joe I want to ask you about an next STL website expose maybe taking a look at the inside of our city hall basically a collection of ad hoc warning signs and posters uh basically saying that the the inside of our city hall looks pretty trashy and it's confusing to the visitor I I happen to be in the city hall recently twice I I didn't notice that but what do you think I I noticed it I work there every day on two different occasions when I was with the journals and then with the post dispatch would go in there every day and was always constantly pleased with how cool that building is and it still is but it's just junky looking when I walked in for the first time in months and months I walked in and it looked like my refrigerator there were these little signs stuck up that were like construction paper with masking tape like you know this is out of order or don't use this door and it was like couldn't you at least print a sign it was like someone with a crayon was writing this stuff and it just looked unkempt and hire a cleaning crew get go through there it's a gorgeous building it's a phenomenal building just unjunk it so I at least like the piece for that point so I called Jason deem the writer of this piece and I was like I'm jealous of this like I wish I had thought to do this story because it's one of these things that's kind of right in front of you it's hiding in plain sight every time I go to City Hall I'm like this is weird how they've closed this off and put this weird sign here and then they've added this other weird sign and he just kind of broke it down what I liked about it is he's looking at it from the user experience so if you come in St Louis for the first time and you're trying to do business what sort of impression is that leaving I think it should be a wakeup call and hopefully a pretty affordable wakeup call somebody could fix this without that much work a lot more people see the airport and see City Hall and I think the airport is junky and I think the airport terrible and if we going to fix something up let's start with the airport let me say something to Alvin's point I got luggage at the southwester Southwest Airlines carousel on Saturday and there's a big sign long huge sign above the luggage for a personal injury Law Firm is that go I mean I it just the we just need to work on our airport that's what airports have have you been to other cities everybody has those wers Cleveland has them Cleveland has Chuck Barry and uh what's her name uh Tina Turner that's who they have we should have Chuck Barry and Tina Turner Maya Angelou we absolutely should I was in Naples Florida there was a big sign with a quote from Maya Angelou I'm gonna I'm gonna tweet that in your honor did they tear down the Wallman it's still there it's still there I mean I think that all the tacky signage I think it it takes away from the German architecture on that note thank you very much very let's sayle have a great time at Marty gr we'll see you next week and happy birthday to anarie yep