urbanSTL

I'm hoping Solae will work with this building - what a cool headquarters this would make - just check out the "Art of Living Building" if you doubt it could be used. If it's doomed, what other buildings within CORTEX should be publicized/protected?



I'll start with this (and will try to get a pic sometime soon) - the small office building opposite (west of) the grain elevator. There are great lion medalions along the top of the facade and nice detailing. If CORTEX does take off this should be a coffee shop/diner.



http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Saint+Lou ... 2&t=h&om=1

As great as many of the buildings look on the outside, many of these brick warehouses are in relatively poor condition on the inside. With many of these buildings, it would probably be easier (and smarter for other reasons) to knock them down and build a duplicate in its place. One of the buildings knocked down for CORTEX still had evidence of "Studebaker" faded into its brick from the building's car manufacturing days. Cars used to be stored on the roof of the building back in the day, but I would have been weary of doing the same just before the building came down.

Solae has renderings and they include:



public~private plaza that allows natural light into the office building similar to Alberici headquarters, but opens at its widest point from the street making its street frontage a highlight



post-modernist architecture with lots of glass except at floor level along Boyle which has a large protruding glass-like-bay jutting out of a concrete wall towards Boyle > this may seam anti-urban but it still is better than an entirely blank concrete wall or anti-urban AG Edwards campus





Solae's new headquarters will help boost CORTEX and will attract more businesses and eventually the Sarah Street Metrolink station could become reality



This is supposedly a better building than the current CORTEX building, but I have not seen a site design rendering to judge, especially since how the parking garage relates to the plaza and office/wet lab buildings is important



I wish retail space could be included facing the street near the building's entrance but then again that is not typical of an industrial area or office park and only a downtown.

Where are these renderings? Can you post them?

My friend's father works at Solea but I cannot post them

wow ... thanks for the update .. lglad to hear it - sounds good.



one question though - are they tearing down a building or not ....

I know this doesn't answer anyone's questions, but since Clayco was chosen to design and build, they will have a cell web cam online. The site is already set up, so as soon as construction begins you'll be able to watch...



http://clayco.oxblue.com/cam6/

This is within Cortex . . . anyone have ideas for its use? Hilliker seems to be marketing it for reuse and not demo - good news IMHO.



4240 DUNCAN AVENUE

A masonry office/warehouse building ideally located between Highway 40/I-64 and Forest Park Boulevard near Washington University Medical Center (Barnes-Jewish-Children’s). The building is divisible to 10,000 square feet. The warehouse offers thirteen (13) dock doors, 13’ to 15+’ ceilings, 3 phase power, two (2) – 18,000 lb. Capacity freight elevators, up to 37,250 square feet on the first floor, fully sprinklered and parking for up to 50 cars on 2.72 acre lot. Space Remaining: 1st Floor 10,000 to 37,240 Sq. Ft., 2nd Floor 10,000 to 26,051 Sq. Ft.



Municipality: St. Louis City

County: St. Louis City

Property Type: Industrial

there have been renderings of the new Solae building hanging on the fence surrounding the site for several days. i took a bunch of pictures - will get them up as soon as i can. i think it looks nice but i wish the current building could have been saved. or at least the detailed stone-work. pretty soon they'll all be gone...

Picture available at Clayco website



http://www.claycorp.com/projects/detail ... projid=364

Can't judge how it will relate to the street and environment around it, but it does have a nice design.

I guess I like it - for whatever reason it looks better here than on the signs displayed around the demo sight. If a good part of CORTEX ends up like this I think it's a good thing for the city. Certainly this type of development would not have been predicted 10 years ago. By the way, love the endless vistas of the rendering - how majestic



[edit] why don't they ever show the fresh blacktop of a surface lot in these things - nothing spells success like p-a-r-k-i-n-g

Nice rendering, but why are they only showing us the loading-dock side?

???, but kind of a nice change from the rendering that leave out surface lots/loading dock/etc. Looks like there may be a 'nice' plaza/courtyard - though this is likely to be dead space as there's no retail or foot traffic in the area.

I like it. At least it's not brick and should add some interest to the area.

I'm not afraid of modern design. I'm just a little scared if the best angle for architectural interest looks to me like what only a truck driver will see on their way to the loading docks. Instead, I would hope the design will appeal to any hopeful pedestrians walking about the place.

The webcam is now operational.



http://clayco.oxblue.com/cam6/

I like the design, but it's too bad that the original building couldn't be incorporated into the design.

I won't even begin to discuss my problems with the Solae building and the demolition of the Morse Shoe Company building.



I will however point out that the material used for ornament on the Morse Shoe building is terra cotta, not limestone. Some of it will be reused by Solae, actually, and the rest may find its way into the hands of the fledgling National Architectural Arts Center.

If Amendment 2 does not pass we can kiss the CORTEX goodbye. We will NOT be the bio/life science hub we strive for if this amendment fails.

speaking of ... does anyone have any poll info on that info - i haven;t seen anyone say one way or the other which way the public is leaning ....



I must say I'm not very optimistic that it will pass. Everyone I talk to immediately says "I don't like clonig" ... I even had one guy ask me if I would like to meet myself walking down the street ...... its just a hard thingt to sell to people.