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   Forest Park Southeast, a traditional neighborhood in the middle of the City of St. Louis, offers great promise for successful urban revitalization. Although the neighborhood has suffered from many years of neglect and disinvestment, Forest Park Southeast is immediately adjacent to a host of remarkable cultural, recreational, educational, and employment opportunities that will help make the area a geographically desirable candidate for reinvestment. The courageous efforts of long-term homeowners, residents, and businesses have helped stabilize this neighborhood, but more is needed to support and amplify the grass-roots efforts of the community.

   Recognizing the need and the opportunities for enhancing the long-term viability and desirability of this neighborhood, the Washington University Medical Center and Mercantile Bank joined forces to sponsor a community-driven master plan for the revitalization of Forest Park Southeast. Under the direction of McCormack Baron & Associates, and in partnership with the Forest Park Southeast Housing Corporation, the strategic master plan contained in this document was developed. Active participation in the planning process by neighborhood residents, leaders, and community stakeholders has been instrumental in ensuring that the design principles and strategic initiatives presented in the plan reflect the needs, concerns, and priorities expressed by these community representatives. This participation took the form of interviews, focus groups, and five public meetings culminating in a three-day design working session (called a "charrette") held at the Washington University Medical Center Redevelopment Corporation offices in October 1998.

   As a result of these extensive discussions, a set of nine design principles for the Forest Park Southeast Master Plan emerged:

1. Reinforce and revitalize Forest Park Southeast as a traditional, mixed-income St. Louis neighborhood, emphasizing residential rather than industrial, commercial, or institutional uses and treating all four quadrants of the neighborhood comprehensively.
2. Provide a variety of housing types and prices ranging from subsidized rental to home ownership along the continuum from low-income to market-rate.
3. Support the ongoing process of rehabilitation of historic houses and the construction of new infill development by creating and implementing a focused strategy for coordination.
4. Create appropriate edges for the neighborhood that protect its residential character and also provide good entrances and front doors.
5. Develop initiatives intent on establishing effective focal points for community life in key neighborhood buildings, parks, and recreational amenities.
6. Create a framework of streets that welcomes neighbors and friends but discourages through-traffic and trucks in residential areas.
7. Create neighborhood streets, lined with houses with large windows, porches, and well-defined front yards.
8. Provide opportunities for retail uses and economic opportunities at appropriate scale and form to revitalize Manchester Avenue as a focus of neighborhood and business life.
9. Ensure that residents have an effective leadership role in guiding both the development of the design of their neighborhood and the implementation of the plan.

  Using these design principles as a foundation, three overarching neighborhood design objectives have been formulated. For each of these three neighborhood design objectives, a series of coordinated urban design initiatives have been recommended as the action items for this strategic revitalization plan. Details of each are contained within their respective plan section.

1. Create strong centers, edges, and inviting gateways as a framework for revitalization.
The proposed new facilities and amenities will create a series of strong conceptual centers, focal points for holding the fabric of the neighborhood together. Key among these centers will be the restored Adams School and its new community center which will share certain facilities and amenities such as a new gym and common courtyard. Another center, the new Manchester Avenue Park, will be constructed on Manchester Avenue near the intersection with Tower Grove. Because of its strategic location, this new park will not only enliven the neighborhood with attractive green space but also become a unifying point of focus for the community's four quadrants. The plan also recommends a mixed-use building housing both an assisted living center for senior citizens and an interactive science park for children and adults - thereby fostering opportunities for the development of mutual respect and understanding that these cross-generational facilities can provide. Manchester Avenue will find new life as a "Main Street" through the addition of new retail businesses to complement the existing ones, "live-work" spaces for artisans, community facilities, a series of triangular parks, and new housing. Tower Grove will also flourish once again with revitalized retail, community amenities, and housing opportunities. Recommendations have been included for enhanced gateways (such as the new housing proposed for the Kingshighway edge and the new park proposed for the intersection of Manchester, Chouteau, and Sarah Streets). A new road configuration at the southern edge of FPSE and a new service road along the northern edge will not only help to regulate traffic but will also create well-defined edges to improve the cohesiveness of the neighborhood both physically and perceptually.

2. Fill voids in the residential fabric with rehabilitated and infill housing.

The intersection of Manchester and Tower Grove Avenues naturally divides FPSE into four quadrants. For optimum results and maximum visible impact, the plan proposes that revitalization be undertaken within each quadrant on a block-by-block basis, rather than on a scattered site basis. This will help restore the character of the neighborhood as well as help ensure that development proceeds with an eye toward re-establishing a viable, mixed income community. Further, the plan recommends that at least one block per quadrant be done each year to provide the synergy that can occur when the four quadrants are being worked on concurrently.

3. Calm traffic and beautify streets to create an interconnected network of streets and open space.

A series of street improvement initiatives will help re-establish a linked network of neighborhood-scale streets, as well as redistribute cut-through and industrial traffic away from the heart of this neighborhood onto more appropriate arteries at its periphery. More orderly traffic patterns will be re-established within the neighborhood via the plan's comprehensive traffic-calming strategies. Solutions for redesigning specific streets where traffic types, barriers, or drive-by crime have been most problematic are included in the plan. Further, streetscape improvements have been proposed to enhance the aesthetic appeal to both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

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