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Crown Square is the 2009–2010 rehabilitation that turned Old North St. Louis’s former 14th Street Pedestrian Mall back into an active streetscape for both pedestrians and vehicles. Led by a partnership between the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group and the Regional and Community Development Alliance, the project reused historic buildings for housing, shops, and community-serving organizations instead of clearing the block for new construction.
The most detailed published account, an American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) article from 2017, reported 27 salvaged buildings, 80 residential units, 34,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, and a $35 million investment. Those figures and occupancy observations describe the project as reported in 2017—not a current audit of Crown Square.
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What is Crown Square in Old North St. Louis?
Crown Square is the name given to the rehabilitation of the 14th Street corridor in Old North St. Louis after the former pedestrian mall was redesigned as a street serving people on foot, bicycles, and in vehicles. The work combined historic preservation, adaptive reuse, housing, commercial space, and public-realm improvements in one neighborhood-scale project.
According to the ASLA’s 2017 account, the development team salvaged and repurposed 27 buildings. The resulting town center included mixed-income apartments, businesses, and nonprofit or other community-serving uses. Rather than treating vacant structures as isolated renovation jobs, the team worked on a connected streetscape intended to restore everyday activity.
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That distinction matters. Crown Square was not simply a façade program or a single apartment conversion. Its premise was that a functioning neighborhood requires homes, destinations, safe access, and organizations that serve residents to operate together.
How did Old North St. Louis reach the point of a major rehabilitation?
Old North St. Louis was founded in the mid-1800s. ASLA describes it as a roughly 90-block district of houses and stores that reached its greatest success in the 1920s and 1930s. The neighborhood began losing activity in the 1960s, and a pedestrian-only mall was planned in the early 1970s as an attempt to attract shoppers.
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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →The mall did not produce the intended revival. ASLA reports that removing regular vehicle traffic had the opposite effect on visitor activity and contributed to retailers and residents leaving buildings. By the 1980s, the area was described as desolate. The later Crown Square strategy therefore addressed not only deteriorated buildings but also the way the public right of way connected—or failed to connect—those buildings.
This history explains why returning the corridor to a street was central to the project. The team was not rejecting pedestrian access; it was trying to create a place where walking and driving could coexist, allowing residents, customers, deliveries, and transit users to reach the same historic storefronts.
What happened during the Crown Square redevelopment?
- 2003: a development partnership formed. The Old North St. Louis Restoration Group and the Regional and Community Development Alliance came together as the Crown Square development team.
- Initial concept: new single-family homes. ASLA says the team first focused on a plan for 100 new single-family houses.
- Focus shifted to the 14th Street Pedestrian Mall. The partners concluded that the existing commercial corridor offered a more strategic opportunity than pursuing only new housing on vacant sites.
- 2009–2010: construction and streetscape work. The mall was converted into an active street for pedestrians and vehicles, while historic structures were repaired and reused. ASLA characterizes the street and sidewalk design as one of St. Louis’s early complete-streets approaches.
- After construction: leasing and community use. Commercial tenants and residents moved in over time, while the corridor hosted events, gardens, children’s activities, and youth-created murals described in the 2017 account.
The sequence shows a common pattern in neighborhood rehabilitation: the public-realm decision and the building decisions were interdependent. Reopening the street changed access, while filling the buildings gave that access a reason to matter.
How large was the project?
The following figures come from ASLA’s 2017 article and should be read as reported project totals, not as independently verified measurements of current conditions.
| Measure | Figure reported by ASLA (2017) | What it represents |
|---|---|---|
| Historic buildings | 27 | Buildings salvaged and repurposed along the streetscape |
| Investment | $35 million | Construction investment reported for the redevelopment |
| Residential units | 80 | Housing units created, including mixed-income apartments |
| Commercial and retail area | 34,000 square feet | Space planned for shops, businesses, and other active uses |
Prices checked November 2026.
