Homeless will find a way if you don’t spend a couple hundred grand securing the building and hiring garda world to patrol it.
Welcome to my life the last couple weeks with some pretty small buildings. Basically, unless you post up an armed guard, someone with a will will find a way. And even with an armed guard, they will still try. Given the opportunity, some homeless people will burn down the entire City. I know that sounds bad to say, but the truth hurts sometimes. I didn't say all homeless, but some.moorlander wrote: ↑Dec 01, 2025I keep hearing “no matter how well we secure the building the homeless will find a way” That sounds like an BS excuse to me but there’s definitely some truth to it.
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I worry something like this might happen to railway or chemical
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Railway is sealed and under guard watch 24-7. One sits on SW corner and the other on NE corner
Railway Exchange and Chemical Building are also not timber post and beam construction. There's stuff inside that can burn. We already know that. But they aren't completely comparable.
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In all honesty, how did a simple campfire or drug/cig fire burn down almost this entire complex? Just not seeing it
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^That's for the professional fire investigators to determine. Here's hoping it's insured...
And I don't want to get on a rant here, but some of you all too readily take STL tragedies and turn them into opportunities to try to damn the developers, or their clients, or whomever else and claim without basis that it's an inside job. Talk like that is without merit and pushes away those that we most seek to bring to the region: STL supporters with cash, talent, clients, and vision. Would I like to see some heads on pikes over this? Sure would! However, throwing such allegations around without proof, while cathartic, is just as bad as those County or Exurb people calling all crime inside I-170 to be Downtown crime and want to take all their anger out on the City. It royally sucks, but we cannot call them felons without proof and certainty. Let's at least wait until the damn thing's done smoldering before we grab our pitchforks.
And I don't want to get on a rant here, but some of you all too readily take STL tragedies and turn them into opportunities to try to damn the developers, or their clients, or whomever else and claim without basis that it's an inside job. Talk like that is without merit and pushes away those that we most seek to bring to the region: STL supporters with cash, talent, clients, and vision. Would I like to see some heads on pikes over this? Sure would! However, throwing such allegations around without proof, while cathartic, is just as bad as those County or Exurb people calling all crime inside I-170 to be Downtown crime and want to take all their anger out on the City. It royally sucks, but we cannot call them felons without proof and certainty. Let's at least wait until the damn thing's done smoldering before we grab our pitchforks.
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very easily when the building's interior is mostly wood, some which has been soaked in various oils over the decades.delmar2debaliviere2downtown wrote: ↑Dec 01, 2025In all honesty, how did a simple campfire or drug/cig fire burn down almost this entire complex? Just not seeing it
Would any insurance company write a policy for it?gone corporate wrote: ↑Dec 01, 2025Here's hoping it's insured...
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Might have been the voices inside an overachieving firebug's head that said the whole thing needs to burn to the ground. I'd prefer to think that these vacant burnouts are a result of some down-luck folks just trying to stay warm, but I think many are either revenge or mental illness manifested.delmar2debaliviere2downtown wrote: ↑Dec 01, 2025In all honesty, how did a simple campfire or drug/cig fire burn down almost this entire complex? Just not seeing it
In a regular fire closed doors do a lot to block/slow down a fire spreading. They block off the influx of oxygen a fire needs to sustain itself and it takes a lot longer to burn through a door than you might think.GoHarvOrGoHome wrote: ↑Dec 01, 2025Wood and basically a gigantic open floorplan
Per NPR, one of the homeless people staying in the building potentially were trapped in the fire.
https://www.stlpr.org/news-briefs/2025- ... house-fire
https://www.stlpr.org/news-briefs/2025- ... house-fire
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Still pretty tore up about this. Can’t get over it. Just don’t understand how we let this happen, gut wrenching
Gut punch for sure. Still shocking that they would let the centerpiece of the entire development burn down.
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“We” did not let this happen. “We” had nothing to do with. A lying developer allowed it to happen.keepstlbrick wrote: ↑Dec 10, 2025Still pretty tore up about this. Can’t get over it. Just don’t understand how we let this happen, gut wrenching
A company claiming it could bring a $1B redevelopment together didn’t even have a few hundred thousand dollars to secure the freaking centerpiece of the redevelopment.
From the train. I didn’t realize how many buildings were integrated. One still smoldering
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Wow, incredible. Thanks for sharing. Sad sight to see.tztag wrote: ↑Dec 11, 2025
From the train. I didn’t realize how many buildings were integrated. One still smoldering
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Is there any way that whatever is still standing could still be rebuilt? To me, it's looking more and more like an opportunity to create a really cool development like Nashville did.tztag wrote: ↑Dec 11, 2025
From the train. I didn’t realize how many buildings were integrated. One still smoldering
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S9 Architecture spotlights raw materiality in a mixed-use development in Nashville
(Sorry, I'm an optimist :b)
I am an optimist but that’s a goner. Get it down and quickly. City should really have a process to penalize owners every day it’s there. And not $100, more like $1000 every day until it’s gone or 30 days. At which point it increases to $10,000 per day.
^That's a shame. I share your sentiment that if it has to go, it needs to go soon. It's dangerous as it stands now.
It is a total loss, it will be scraped.Ragtimer wrote: ↑Dec 11, 2025Is there any way that whatever is still standing could still be rebuilt? To me, it's looking more and more like an opportunity to create a really cool development like Nashville did.tztag wrote: ↑Dec 11, 2025
From the train. I didn’t realize how many buildings were integrated. One still smoldering
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S9 Architecture spotlights raw materiality in a mixed-use development in Nashville
(Sorry, I'm an optimist :b)
Looks like it. The focus is now on the smaller surrounding buildings which have seen good traction.jtlq53 wrote: ↑Dec 12, 2025Will the shell on other side of the Crunden Martin bridge have to go too?
Also, a spec Industrial building 50,000 SF +/- should break ground in Q1 with outdoor storage available.
