East Main St. Bus Station

Double turrets! Double porch columns! This house was amazing too. I am so blown away by all of the reckage that occurred on dillard street. crazy.

As a member of St. Philip's, I can tell you that we have had some debate for a long time about what to do with that spot. I was not around when the bus station was demolished, but my understanding was that it had become a serious eye sore and a haven for illicit activities since it was abandoned in favor of the newer bus station on West Main.

Some ideas have been tossed around about what to do with the plot now. One has been to have a SEEDS garden, but potentially a structure would work, as well. Do you have any suggestions?
celeste

Celeste

Thanks for your comment.

I tend to think first about urban design and second about use. So a corner site should:

1) Be built out to the sidewalk.
2) Address both streets equally (with some combination of design elements, entrances, windows.)
3) Provide definition - should be at least as tall as St. Philip's so it can stand up to the new building going in across the street.

Use, including the bus station, is defined mostly by economics. The buildings diagonally across the intersection are described by some as eyesores and havens of illicit activity. The same structures in Carrboro would be renovated and have real estate agencies and restaurants in them.

So my suggestion would be to:

1) Design the right structure for the corner.
2) Recognize that use is temporary, and don't design something unifunctional. Figure out a good use of the structure to serve the community (and your goals) in the short run, but design flexible enough space to allow adaptation as the community changes.

A SEEDS garden would be better than grass, but I don't like corners devoid of buildings.

Thanks for giving me the chance to expound! I also know many neighbors around Dillard, Queen, and Holloway who I'm sure would love to talk to St. Philip's about what they'd like to see there.

GK

"Regardless of the merits or demerits of the bus station, it is clear that the current use of this land, a vacant lot owned by St. Phillip's, is a poor use of the land."

I won't argue whether a vacant lot is "poor use of the land", but I would point out that since an Episcopal church owns the property, two things are probably true: (1) they will want to build something that is meaningful and wisely chosen, given that it is part of (and physically connected to) their spiritual and earthly missions, and (2) the decision will be made in deliberations that err on the side of slowness rather than speed.

Two years ago, the then-rector of St. Philip's led a discussion (with me as one of the non-parishoner participants) about starting a small alternative high school, possibly to live on that site, with St. Philip's as a core sponsor. As you can guess, that discussion did not end in a "go for it" decision. But as you can also imagine, those kinds of examinations will often take years, not months, before concluding a yea or nay.

If we imagine a series of those as a church decides what to do with its land, it's easy to see the difference between how fast they'd move, in comparison (say) to a commercial owner, a residential owner, or even a city government.

Which is a long way of saying, input from all angles is probably welcome at the church, but don't expect anything to happen quickly. And sometimes that's a good thing.

Phil

You probably know by now that my philosophy on teardowns is to not demolish without a plan. So I can't countenance the demolition of the bus station in order to simply create a vacant lot. I've read the arguments on why it "had to come down." The same arguments have been made about countless pieces of irreplaceable architecture in many places by many people.

But beyond that, I get concerned about what kind of environments churches create around them. It would be all well and good if the parishoners lived in the same neighborhoods as their churches, but for many inner-city churches, such as St. Philip's, that is not the case. (I know of a good number of vacant houses nearby that could use some renovation if they want to, though.) Creating shelters, drug rehab programs, etc. is necessary, but it must be balanced with the knowledge that you are creating an environment that the people in the neighborhood have to live with when the parishoners go back to their side of town. Would (hypothetical) 'you' build what 'you' are going to build in your own neighborhood? If not, then I think it enters the territory of noblesse oblige.
Hard-working folks who don't make enough money to afford to live in market housing, and therefore live in the Liberty St. Apts probably don't really want to live next to a shelter - as much good as it does for folks, it has negative externalities. They live there because they have to.

For instance, build a restaurant - that has a culinary/management program for kids - that serves the neighborhood but that you would send your own kids to or, barring that - you would at least eat at on a Saturday night. Every neighborhood needs balance, and the east side does not have it. Build some low-income housing in Trinity Park, an alternative school in Forest Hills, a shelter in Hope Valley. The east could use middle-income housing, a grocery (since DOT is going to tear down the only one in the neighborhood), retail/jobs, a usable park (Oakwood, the only neighborhood park, is filled with people from the shelter passed out on the grass or not the playground equipment.)

People all want the same things in their neighborhoods, no matter how much money or how little money they have. I'd encourage St. Philip's to plan their construction/use accordingly. That would be a truly meaningful contribution to the neighborhood.

GK

While a shame that such a gorgeous house had to come down (love the 3 cascading stairwell? windows) at least the bus station was architecturally appealing in its own way. But, as you have mentioned, tearing it down because it "harbored illicit activity" is both a bad policy, and almost an insult to the memory of the fuller house, as if it died in vain. When did it come down?