urbanSTL

Ohhh...okay.



I hope they reopen Euclid too.

^ maybe this stretch, but not through to FPP.

wonder if the blank walls at the base have something to do with security. Otherwise, they should be glass.

Thanks for the post, Arch. This is a much better rendering than the one the Post ran today. Yes, the first floor is a bit odd, but other than that, a great looking building, IMO.



Anyone know if this is still being built to handle additional floors in the future?

Future Transportation Needs

Any guess how to reconstruct the Metrolink station to adapt to the growing demands of BJC/WashU?



What is the maximum capacity for the existing station?



If BJC, WashU Medical, and the St. Louis College of Pharmacy are going to continue to grow in the Central West End, in time the Metrolink station will have to be rebuilt to account for the growth. Possibly a medical district could be initiated to establish a transportation tax to assist in the upgrades to area transportation facilities. Additionally, a proposal to increase the threshold for development and save land would be a north-south light rail line that tunnels under Euclid and follows Kingshighway outside of the CWE. Such a line could connect north to the expected Natural Bridge line and south to the existing Shrewsbury line which might extend along River DePeres. In this manner, the medical district and the CWE would serve as a third CBD by being served by multiple rail lines.

^ Very interesting. I've been wondering nearly the same thing. Why does Metrolink expansion have to go through downtown? I understand there are more jobs concentrated there and the sports stadiums are there, but it may be easier to connect more people by building connections in the Cortex/BJC-WU area. It certainly has to be the most dense residential area in the metro . . .

SMSPlanstu wrote:Future Transportation Needs

Any guess how to reconstruct the Metrolink station to adapt to the growing demands of BJC/WashU?



What is the maximum capacity for the existing station?



If BJC, WashU Medical, and the St. Louis College of Pharmacy are going to continue to grow in the Central West End, in time the Metrolink station will have to be rebuilt to account for the growth. Possibly a medical district could be initiated to establish a transportation tax to assist in the upgrades to area transportation facilities. Additionally, a proposal to increase the threshold for development and save land would be a north-south light rail line that tunnels under Euclid and follows Kingshighway outside of the CWE. Such a line could connect north to the expected Natural Bridge line and south to the existing Shrewsbury line which might extend along River DePeres. In this manner, the medical district and the CWE would serve as a third CBD by being served by multiple rail lines.

You've been staring at my MetroLink map, haven't you?



Maybe it's time to seriously consider the long fabled Sarah St station?

A Kingshighway line would be great - putting a trolley or whatever down Euclid would be very slow. Being only a block from Kingshighway, I don't think it needs it's own line . . . There is plenty of room around Sarah to put in a hub station. Going south it would be easy to hook up with the UPRR right-of-way (one of the southside options being studied) and going north you could hang a louie on Delmar and then go north on Kingshighway . . .

I say Euclid for subway. Kingshighway might be better for elevated or replacing the median. The idea is to hit the highest population, job, and shopping densities with maximum efficiency > thus subway under Euclid seems the best bet. Stations could be the existing CWE station in the BJC/Washu/Pharmacy complex, Lindell, Maryland, & Delmar. Of course, subway would be an expensive investment, but land values in areas like the CWE are high enough to be worth the effort especially as the area continues to add population and job density.

SMSPlanstu wrote:I say Euclid for subway. Kingshighway might be better for elevated or replacing the median. The idea is to hit the highest population, job, and shopping densities with maximum efficiency > thus subway under Euclid seems the best bet. Stations could be the existing CWE station in the BJC/Washu/Pharmacy complex, Lindell, Maryland, & Delmar. Of course, subway would be an expensive investment, but land values in areas like the CWE are high enough to be worth the effort especially as the area continues to add population and job density.

No freakin' way! No part of St. Louis is dense enough nor are land values high enough to justify a subway.

Grover wrote:

SMSPlanstu wrote:I say Euclid for subway. Kingshighway might be better for elevated or replacing the median. The idea is to hit the highest population, job, and shopping densities with maximum efficiency > thus subway under Euclid seems the best bet. Stations could be the existing CWE station in the BJC/Washu/Pharmacy complex, Lindell, Maryland, & Delmar. Of course, subway would be an expensive investment, but land values in areas like the CWE are high enough to be worth the effort especially as the area continues to add population and job density.

No freakin' way! No part of St. Louis is dense enough nor are land values high enough to justify a subway.

