A couple of weeks ago, we posted our top ten list for things to do out on the new Lens pier. Now Mayor Foster has taken to calling it "The New Pier" instead of the Lens, because he says the competition is over, and we need to brand this as the new pier instead of just some design concept. In furtherance of that goal, he got Lisa Wannemacher from the local architectural firm that is working with Michael Maltzan Architecture on the Lens pier to make a presentation right before the successful referendum vote at last Thursday's city council meeting.
First, some notes about Lisa Wannemacher herself. She was present at many of the pier task force meetings, often advocating for the demolishing of the existing pier and the building of a new pier structure, even claiming that "renovating pier approach would cost most or all of $50M and public wouldn't like that since nothing changed". Of course she offered no evidence of this, no study was done to back up her claims of no public support, but this statement she made was taken as fact by the task force and included in several of their notes and recommendation drafts.
Also, voteonthepier.com found out that Wannemacher and her husband own Cassis American Brasserie, a restaurant on 2nd Avenue North, right on the approach to the Pier. It might seem to some like a conflict of interest for the owner of a restaurant that would benefit significantly from the demolition of several competing restaurants on the Pier, to be advocating for the demolition of those restaurants, and the building of a pier that could not house any significant retail or restaurant space. Here is a link from Philippe Berriot's Linked-in page, that shows one of his "Company website" links as Wannamaker's architectural firm, as well as the pair owning several "BW"(Berriot-Wannemacher) businesses together.
Now on to the "New Pier" presentation itself.
It started with the list of things to do out on the pier, this list had a lot of small print, and it was only on the screen for a few seconds for the day and night lists, we had to pause the video to write the list down, and here is the list of the 27 activities out on the new Lens pier(with land-side activities and duplicates removed):
Casual dining, Bayside fishing, Refreshments, Gelato shop, Spectacular view, Reef viewing and education, Dockside fishing, Pelican feeding, Electric boat rentals, Transient boating, Kayak rentals, Dockside drinks, Concessions, Water taxi, Pier walks, Shaded balconies, Biking, Roller Blading, Walking, Live music, Light shows, Movie projections, Boat drive-in movies, Evening walks, Intimate balconies, Family outings, Night fishing, Skyline views.
The problem is that several of these seem to be duplicates, like "casual dining, refreshments, gelato shop, concessions, dockside drinks", so we just grouped these all under the heading of "Food & Drink". We also condensed the several "Views" activities into "Signtseeing". There are several separate activities related to "Boating", and "Walking, Evening walks, Biking and Roller Blading" are all listed separately as well.
We aren't too sure what exactly "Reef viewing and education" means, since the reef won't really be viewable in the murky water so we'll remove that one.
Next was "Water taxi", which is a bit confusing, since the inner harbor of the Lens pier won't allow for boats larger than 20 or so feet, and any viable water taxi would need to be twice that size, which wouldn't fit, so we'll remove that one.
"Live music" is mentioned, but as much as we've looked, we can't seem to find a reference to how many people can safely gather out on the Lens pier to watch the live music.
"Light shows" are listed, but those didn't seem to last too long when they were tried in the 80s.
"Movie projections" and "Boat-in movies" are also listed separately, but are really the same thing.
We were also wondering how "Shaded balconies" was an activity, then we saw what that changed into at night: "Intimate balconies". Burst of laughter at that point, those must be SOME balconies they are planning on building if you can get "intimate" on them at night. Do you think the city would exempt those balconies from the public exposure ordinances?
In the end, we arrive at only 10 unique activities, and even some of those are pretty weak "Food & Drink, Fishing, Sight-seeing, Pelican feeding, Boating, Pier walks, Biking and Roller Blading, Live music, Light shows, Movie projections"
After showing the activities lists, Lisa Wannemacher says "over 30 activities one can do at the new pier... there will be plenty to do". Just because you list the same things multiple times, doesn't mean you get to count them multiple times Ms. Wannemacher.
Then she showed a picture of an old beer grotto complete with stone walls, we're not sure how you give the feeling of a beer grotto without ANY walls, especially when the sideways rain starts pouring in on a summer afternoon out on the Lens pier.
She did a comparison of the 1926 pier pilings to the new Lens pier design pilings. A bit unfair comparing almost 90 year old building techniques to today. If she was being fair she would compare it to the "Wave" pier design which is much closer to how a renovated pier approach would be constructed, with a lot fewer support pilings.
New features like inner-harbor water buffers, shaded walkway balconies, the expanded promontory area and several others are mentioned, but all of these new features cost money, and there is no money for these things in the Maltzan budget. As we have covered before, they already had to shrink the Lens, move it closer to the shore, remove the railings and replace them with concrete walls, remove the wood planking, the docent theater and over a dozen other features just to fit within the $45 million budget. No mention is made of how these new features will be paid for.
At the end, she tried to compare the Lens pier to the St. Louis Gateway Arch, which is a bit of a stretch since the Arch would cost more than double what the Lens is budgeted for if it was built today, and the Arch's design competition lasted for 3 years instead of only a few months like the Lens. "Functionally, it is an observatory" she said about the Lens, which just contradicted most of what she had said previously about there being "plenty to do" on the Lens pier.
The presentation itself was nice, but after analyzing the details in the presentation it is clear that it was all flash and very little substance. Not much at all has really changed after this presentation.
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