These numbers indicate a substantial district intervention rather than a small infill project. They also show why the project required multiple financing sources and careful phasing: dozens of old buildings, housing, storefronts, sidewalks, and street work had to be coordinated.
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How were the historic buildings adapted for new uses?
Adaptive reuse allowed the project to retain the physical character of Old North St. Louis while changing what the buildings could support. Former commercial structures became storefronts and workspaces; upper or otherwise suitable areas became apartments; and community-serving groups occupied space that could host neighborhood programs.
The 2017 account identifies modern, energy-efficient housing as a goal, but it does not provide a technical retrofit specification, product list, modeled energy savings, or measured post-occupancy performance. It does explain the central tension: the team had to meet contemporary living standards while complying with historic tax-credit requirements. Historic details could not simply be removed to make construction easier, yet old buildings needed updated systems and envelopes to function as housing.
For owners considering a similar rehabilitation, the lesson is procedural as much as architectural. Existing conditions, historic-credit rules, code requirements, accessibility, fire protection, and energy performance must be resolved together. The Crown Square account supports that broad conclusion, but it does not establish which assemblies, mechanical systems, or products were selected in individual buildings.
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Why did the project restore vehicle access to the corridor?
The redesign responded to the documented weakness of the pedestrian-only mall. Crown Square returned the former mall to a street that accommodates pedestrians and vehicles, with street and sidewalk work described as an early complete-streets effort in St. Louis.
A complete-streets approach does not mean prioritizing cars over people. It means designing the right of way for several users at once: people walking to homes and shops, drivers arriving at businesses, deliveries, emergency services, and transit connections. In a corridor whose earlier traffic restriction was associated with declining activity, restoring access was treated as a condition for reinvestment rather than as a retreat from walkability.
The project also illustrates why transportation changes should be evaluated alongside leasing and local services. A street can improve access without automatically producing customers, and a renovated storefront can remain vacant if residents lack reasons to visit. Crown Square’s mixed results make that distinction visible.
Who led Crown Square, and what made the approach community-driven?
The Old North St. Louis Restoration Group and the Regional and Community Development Alliance formed the development team in 2003. Their partnership placed neighborhood organizations at the center of decisions about whether to pursue new housing, rehabilitate the mall, and define the mix of uses.
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Community-driven does not mean every proposed use succeeded or every resident received the same benefit. It means priorities were set through organizations rooted in the neighborhood rather than relying solely on an outside developer’s market plan. The resulting program included housing, businesses, and nonprofits, reflecting more than one revenue-producing use.
Shawn Balon, identified in the ASLA article as an ASLA Career Discovery and Diversity Manager, summarized the uncertainty of this kind of work: “In the end, a project may not become what we once drew on paper and we (as both designers and advocates for our communities) should always understand these implications and plan for all potential manifestations.” The quotation is particularly relevant to a rehabilitation whose physical work was substantial but whose commercial and food outcomes remained uneven.
What worked, and what remained difficult?
The ASLA account presents Crown Square as a mixed outcome rather than a simple success story.
- Leasing improved, but slowly. ASLA says it took years to lease spaces, in part because of the sluggish economy. By the time of the 2017 article, leasing agreements had increased and almost all storefronts were reported as occupied.
- Food access remained limited. The team planned eateries and food options and opened a small grocery co-op, but the co-op later closed. The account says the continuing lack of food and grocery choices left many residents dependent on public transportation.
- Public life expanded. Balon’s account describes community events, flourishing community gardens, children using playground equipment, and murals made by area youth. These activities indicate social use of the district even where commercial services were incomplete.
- Historic compliance complicated construction. Creating modern, efficient homes inside old buildings while meeting historic tax-credit requirements was described as a challenge, not a solved technical formula.
Taken together, these observations caution against using storefront occupancy as the only measure of neighborhood recovery. A project can restore buildings and public space, attract businesses, and still leave residents without convenient groceries. Conversely, community gardens, play areas, and events may represent meaningful benefits that a rent roll does not capture.
