‘Historic’ helix ramp is all that remains of First Street Parkade

CEDAR RAPIDS - Yes, the circular ramp still standing at the otherwise demolished First Street Parkade is coming down, too.

The parkade's “helix” ramp, a portion of which extends outside the parkade and 10 or so feet over the Cedar River, has complicated the demolition of the 50-year-old structure after it caught the eye of state and federal historic preservationists who a year ago deemed the parkade “historic” because of its “unique spiral exit ramp.”

No, the still-standing helix is not going to remain in place as a historic remnant, city officials reported this week.

At the demolition site on Thursday, Bob Gowin, the city's demolition project manager from Ryan Companies US Inc., explained the special tactics that demolition crews will use to make sure concrete pieces of the helix do not fall into the river and to make sure the concrete flood wall, the foundation of which is connected to the helix's foundation, isn't damaged.

“We're being very, very careful, very methodical about how we're actually going to cut apart and dismantle the helix and get it away from the river so we don't' have any damage to the river wall,” Gowin said.

In dismantling the helix, demolition crews will rig up a temporary structure extending out over the flood wall to catch any falling concrete from the helix and direct it into the interior or the parkade site.

Gowin said the work will stop if pieces of the helix land in the river so the demolition approach can be refined. The goal is to keep everything out of the river, though he said the aggregate that was used in the concrete likely came from the river.

Both the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers are paying attention to the work, Gowin said.

But for the helix component of the parkade, the demolition, which had been planned a year or two before the June 2008 flood, has been routine, he added.

Gowin chuckled a little at the historic designation of the parkade because of the helix ramp, noting that the city's Third Street Parkade has a similar helix in its interior as do many parking ramps across the nation. Gowin suspected that the helix was built to extend beyond the First Street Parkade to provide more actual parking space in the structure.

A year ago, Jeff Carr, an architectural historian with Iowa's State Historic Preservation Office, told Cedar Rapids city officials that the First Street Parkade was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places because the structure's spiral exit ramp “provides a stunning visual impact on the east bank of the Cedar River.”

Such a designation has not prevented the city from demolishing the parkade, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state historic preservation office is requiring that the city take steps to replace the historic value lost with the parkade's demolition. Specifically, the city has agreed to create a new historic district on Second Avenue SE as a tribute to the history of the automobile. The Second Avenue SE Automobile Row Historic District will recognize the past life of parts of the avenue, which had been home to auto dealerships and auto repair shops.

Demolition of the First Street Parkade began July 5. D.W. Zinser Co. of Walford is doing the work at a cost of $748,450. The work should be done Oct. 1, Gowin said.

A group of downtown property owners has submitted a proposal to the city to allow the group, which calls itself Short Term Parking Solution LC, to spend about $270,000 to build a temporary parking lot of about 100 spaces at the site of the city's First Street Parkade once the demolition is complete. A parking fee of $75 a month per space would be paid to the group to pay off the investment. In return, the group is asking the city to lease the site to the group for $1 a year for three years, with options to extend the arrangement beyond three years if the site is not redeveloped.

Vanessa Rogers, vice president of the Cedar Rapids Downtown District, said Thursday that the parking-lot proposal is slated to go in front of the City Council on Aug. 23. The plan, if approved, is to have a temporary parking lot in place by Dec. 1, she said.

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