SCENE Fall Issue 2
THE
October 2, 2020
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THE
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St. Louis Community College at Forest Park
A day in the life of Forest Park See photo spread on pages 2-3
Giant light walls will dominate new quad By The Scene staff
Now that A and B towers are gone, Forest Park students, faculty and staff are wondering what the college is going to do with all that space. The most significant use will be an extension of Highlander Drive from its intersection with College Drive north to Oakland Avenue, west of the new Center for Nursing and Health Sciences. “You’ll have a straight shot into the campus from Oakland,” said Ken Kempf, manager of St. Louis Community College’s engineering and design staff. Workers also are installing long, wide concrete walkways between the main campus complex and physical education building that will become part of a quad that officials envision as a central gathering place with seating and landscaping. One walkway will be flanked by trees and a giant sculpture made of 10 stainless-steel walls that light up at night. “It’s going to be pretty spectacular,” said Michelle Ohle, a principal with DTLS, a St. Louis landscape architecture company that is designing the grounds as a subcontractor for KAI Enterprises. “Light Walls” is owned by the Gateway Foundation, a charitable family trust that displays dozens of pieces of artwork in public places throughout St. Louis, including Citygarden.
Gateway Foundation
LIGHT WALLS FINAL LANDSCAPE DESIGN AND LAYOUT
This computer rendering shows Forest Park’s new quad, including a “Light Walls” sculpture and trees lining a concrete walkway and the “Weathered Venus” sculpture at the southwest corner of the Center for Nursing and Health Sciences. 03/12/2020
‘Weathered Venus’ to move
The Gateway Foundation also owns the “Weathered Venus” sculpture that already stands south of C Tower at Forest Park, where it has “limited visibility,” according to a press release from foundation spokesman Paul Wagman. The 7-foot-tall bronze nude, created by artist Jim Dine, will be moved to the southwest corner of the new Center for Nursing and Health Sciences. It will be surrounded by tables and chairs with more seating built into its base. “(In the new location) you can really approach her and view her in a way that you couldn’t before when she was surrounded by plantings,” Ohle said. STLCC spent $39 million to construct the 96,000-square-foot, four-story Center for Nursing and Health Sciences, north of A Tower and west of the physical education building at Forest Park. It opened in the fall of 2019. “When we originally did the analysis of the campus, the challenge was that people didn’t know how to get in,” Ohle said. “They had to travel all the way around and enter from the back, and that was really problematic for visitors.”
Lights but no fog
“Light Walls” was designed by Peter Walker and Partners, a landscape archi-
See Light walls page 4
Photo by Fred Ortlip
A photo taken from a window on the fourth floor of E Tower on Sept. 30 gives a bird’s-eye view of construction on Forest Park’s new quad, which will include walkways, landscaping, seating and two sculptures.
“When we originally did the analysis of the campus, the challenge was that people didn’t know how to get in. They had to travel all the way around and enter from the back, and that was really problematic for visitors.” – Michelle Ohle, landscape architect
Oct. 7 deadline for voter registration By Casaan Whitney The Scene staff Stacia Thompson will vote for the first time ever in the Nov. 3 general election. The 19-year-old psychology major plans to cast her ballot for former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat running against President Donald Trump. “It’s important to vote,” she said. “It will better help our economy and help build back our country after what President Trump has put it through.” Many Americans see the upcoming election as one of the most important in history because of the presidential race. But Ssebunya Kasule, a political Trump science and geography professor at Forest Park, points out that many state and local candidates also are on the ballot. “The state leaders are the people who directly impact me,” Biden he said. Kasule often talks to students who are 18 years or older about the importance of voting and how it could affect their lives in the coming years. The deadline for new voters in Missouri to register is Oct. 7 for the Nov. 3 election. Residents of other states must follow their guidelines. Missouri residents can register online, in person or by mail. More information is available on the Missouri secretary of state’s website at bit.ly/3cMJrCU. Steven Peterson, a 28-year old nursing major, is a frequent voter in general elections. “Voting isn’t an obligation, but it is a right that we Americans have so our voice can be heard,” he said. “… It works in our favor. We’re voting for a better country.” Peterson also is a Biden supporter. Missouri doesn’t allow early voting, so people must determine their polling places and show up with an acceptable form of identification between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Election Day. “Registered Missourians who expect to be prevented from going to their polling place on Election Day may vote absentee beginning six weeks prior to an election,” the secretary of state’s website states. Absentee voters must give accept-
See Voting page 4
A welder works on a new stairwell at the end of C T pond between C Tower and the Center for Nursing
D
of F
Photo by Casaan Whitney
Fine arts major Nancy Deyuom, 68, paints a portrait in Metra Mitchell’s figure drawing class in F Tower. The nude model was taking a break in her robe.
A biology lab in D Tower sits empty, as most classes are being taught online this semester.
Photo by Casaan Whitney
Students get encouragement fro of G Tower to help them cope w
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Photo by Casaan Whitney
Tower, while a backhoe operator scoops up dirt for a bio-retention and Health Sciences.
Photo by Casaan Whitney
Dental hygiene major Monica Maples, 26, works on a patient in the Center for Nursing and Health Sciences. She and other students are finishing up work from the last half of spring semester, when campus was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Day in the Life
Forest Park
Photo by Markell Tompkins
om a sign on a bulletin board on the second floor with the COVID-19 pandemic.
y Katelyn Clancy
Oct. 2, 2020
Photo by Casaan Whitney
Groundskeeper Alan Cain, 49, sprays insecticide in the Forest Park courtyard next to a campus map, surrounded by tables with no chairs.
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News Light walls
tecture company in Berkeley, California, which also designed the grounds of the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. The sculpture stood at Triangle Plaza Park in downtown St. Louis until a few years ago, when it was moved to make way for an expansion of Metro’s Civic Center transit station at 14th and Spruce. Each of the 10 walls are 15 feet tall, 14 feet wide and 2 feet deep. They will be illuminated by white LED lights from below. “(The sculpture originally) was known as ‘Fog Walls’ and included a water feature that produced mist, as well as colored fluorescent lights,” the press release stated. “In its new incarnation, the water feature has
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been eliminated and the colored fluorescent lights replaced with the more environmentally friendly LED technology.” The foundation will move, install and maintain “Weathered Venus” and “Light Walls,” requiring STLCC only to pay electric bills for the lighting, according to the release. The Forest Park campus was built on the site of Forest Park Highlands, an amusement park destroyed by fire in 1963. Renowned Chicago architect Harry Weese and landscape architect Dan Kiley designed the campus. Kiley also designed the original Gateway Arch National Park grounds.
Voting able reasons. They could include being sick with COVID-19, having health problems that could make contraction of the coronavirus particularly risky or caring for someone with the disease. Thompson plans to cast her ballot in person.
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“The government and the people have the same amount of power, but only if the people use their knowledge and voice,” she said. St. Louis Community College also is encouraging students to vote. For more information, visit its website at stlcc.edu/ go/vote.
Scene THE
The Scene is a publication written and designed by students at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park, 5600 Oakland Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110. Office: F Tower, Room 408 Phone: (314) 644-9140 Email: the_scene_fp@yahoo.com All text, photos and other content are property of The Scene and may not be used without permission. Views expressed are not necessarily those of St. Louis Community College, its board of trustees or administration.
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Photo by Casaan Whitney
Workers are shown in the early stages of installing a concrete walkway that will become part of Forest Park’s new quad, south of the Center for Nursing and Health Sciences. This summer, A and B Towers were demolished to make way for it.
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