Construction going on at both of these buildings.
Article about Council Towers:
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/prin ... ab-of.html

Anyone know the name of the other building? Or what is being built there?

is this where the Central Public Library is storing its inventory during the project?

Yes, but why are they renovating so much.

Any word on restoring the brick mural on the East facade of the Council Tower?

No idea, but I can ask a higher up at EM Harris since I'm currently finishing up pre-construction work with him on a project that is .5% the size of Council Towers.

Was driving east on I-64 yesterday and passed this building. The new paint, windows, and Goodwill signage make it look dramatically better!

bchao524 wrote:Was driving east on I-64 yesterday and passed this building. The new paint, windows, and Goodwill signage make it look dramatically better!

I agree. Who owns the property across I-64 from the Goodwill Outlet? It always looks terrible and is now covered with graffiti. Why doesn't the city fine the owners of such a visibly neglected prominent site? Just build a sight wall. Or maybe St Louis U should buy it and clean it up since it makes it appear that SLU is next to a junk yard.

gary kreie wrote:

bchao524 wrote:Was driving east on I-64 yesterday and passed this building. The new paint, windows, and Goodwill signage make it look dramatically better!

I agree. Who owns the property across I-64 from the Goodwill Outlet? It always looks terrible and is now covered with graffiti. Why doesn't the city fine the owners of such a visibly neglected prominent site? Just build a sight wall. Or maybe St Louis U should buy it and clean it up since it makes it appear that SLU is next to a junk yard.

Can't remember the name for the life of me of the old manufacturer who was their for the longest time. I believe their was a development plan on the drawing that included a urban style/small lot Target as anchor (Similiar to the Target on Hampton Ave where the majority of parking is underground). Like all things related to real estate and the credit crash it is dead from my understanding.

I believe it was Federal Mogul on that site, but I could be wrong.

urbz wrote:I believe it was Federal Mogul on that site, but I could be wrong.

I believe you are correct. I believe those buildings are at the back end of the old site.

lukethedrifter wrote:

urbz wrote:I believe it was Federal Mogul on that site, but I could be wrong.

I believe you are correct. I believe those buildings are at the back end of the old site.

That's it,

A little off topic. I always wondered if it would be better with a I64 east/west bound side by side with a rebuilt interchange at Grand and an additional by expanding MoDOT's ROW using a sliver of the former Federal Mogul site instead of the current stacked highway confifuration (I would also throw in an at grade intersection between Grand Ave and Forest Park Ave). It seems with the Fedral Mogul property essentially defunct you could look at a better way to get the freeway through and provide better connectivity in the area. Especially with a great structure as the Armory sitting there.

^ I-64 would be less destructive if it was sunken through the urban core. The double decker elevated lanes were a bad idea from the inception. I'm pissed they are spending so much money retrofitting them.

Without the stacked lanes, this thread would not exist because the old May Dept. Stores warehouse AND the Armory would most likely not exist. The highway takes up way too much space both east and west of this section, especially in the area of Council Towers.
If the highway didn't exist at all, the original facade of the towers would still have the chrome relief and the entire complex would look cool as hell

Looking at the aerial photo now, you wonder why they even bothered stacking the lanes downtown. All that's left is parking lot after parking lot south of 64 (of course with the exception of where it doubles up to squeeze past the armory).

I didn't see a thread for it on here, but this is about the Council Plaza development near SLU (the two high-rises, Icon Student Spaces, and Starbucks).

I noticed that the Grandview Apartments building (shorter of the two high-rises) has been rebranded as "Midtown 300", which is a nod to the address at 300 South Grand. It looks like the owner, the Wellington Group, recently completed renovations on the apartments in this building and added in some new amenities to remain competitive . According to the website, and looking at other websites out there, Midtown 300's apartments are quite nice. https://www.midtown300.com/photogallery.aspx

Units offered here range from Studios to 1 Bedrooms. Rent ranges from $699 to $1200 a month depending on the unit you get.

In recent years, we know that the Flying Saucer was saved from demolition and turned into Starbucks/Chipotle and we know that Icon Student Spaces opened up in the 2-story section of the complex (rent there ranges $700 to $2100 per-person for studios-4 bedroom units, a bit confusing but whatever I guess). We also know that the piece of art on the Council Tower was redone several years ago. The renovation and rebranding on the Grandview Building is the last aspect of this complex to be overhauled. While this complex is still auto-centric, it's nice to see it renewed. I hope that a developer one day builds on the surface parking lot just behind the Flying Saucer. 

But anyway, here are some pictures of Grandview (now Midtown 300). This complex has always fascinated me since its two high-rises and some low-rise buildings plopped where 64 and Forest Park Avenue meet.

The owner of that tower gets too much satisfaction from calling the tow truck to take vehicles off of their utterly underused lot.  Unless it changed owners.  I had to run out of Chipotle one day because they only have like 15 'official' spots to catch the tow truck driver.

There's a real problem coordinating traffic flow into and out of the whole complex. There's frequently a dangerous back-up onto Grand, which messes up both northbound and southbound traffic.

I agree.  And then turn Grand/64 into a proper interchange and connect FPP to Market.  I think there is enough space for 64W to Grand ramps.  And vice versa.  The spaghetti mess of ramps to and from 64 are a planning abortion.  I have said all of this to Alderwoman Davis a couple of years ago and she said they were doing studies on it.  Seems like a pretty obvious solution.

Doing the obvious right thing doesn't take a study, it takes leadership. The purpose of the study is to look like you're doing something.