C.R. medical district should see beyond parking lots

By Maura Pilcher

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“The Pensacola Parking Syndrome is a term of the trade used to describe a city that tears down its old buildings to create parking spaces to entice more people downtown, until people no longer want to go there because it has become an empty lot.” (Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, Kimmelman, Jan. 6)

Recently, research uncovered Cedar Rapids is home to two Louis Sullivan designs - People's Bank and First Christian Church. For decades, Cedar Rapidians have celebrated their Sullivan “Jewel Box Bank.”

Now a new jewel has come to light located at the corner of Third Avenue SE and 10th Street. Not only did celebrated Chicago architect Louis Sullivan serve as the consulting architect for the 1913 church, he recruited his colleague Louis Millet to design its distinctive Prairie-style windows. Their prestigious partnership produced such landmark buildings as the Auditorium Theater in Chicago. A different, less noble fate faces First Christian Church - a plan for 45 surface parking spaces.

First Christian Church's historic integrity is indisputable. The State Historical Society of Iowa determined it National Register of Historic Places eligible in 2009 because of the church being a “rare and intact example of a New-Classical style.” Yet despite the First Christian Church's historic and architectural significance, it appears as “additional parking” in St. Luke's Hospital site plan for the Physicians' Clinic of Iowa medical mall, 1,021 parking spaces surrounding a three-story building, creating sprawl in the heart of Cedar Rapids' downtown.

On Feb. 8, the MedQuarter Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District governing body met to begin discussing the overall layout and parking plan for Cedar Rapids' medical district. By contrast, the developers of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., created a market-based downtown plan in 2009 that included historic preservation because, “Older buildings, adaptively reused, enhance the uniqueness of the built environment and pedestrian scale; attract unique uses with architectural detail; and conserve energy and natural resources.” Unlike the Mayo Clinic, the Cedar Rapids' MedQuarter will be surrounded by parking lots.

St. Luke's has already destroyed several historic buildings for this project and, on March 12, they can raze a Sullivan church. The local medical community espouses aspirations of progress in the form of new restaurants and hotels going up in the MedQuarter. Ironically, by destroying existing architectural structures, the medical community undermines progressive development.

Cedar Rapidians need not look to Dubuque or Des Moines' East Village to see how historic preservation has encouraged development. Look to our core. Several private investment projects that have revived this city were possible because historic fabric was intact - Third Street's CSPS Hall, Parlor City; Cherry Building; Czech Village's Red Barron and temporary National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library, and Downtown's Witwer Building and the old Roosevelt Hotel.

With a creative developer, First Christian Church could become a perfect boutique hotel, local restaurant, community center or entertainment venue.

At a recent Historic Preservation Commission meeting, a 20-year-old college student asked the City Council to promote a hometown that his generation will want to return to, one with a sense of place, one with a soul.

The proposed MedQuarter presents an opportunity for us to challenge destructive and provincial development so that future generations can learn about our city's history, character and integrity through its historical architectural landmarks.

PCI's development plan shows haste at best and ignorance at worst.

Fifty years ago, the New York Times published a “Farewell to Penn Station” editorial. It reads: “Any city gets what it admires, wills for, and, ultimately deserves. ... And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed.”

Cedar Rapids deserves much after weathering the flood. If we needlessly tear down to rebuild, how will we be judged?

Maura Pilcher is chair of the Cedar Rapids Historic Preservation Commission and Assistant Director at Brucemore Inc. Comments: maura@brucemore.org