urbanSTL

It's really impressive how fast this building has gone up. A year ago today they were still working on demolition of the site. Now they have the entire tower poured and glassed in, and are working on the grounds, the interior, the roof and the garage. It's pretty amazing. I wish it were 10 stories taller as I believe they originally announced it. And more than anything wish it were downtown, anchoring Ballpark Village, but nonetheless, it's good to see this going up and adding density.

Any rumblings on potential tenants for this building/parking garage? The site plans from the City of Clayton website show space for a restaurant in the parking garage retail, any possibilities?

I don't know about the retail but having the office space 84% leased before opening aint bad. Makes you wish they had gone taller.




Clayton’s newest office building, Centene Plaza, is nearly 84 percent pre-leased six months before it’s set to be completed, with law firm Stinson Morrison Hecker taking nearly two floors in the 17-story tower.

http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... tory2.html

I've spent quite a bit of time in Clayton lately. Does it have a single building with any architectural merit?

bonwich wrote:I've spent quite a bit of time in Clayton lately. Does it have a single building with any architectural merit?

Yes. They all do.

bonwich wrote:I've spent quite a bit of time in Clayton lately. Does it have a single building with any architectural merit?

I can think of a couple of cool mid-century buildings on Bemiston, but that's about it.

^Also a couple of nicely updated Mid-Century buildings on Ladue somewhere around Brighton.

I like the Pierre Laclede buildings on Forsyth, and the Sevens Building isn't too bad either.

bonwich wrote:I've spent quite a bit of time in Clayton lately. Does it have a single building with any architectural merit?

http://www.beltstl.com/2009/11/clayton-forsyth-bldg/



-RBB

^ that building is my favorite as well.

Many of the highrises are mid century blah but I think many of the low rise 1-3 story structures with store fronts that dominate the northern and western portions of the CBD have merit.

looks best a night

Grover wrote:I can't quite get over how stubby this building looks. Every single time I see it I think "it will look nice when they're done with it." It really would look nice twice as tall, but just a few more stories would have slimmed it down a good deal.

I think it is because of its large floor plates. Does anyone know how many SQFT there are per floor? From the looks of it, it seems it might be the largest area per floor in Clayton. I cant even think of a DT building that is that wide besides the Macys building.

Maybe this tower was engineered so they can add more floors in the future?

BTW, I'd bet that One Bell Center (ATT) and Bank of America on Market both have much larger floorplates than Centenne.

Just found the official website for this building:

http://www.centeneplaza.com/

While some of the renderings aren't correct anymore (i.e. the parking garage/retail is much larger than shown), it's pretty interesting. They have everything from the master plan for the site, floor plans for office and retail, and more renderings of the plaza area. If they complete everything as planned, this will make for a much more vibrant building than it seems many are expecting.

zink wrote: Does anyone know how many SQFT there are per floor?

The website linked by bchao524 lists the floorplates at 26,856 sq. ft.

Weird that they put the main entrance lobby in an alley between the tower and the parking garage. I'm not sure you can even get in the building from Hanley.

It's really disappointing to see that the corner of Hanley and Carondelet will be a surface lot. Five buildings along Forsyth were torn down for an eight story parking garage, and this lot remains surface parking? I realize they were considering a Phase II, but this just seems like bad planning, and an absurd over abundance of parking for a building that is barely tall enough to call itself a tower. I'm all for new construction, development, and density, even if it is in Clayton, but the footprint of this project is way too big for what it will end up being.

City of Clayton approved March 24, 2010 artist Ned Kahn's Wind Veil wall design for the new Centene garage.



I think I might actually like this.

That looks a lot better than I had expected. Coupled with the street level retail they are building out now, I think this development will be good (although it would have been better at its original height, or standing in Ballpark Village downtown!).

It moves with the wind.

Wind Veil - Gateway Village, Charlotte, North Carolina. 2000
A 260’ long by 6-story tall facade of a new parking garage in Charlotte, North Carolina was covered with 80,000 small aluminum panels that are hinged to move freely in the wind. Viewed from the outside, the entire wall of the building appears to move in the wind and creates the impression of waves in a field of metallic grass. Inside the building, intricate patterns of light and shadow, similar to the way light filters through the leaves of trees, are projected onto the walls and floor as sunlight passes through this kinetic membrane. In addition to revealing the ever-changing patterns of the invisible wind, the artwork was designed to provide ventilation and shade for the interior of the parking garage. Commissioned by Bank of America. Completed in August, 2000.

See Here - scroll to bottom for video of example in Charlotte



http://nedkahn.com/wind.html

anyone know how to save a picture from a flash website?

There is another good image of this at centeneplaza.com

Click "outdoor plaza" on the right and then "plaza view" on the bottom left.