urbanSTL

stlgasm wrote:Here's a great photo thread that shows many of Cleveland's infill developments, as well as other contemporary buildings in the city. I think it's safe to say that Cleveland walks all over St. Louis in terms of modern architecture:

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.p ... 103.0.html

That is a pretty awesome set to showcase Cleveland's architecture. I never know it was so diverse and progressive. cool stuff.

The problem is that the design is not urban at all but very similar to the newer more dense suburban apartment model...


P2287014 by MattonArsenal, on Flickr

This is from suburban Tulsa, is almost identical to the Aventura design (replace the stucco with brick on the first floor and Hardy plank on the top two floors), and has no place in the Grove. DO NOT TRY TO PASS IT OFF AS URBAN.

Yes, please!

Funny, I asked the guys working on the project I was up there for if they wanted to move to St. Louis. They did not... Missoula is a cool town.

Actually after I posted the good and the bad I realized they are actually not that different in scale and basic design. The difference is the use of color, texture, and material.

So, perhaps this is the way to reach out the the developers and improve the look and feel of the Aventura. They don't need to redesign this as a modern urban masterpiece, just update the exterior with something more interesting and urban looking.

^ Nicely done.

I think the metro lofts, buildings west of the Cheshire and DeMun Pointe on Clayton are much better examples of good urban infill than most of the ones from the Cleveland website. I can't stand cheap EIFS walls and that metal siding passed off as hip/modern. It's basically today's junk, modern equivalent to the cheap Lindell apartments faux traditional style that burned. The modern building in Philadelphia was the coolest example that I saw. The art lofts that were planned for midtown were very cool too. I also like the rendering of the proposed building at Washington and 14th. this also makes me realize that st louis has a real asset than 90% of other big cities don't have, good historic, architecturally significant architecture that needs to be rehabbed and preserved. Dallas and Denvers architecture make me want to vom, except for some new modern towers.

I was actually never very impressed with 3949 Lindell. Yes, it was dense infill in an area of town that desperately needs it, but the design was much less than compelling. I thought it looked cheap, and it turns out that it really was cheap, which led to its hasty demise. Why can't we have new construction that preserves the architectural integrity of the older buildings St. Louis is famous for?

The proposed Mill's project on Euclid near West Pine suffers from the same issue. It will be dense and mixed use infill but the facade in the rendering gives off a certain cheapness of design. I am glad it has not been built yet and am hoping the design will evolve in the meanwhile. I would rather have something like 9 North which is more solid looking, not unnecessarily ornamented and is not a poorly executed faux historic building.

Yes, that Mills design was hideous. Someone post that rendering again.
I like the "faux historic" infill in Lafayette Square. The townhouses around the park, most people don't even know these are new. I'm not including the southeast corner of the park though..

jcity wrote:Yes, that Mills design was hideous. Someone post that rendering again.
I like the "faux historic" infill in Lafayette Square. The townhouses around the park, most people don't even know these are new. I'm not including the southeast corner of the park though..

The Q by Jonathan Segal in San Diago.

I'm of the opinion that high quality materials are necessary. Everything else will look cheap, regardless of the design caliber or "style."

wunderwaffle wrote:

Art Stable in Seattle
Live/Work Units

Love this...totally could see this fitting in downtown. Stunning.

more re-use than infill but this is what i would like to see happen to the Lemp brewery silos (except residential instead of hotel):



image source: http://www.urbanophile.com/2012/07/24/h ... bruegmann/

onecity wrote:wonderwaffle - those are some sharp examples.

+1 ...Impressive

A couple more examples from the East Coast, courtesy of ColDayMan of Skyscraperpage.com...

Philly:




Washington, DC:

So how can we push Mills to design something good for their very prominent corner. I can't believe they would build that 1992 piece of crap in 2012. Who is the architect for that? How embarrassing.