Pearls on Film

Downtown St. Louis is on the receiving end of a fair amount of criticism and praise. The city can be at once thriving and lifeless, beautiful and abandoned, historic and reinvented — and the good and the bad together are what make this city unique. A couple of streets in particular embody all that is striking and old and bustling in our fair metropolis. Olive Street right downtown is one such favorite boulevard — walk this stretch near North Eighth Street and you'll get the feeling you're stepping in the footsteps of the generations that have come before you. Another such historically cool spot? Locust Street, around North 20th Street. A bit of a renaissance has been happening along this urban stretch, as businesses and people flock to the distinctive architecture found here. In Locust Street: A Photographic Exploration of a Significant St. Louis City Avenue, Jerry Gennaria surveys many blocks of Locust — from the familiar to the up-and-coming — and captures the street's historic, partially revitalized (or never went) loveliness on film. Check out his photographs at the exhibit's opening reception, held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 18, at the Carolyn Hewes Toft Gallery at Architecture St. Louis (911 Washington Avenue; 314-421-6474 or www.landmarks-stl.org). We recommend you take a drive down Locust Street before you head north to Washington Avenue for the exhibit, you know, to get a firsthand feel for the street and all. The show remains on view through Sunday, May 2.
March 18-May 2, 2010