urbanSTL

Hence "far from pleasant". Nothing pleasant about walking through a desolate industrial area where you don't see anyone else walking on the street. But hey maybe my standards are a little bit too high for St Louis

The area needs to become so much better and this project sets a good size precedent. The area is so small geographically and is such an important connection, that I would be disappointed to see any new construction smaller than this project moving forward. 

A model for this neighborhood should be the South End of Charlotte. Geographically narrow, but a dense corridor nonetheless. Would be a perfect connective tissue between Downtown and Soulard (especially if we can replicate their greenway/light rail)

Yeah, that walk is pretty terrible, kipfilet. Although once 4 Hands opened I started taking a route over the pedestrian bridge by the market and then I'd cut through to 4 Hands. Much better experience, a lot more people on the street, and the opportunity to do a little bar hopping.

Little movement. Looks like they are beginning to tear up the parking lot surface.

I haven't been down that way in a bit but from the highway you can see another project happening up the street, closer to the river. Any info or pictures from there?

From what I've seen it doesn't look like anything special. Probably some kind of warehouse or logistics hub. Will snap a picture later today.

Are you talking about the temporary storage building that is visible from the Interstate closer to the river? It's your standard storage place.... 

Don't know, I just saw new construction right up against the highway on the south side. Is that what it is? I figured it was a commercial building.

The existing buildings on the site have been cleared, just a hole in the ground right now

^Excellent.  The most pressing question...will it be ready by Mardi Gras 2022?!

Looking forward to seeing this come along.

LuxLiving posted this interior rendering on their Facebook...

^ Yessir, this will make quite the impression.  Seeing it from above like this kind of makes me wish they had the Golden Phoenix site on the northwest corner, too.  Thanks for the pics, Chris.

EssTeeEll wrote:^ Yessir, this will make quite the impression.  Seeing it from above like this kind of makes me wish they had the Golden Phoenix site on the northwest corner, too.  Thanks for the pics, Chris.

The Northeast corner is what I think you mean, but yes. I wish that too. Looking at the rendering, the walls facing that will be mostly blank, so they’re thinking ahead. I imagine that a mid-rise could fit in there nicely and have some nice views of the skyline. But for now,
I’m happy to see this start and get going. It will help connect Downtown to Soulard some.

^^^Seeing the bird's eye view of this, it occurred to me that this building will do a lot to connect Soulard to Lafayette Square, but the city really needs to make the beautification and lighting of the highway underpass at Park Ave. a priority. I'm not sure what the plan is for the Greenway trail in this area - I believe it will run down Chouteau - but this might be a better option now.

Also, I'm not sure what's there now, but I really hope there will be a pedestrian connection between Soulard Market and Park Ave. behind this building, and not just an alley....

urbanitas wrote: ↑

Nov 08, 2020

^^^Seeing the bird's eye view of this, it occurred to me that this building will do a lot to connect Soulard to Lafayette Square, but the city really needs to make the beautification and lighting of the highway underpass at Park Ave. a priority.

Taking the Lafayette bridge or pedestrian overpass will still be preferable to Park Ave. You avoid the underpass and they are just faster and more direct from Laf. Sq. 

Does that on-ramp get a lot of use?

debaliviere wrote:Does that on-ramp get a lot of use?

St. Louis probably only needs half the highway ramps that it currently has.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I walk from Soulard to downtown fairly often and I usually use this ramp. Nice view of downtown too.

I only about three months ago discovered how to even access that ramp, or that it was even there, even after living in Lafayette Square for four years now.  I gotta say the street leading up to it is in disastrous shape.

wabash wrote: ↑

Nov 08, 2020

urbanitas wrote: ↑

Nov 08, 2020

^^^Seeing the bird's eye view of this, it occurred to me that this building will do a lot to connect Soulard to Lafayette Square, but the city really needs to make the beautification and lighting of the highway underpass at Park Ave. a priority.

Taking the Lafayette bridge or pedestrian overpass will still be preferable to Park Ave. You avoid the underpass and they are just faster and more direct from Laf. Sq. 

Eh, I don't think a sketchy pedestrian cage is preferable at all to a well-lit and landscaped sidewalk. I have no idea how old that thing is, or whether there are plans to replace it, but when it gets to that point, I'm sure it would be far cheaper to clean up the underpass and the alley next to the on-ramp.

Anyway, the hope is that this project will act as a bridge between Soulard and downtown and the neighborhoods to the west, if for no other reason than that it will greatly improve a large chunk of pedestrian streetscape. In other words, it will encourage infill development along 7th, 8th, 9th, and Park on the other side of the highway in LaSalle Park, and begin to reintegrate all the neighborhoods cut off from each other by the highway and decades of poor development decisions.

To that end, I doubt there's anything the city could do in that area with a greater return on investment than cleaning up, lighting, and artifying those adjacent underpasses at Park and 7th.

The new plans look mostly the same as before, just the facade lost its light features and boxes. One thing I would like to point out is the mostly blank side facing North. Clearly, they think that a new building will be built on that parcel in the future. But besides those differences, the colors are a bit different too. Other than that, the massing is the same and ground floor looks the same.

Old rendering...

^ Funny you mentioned the blank wall...I didn't notice that before but noticed when looking at the rendering before reading the text of your post.  Then I also thought...how much space is between this and Golden Phoenix?  Because the SOHO logo would theoretically be blocked by that building, no?

^^ Thanks for that updated rendering.  So they threw some red into the mix.  I kind of wish the garage entrance was on Marion instead of 7th, but this will still be welcome.  Maybe the coffee hasn't hit yet, but what changes can you tell are happening at that intersection?  That's never been my favorite intersection...

EssTeeEll wrote:^ Funny you mentioned the blank wall...I didn't notice that before but noticed when looking at the rendering before reading the text of your post.  Then I also thought...how much space is between this and Golden Phoenix?  Because the SOHO logo would theoretically be blocked by that building, no?

^^ Thanks for that updated rendering.  So they threw some red into the mix.  I kind of wish the garage entrance was on Marion instead of 7th, but this will still be welcome.  Maybe the coffee hasn't hit yet, but what changes can you tell are happening at that intersection?  That's never been my favorite intersection...

The sign would be visible from the highway though, but I do think it would be blocked from other locations