Well, apparently Skinker-DeBaliviere, Parkview and Ames Place thought they were.

bonwich wrote:

Grover wrote:

SMSPlanstu wrote:I say Euclid for subway. Kingshighway might be better for elevated or replacing the median. The idea is to hit the highest population, job, and shopping densities with maximum efficiency > thus subway under Euclid seems the best bet. Stations could be the existing CWE station in the BJC/Washu/Pharmacy complex, Lindell, Maryland, & Delmar. Of course, subway would be an expensive investment, but land values in areas like the CWE are high enough to be worth the effort especially as the area continues to add population and job density.

No freakin' way! No part of St. Louis is dense enough nor are land values high enough to justify a subway.

Well, apparently Skinker-DeBaliviere, Parkview and Ames Place thought they were.

Explain.



From ~1900-1920 there was a common belief in American cities that once a city population reached 1M that a subway was need/inevitable. However, the only city that really built one at the time was NYC (and Boston a bit earlier). Philly would end up with a small project as well and Cincinnati started and then abandoned a subway. Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis and several other cities spend thousands upon thousands studying financing alternatives and routes, but nothing came of it.

Portions of Metrolink that were originally supposed to be at or just below grade were buried at fairly extreme cost to satisfy objections of residents of those neighborhoods.

bonwich wrote:Portions of Metrolink that were originally supposed to be at or just below grade were buried at fairly extreme cost to satisfy objections of residents of those neighborhoods.

That episode was awesome. News article after news article on how the neighbors were fighting at-grade and Metrolink saying that unquestionably there was not the money nor need for it. Then, before you know it, they started digging.



It's great to be King(sbury).

As much fun as I find theorizing about MetroLink...



If the rendering is accurate, that building will look spectacular... from 20 ft on up. But with that huge blank brick wall at the base, I doubt that the area will be that hospitable to pedestrian activity. The plaza could be a great place to put a coffee or sandwich shop

bonwich wrote:Portions of Metrolink that were originally supposed to be at or just below grade were buried at fairly extreme cost to satisfy objections of residents of those neighborhoods.

Where is this? Isn't it just underground at Skinker and at Big Bend? I know it's then underground to the Shrewsbury stop. I'm sure these are the same people who complain about the cost of Metrolink.

Mill204 wrote:As much fun as I find theorizing about MetroLink...



If the rendering is accurate, that building will look spectacular... from 20 ft on up. But with that huge blank brick wall at the base, I doubt that the area will be that hospitable to pedestrian activity. The plaza could be a great place to put a coffee or sandwich shop

That's true, though the medical bookstore/starbuck's is right across the street- they have table and chairs on a terrace, it's quite nice.

I love the idea of more subway stations along MetroLink lines. It adds to the prestige and seriousness of the system. I'm glad we have several subway stations already!

That's the craziest rendering that I've ever seen! Normally they just leave out details like the roof of the building - whether accurate or not. Now about that huge-azz plaza, can we get some trees and benches or what? I would like to see glass down to the ground and I'm not sure why that wasn't done here, it's been done regularly on other buildings, the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center, the new college of nursing, whatever the auditorium building is nearby . . . but in the end people make the setting, so give people somewhere to sit and congregate!!!

Awesome rendering, thanks for finding it.



Also on that site I finally found what they're building on Newstead between FP ave. and Duncan; it's a new data processing building for the Genome Sequencing center. 16,000 square feet.

Yeah, the plaza diffinately needs some more benches and stuff. I'm sure that will be included in the finished product. The hospital complex is getting so dense, I'll bet this plaza will become very popular.

In case anyone is interested, in conjunction with this project, they're tearing down the old coal bunker on the southeast corner of Children's place and Euclid. The bridge that connected this structure to the power plant (dangling over the metrolink station) was removed sometime in the last few days, and in theory, the bunker will come down soon. That land will be used for Office/research space, eventually, though probably not for a while, as the titanic BJC institute of health building will take some time to fill.



As far as the building currently under constrution goes, it's curious to me that all the renderings I've seen have been from the northeast. The interesting architectural/civil engineering challenge would seem to be the south side, as the building will, I believe, span the metrolink, and abut the main loading dock for the hospital. I would think they would use this opportunity to significantly alter the loading dock approach- as anyone who's ever seen a tractor-trailer trying to back down it can attest, it's a test of skill and nerve for the big-rig drivers.