urbanSTL

Hooray for common sense! The lady that raised the ruckuss about this (forget her name) is likely ready to explode. Too bad, no loss. (Shame on me!!) "Onward And Upward" with St. Louis's premier high rise neighborhood!!!

But Marmar, why should you make exceptions for Lafayette Square, Soulard, Old North St. Louis and Hyde Park? I say you let the market offer what density it wants and then our City's review process helps mitigate neighborhood concerns, including how well the project can respect its surroundings.



In this case, an experienced developer feels there is a strong market for a high-rise at Lindell and Euclid. Fortunately, there is a strong history of high-rises built in this neighborhood. And to better fit in, the tower will have its upper floors set back from Euclid, with retail on its ground floor.



But I don't think any area of the City should be hands-off to those willing to push the market upwards. Just all areas with varying character, including the older, more traditionally low-rise neighborhoods mentioned, will have to take in account their project's surroundings to help their development fit in. Making a high-rise, or even mid-rise fit in to mostly low-rise surroundings is certainly a challenge, but it shouldn't be prohibited outright, just mitigated to address neighborhood concerns, including design combatibility.



For example, new owners of the St. Louis Hills nursing home on Chippewa between Watson and Lansdowne not too long ago wanted to renovate and expand it into an upscale retirement center with a mid-rise addition of condos for seniors. But my feeling was just because the area around was largely single-family didn't mean you couldn't consider this development. Besides, there were already three mid-rises within blocks of this former hotel turned nursing home. So, I'd be careful to say limit vertical development outside of the central corridor, when the market may be there.

Southslider, I said MIGHT be exceptions, meaning that if something proper is designed, then why not. So essentially, I agree with you. Yet, I disagree with you on your statement that making a high or even medium rise building fit in with low rise surroundings being a challenge...where is the challenge? If you look around St. Louis, you see it all over. It happens in Chicago even far more obvious than here. The only challenge would be in an area such as LS, etc., where the design (undoubtedly) must follow certain parameters.

Urban Review St. Louis wrote:Drawings can be found in the board bill which is in committee:

Thanks...

I pretty much agree with your assesment, Steve. The tower portion looks good, but I think the base needs a little reworking. I could live with it, but it could definately be better.

The base with that arched entry is a bit boring.

The ground level looks a bit like a shopping mall. Overall, decent design though.

I agree with the Euclid face looking good. I should have put that in my orgiginal post. The Lindell face is what I have a problem with.

The tower's OK, but pretty boring. Same thing you see a thousand times in any city USA. The base is horrible!!! Definitely looks like a suburban mall. I sure hope that gets fixed. Overall, I'm a bit disappointed.

Glad to finally see this. Like others have noted, I think the base facing Lindell could be improved. My biggest issue is the trim. It might look better with a more modern touch - a crisper look. As it is, it reminds me of a convention hotel, rather than a smart uptown condo building. The rendering of the Euclid streetscape looks good in my opinion. The additional streetfront retail is a plus. But, my biggest issue with this project is the three curb cuts on Euclid. Alley, bank lanes, and garage entrance. It is too much. In a perfect world, I would eliminate the bank lanes, but will assume they cannot be eliminated. Perhaps, if the bank lanes and the garage entrance could share. If the garage entrance could be in the back, sharing the lane with the bank building, it would eliminate one curb cut, and enhance the Euclid streetscape.



This project will be good for the CWE and the City. Opus does excellent work. It is a far better use for the space than currently exists. I feel good about it and hope they will consider a little fine tuning.

The rendering is not bad... not as good as Opus' beautiful ParkEast two blocks down the street... but I think this tower will fit good in this area of the neighborhood. It IS a little more conservative and maybe that is not a bad thing.

The base doesn't bother me as much as some of the posters here... but I am sure it will change over time before construction.

I am just glad to see four new highrises within 4 blocks of each other.













Think about how different this skyline view will look in a year or two!

The Park East and 4545 are by far the most impressive of the renderings, but this building boom is going to really create momentum for city living. Hopefully we'll see some good infill on vacant lots in Midtown, which remains a glaring sore spot of underdevelopment.

Just imagine how St. Louis would look if all of its highrises were concetrated in one place. I'm not saying I necessarily hate the "3 downtowns" approach but it does really hide how large of a city we are.

^Counting the floors brings me to 28, maybe 27 depending on the base.