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Old North St. Louis had rehabilitation work underway before Crown Square. A 2003 annual report from Rise Community Development, then RHCDA, described a planned Old North St. Louis Apartments project with 32 mixed-income historic-rehabilitation units, co-developed with the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group.
The same report discussed North Market Place, a separate effort combining rehabilitation with historically sensitive new construction. These projects provide context for the neighborhood’s longer redevelopment history, but they should not be counted as Crown Square components unless a source explicitly does so. The 32-unit figure, in particular, belongs to the planned Old North St. Louis Apartments project described in the 2003 report, not to the 80-unit Crown Square total reported by ASLA in 2017.
What can builders and neighborhood organizations learn from Crown Square?
Start with the corridor, not isolated parcels. Rehabilitating one building can preserve a structure, but a connected sequence of storefronts, sidewalks, and homes is more likely to restore a recognizable center.
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Pair preservation with a use strategy. Historic character alone does not pay operating costs. Crown Square combined apartments, retail, businesses, and community-serving organizations so the district would not depend on a single tenant type.
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Plan for slow leasing. Construction completion is not the same as neighborhood stabilization. The ASLA account records years of leasing difficulty, so carrying costs, tenant support, and phased occupancy should be considered before work starts.
Treat food access as infrastructure. A grocery co-op can close even when other storefronts fill. A rehabilitation plan should identify how residents will reach affordable groceries and how that service can remain viable over time.
Make performance claims traceable. The available account supports a statement that housing was intended to be modern and energy-efficient; it does not support a quantified energy-savings claim. Future projects should preserve utility data and post-occupancy records if they want to demonstrate results.
What does St. Louis’s 2026 planning context add?
On September 10, 2026, the City of St. Louis announced adoption of OurPlan as a supplement to the city’s Comprehensive Plan for six historically disinvested northern neighborhoods, including Old North St. Louis.
The notice establishes a current policy context, but it does not explain how OurPlan applies to Crown Square, change any individual building’s status, or document present occupancy, tenant mix, or rehabilitation needs. Readers should not treat the plan’s adoption as proof that Crown Square has received new funding or that the 2017 conditions remain unchanged.
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How should Crown Square be evaluated today?
A current assessment would require evidence newer than the 2017 ASLA article: a building-by-building occupancy list, recent residential and commercial counts, business openings and closures, food-access data, condition assessments, and information on public-realm maintenance. None of those current, project-level measurements is supplied by the cited sources.
The most defensible conclusion from the available record is narrower and more useful. Crown Square demonstrates how a community-led team can combine historic preservation, adaptive reuse, housing, commercial space, and a complete-streets-style redesign. It also demonstrates that physical rehabilitation does not guarantee durable retail or grocery access, and that a project’s long-term effects must be checked with current local evidence rather than assumed from an older project narrative.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Crown Square the same project as the Old North St. Louis Apartments?
No. The 2003 RHCDA annual report described the Old North St. Louis Apartments as a separate planned 32-unit mixed-income historic rehabilitation. Crown Square is the later 2009–2010 redevelopment of the former 14th Street Pedestrian Mall, reported by ASLA as including 80 residential units.
Did Crown Square include a grocery store?
The project team opened a small grocery co-op after planning food and dining options, but the ASLA account says it later closed. That source also reports that limited grocery choices left some residents dependent on public transportation.
Does OurPlan prove Crown Square is currently occupied and thriving?
No. The city’s September 10, 2026 notice confirms OurPlan’s adoption for six historically disinvested northern neighborhoods, including Old North St. Louis. It does not provide a current Crown Square occupancy count, tenant list, or project-specific outcome.
Are there published energy-savings numbers for Crown Square’s rehabilitated homes?
The 2017 account describes the housing as modern and energy-efficient and identifies historic tax-credit compliance as a challenge. It does not publish retrofit specifications, utility data, or quantified savings, so a precise performance claim would require another source.
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