St. Paul history buffs want Macy’s building saved

Feb. 01--The Macy's Department Store, the Pioneer Press building on Cedar Street and the Victory Parking Ramp on Wabasha Street may not be gorgeous architectural gems, yet their lack of mass appeal has an appeal all it's own to diehard fans of downtown St. Paul -- and that should be enough to save them from the wrecking ball.

That's the attitude from the city's Heritage Preservation Commission, which passed a resolution on Thursday urging the St. Paul Port Authority to do its best to save the vacant, near-windowless Macy's building from demolition if a developer emerges to buy the site.

As the pace of downtown development quickens, commission members are eager to see 16 angular, unadorned, "modernist" buildings built between 1955 and 1974 adapted for new uses rather than demolished and redeveloped.

Commission members said that the eight-level Macy's site does not sit on the National Register of Historic Places, but it and the 15 other mid-to-late century structures figured prominently in a 2008 study by historic consultants Hess, Roise and Company.

"It's not a specific listed building, but there have been discussions around the significance of a number of those post-war buildings," said commission chairman Richard Dana. "It's a very specific architectural style by a significant architect, but it looks like a big box to a lot of people."

Macy's, previously known as Dayton's, was designed by architect Victor Gruen and opened on Cedar Street in 1963. A few years earlier, the Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company occupied what is now the home of the St. Paul Pioneer Press about a block away at 345 Cedar St.

The 2008 study by Hess, Roise and Company contemplated grouping the 16 downtown buildings into a single district that could sit on the National Register of Historic Places. The four-square block "Urban Renewal Historic District" would make it harder but not impossible for developers to tear any of the structures down.

The Preservation Commission is primarily an advisory body to the city council and mayor's office, and no request to put the district on the National Register has been submitted to either office.

"It's an interesting document, but we haven't discussed it in the time that I've been on the commission," said Dana, who has sat on the Preservation Commission for four years.

The Commission's members readily admit that few, if any, of the buildings would qualify for placement on the National Register on their own, even though many of them sit next to older structures, such as the St. Paul Athletic Club on Cedar Street, which was built in 1918, or the First National Bank Building, built in 1931.

As a cluster, however, mid-to-late century structures such as Macy's, the federal courthouse, the St. Paul YWCA on Kellogg Boulevard, the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Victory Ramp represent a period when fancy architectural flourishes went out the window in favor of a blocky, fortress-like, "brutalist" style.

In fact, the vacant Macy's building has no windows above ground level, a testament to the rigid modernism of the late 1950s.

Macy's, which has been empty for nearly a year, was purchased by the Port Authority in January for $3 million in hopes of finding a buyer to redevelop or occupy the site within the next year.

Port Authority officials have expressed skepticism in the past that a developer will buy the land without knocking down the eight-level structure and constructing anew, but officials have neither committed to tearing it down nor keeping it as is.

Clint Blaiser, one of the developers behind the $42 million renovation of the 1889-1890 era Pioneer-Endicott buildings, said Thursday that saving the virtually windowless Macy's building may not be as ridiculous as it sounds to skeptics. Windows could be added to the exterior, though interior renovations for apartments would be trickier.

"Preservation and reuse works," wrote Matt Hill, a Heritage Preservation Commission member, in response to a suggestion on Twitter Thursday that Macy's be saved from demolition if a buyer emerges.

There may be other reasons to save Macy's: St. Paul Port Authority officials have estimated that demolishing Macy's could cost as much as $13 million, given how much of the building sits below street level.

During Thursday's meeting, Preservation Commission member David Wagner chastised two representatives of the Port Authority for not doing more to emphasize the potential reuse of the Macy's site in its four-page marketing brochure. Illustrations in the color document depict three redevelopment options, including a 13-level tower.

Dana emphasized that his main interest was in keeping an inventory of downtown buildings in order to get a better sense of what downtown has to offer before developers begin knocking things down.

City officials have long said that Minneapolis made a mistake when it tore down many of its older downtown structures, and that St. Paul's quieter appeal can be found in century-old buildings such as the Schmidt Brewery (1855 and 1901), Landmark Center (1902) or the St. Paul Hotel (1910). But saving 50-year-old buildings that epitomize the same architectural style found in suburban shopping malls and government housing projects would be a departure, even for St. Paul.

The styles that dot the suggested Urban Renewal Historic District have more in common with minimalist, Soviet architectural frugality than the red brick, soft stone or old world exteriors found throughout Rice Park, Lowertown, Selby Avenue, the Cathedral Hill district and other corners of St. Paul.

Gargoyles, French arches and Roman columns aren't anywhere to be found, and the lack of any adornment beyond a simple, repetitive pattern has some historic preservationists oohing and aahing.

The 24-page Hess, Roise and Company "Urban Renewal Historic District" report is a supplement to a larger evaluation of historic buildings near the new Central Corridor Light Rail Transit line in downtown St. Paul. City Council Member Dave Thune, who represents the downtown area, said he was unfamiliar with the study but was looking forward to giving it a closer read.

"I haven't seen it, but it's important to remember history isn't just Victorian houses," Thune said. "I couldn't tell you what I think of them individually, but I think it's worth looking at. It's really important to remember history did not stop at 1880. ... It's good to assess this periodically."

In addition to the city's efforts to construct the Penfield apartments, the Lofts at Farmers Market, and a new regional ballpark, private developers in the past two years have purchased the Hilton and Crowne Plaza hotels, the U.S. Post Office Building on Kellogg Boulevard, the 317 on Rice Park building and the Pioneer-Endicott buildings, among other sites.

Frederick Melo can be reached at 651-228-2172. Follow him at twitter.com/FrederickMelo.

ST. PAUL HISTORY

WHAT: St. Paul Urban Renewal Historic District, a four block by four block area downtown

ARCHITECTURAL PERIOD: 1955 -- 1974

HOW MANY: 16 contributing buildings, including Macy's, the Pioneer Press, the Victory Ramp, the federal courthouse, and Crowne Plaza and Hilton hotels. There are 12 non-contributing buildings built before 1955 or after 1974

STATUS: Not listed on National Register of Historic Buildings

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