M1 Bank HQ (7801 Forsyth)

chriss752 · PostNov 08, 2020#12020-11-08T00:11+00:00

M1 Bank, led by Ken Poteet, is planning a $7.15 Million renovation of the PNC Bank building at 7801 Forsyth (Forsyth and Bemiston). Plans call for the building, which as built in 1965, to be reclad along with another drive-thru banking lane to be added. It does seem like this project will at least preserve some aspects of the design. Core 10 architects is the architecture firm behind this project.

This is the second phase to the M! Bank HQ campus. Phase 1 was the renovation of the Gershman Commercial building on Bemiston. That was finished earlier this year. A photo of that is attached at the end of this post.

symphonicpoet · PostNov 08, 2020#22020-11-08T01:32+00:00

^I don't fully understand the need to reclad that building. It's a neat old building and we're finally beginning to appreciate midcentury modernism. I can see why it would be good to give it a good scrub, to update the systems, to clean the glass, to update the landscaping. I like the site treatment, but . . . why reclad it?

chriss752 · PostNov 08, 2020#32020-11-08T01:59+00:00

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑
Nov 08, 2020
^I don't fully understand the need to reclad that building. It's a neat old building and we're finally beginning to appreciate midcentury modernism. I can see why it would be good to give it a good scrub, to update the systems, to clean the glass, to update the landscaping. I like the site treatment, but . . . why reclad it?

It seems like a waste of $7.15 Million to me. That's an outrageous cost for a renovation of a building like this.

framer · PostNov 08, 2020#42020-11-08T02:53+00:00

This really pisses me off. Clayton is losing a whole generation of architectural heritage in just the last couple of years.

Asses!

moorlander · PostNov 08, 2020#52020-11-08T03:05+00:00

They’ve done a great job with the single story building.

wabash · PostNov 08, 2020#62020-11-08T04:30+00:00

Agree with sp. A much lighter touch could be warranted and look great while preserving it stylistically.

FrankRider · PostNov 08, 2020#72020-11-08T22:03+00:00

wabash wrote:Agree with sp. A much lighter touch could be warranted and look great while preserving it stylistically.

I don’t know? Is it really changing that much? It looks like all they are doing is moving the glass curtain wall out to the edges. The structural pillars that make up the outside of the original structure are still visible through the new curtain. If someone was really that in love with this building thirty years after it really wouldn’t be much problem to revert back.

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symphonicpoet · PostNov 09, 2020#82020-11-09T01:08+00:00

^Probably not. That's the one small saving grace to it, I suppose: it won't be impossible to reverse. But the columns are the defining feature of the building: the way they curve to meet the cornice and one another and how they define the void space of the windows between them. Between the new curtain wall outside them and the interior partitions replacing the windows they're almost completely lost. The interior walls create an entirely new rhythm that runs counter to the original structure. The horizontal bands draw the eye away from the columns and the white walls filling the void space helps them disappear into a false background. They're trying to reinvent a modernist building as post-post-modern developer contemporary. Maybe they could demolish that little faux-colonial mistake and build a new structure on the site. They're saving the wrong building.

sc4mayor · PostMay 29, 2022#92022-05-29T14:03+00:00

Looks like this goes in front of the Clayton Plan Commission and the ARB on 6/6 and the BoA on 6/14:

framer · PostMay 29, 2022#102022-05-29T15:48+00:00

Totally sucks. Once again, destroying a Mid-Century landmark. Will we never learn to value our architectural heritage?

Tim · PostMay 29, 2022#112022-05-29T16:52+00:00

Yeah, pretty silly.

jshank83 · PostMay 29, 2022#122022-05-29T18:44+00:00

Maybe it will look better in person but it just looked like a building in a glass box which I find odd.

I don’t necessarily have much of an affinity for the building itself like some on here but just encasing it in glass doesn’t really do much for me.

shadrach · PostMay 29, 2022#132022-05-29T19:14+00:00

Wonder if they’re doing improvements just to increase value. With all the adjacent construction that corner may be next.

symphonicpoet · PostMay 30, 2022#142022-05-30T01:08+00:00

framer wrote: ↑
May 29, 2022
Totally sucks. Once again, destroying a Mid-Century landmark. Will we never learn to value our architectural heritage?

Sadly, I suspect not. Or at least not until it becomes quite a bit older. The one hope I hold here is that the skin can be stipped off more easily than the utter destruction of the US Bank at Hanley and Forsyth, or the flat out demo of the BoA at Parkside and Forsyth. I wish you were wrong, but you're not. Clayton is just . . . wiping the map of the old.

mikenewell48 · PostMay 30, 2022#152022-05-30T12:20+00:00

the new Apple store Clayton

framer · PostMay 30, 2022#162022-05-30T13:32+00:00

^What?

moorlander · PostNov 16, 2022#172022-11-16T19:35+00:00

Status Update: Review of construction permits underway. Construction will begin Q1 of 2023.

SRQ2STL · PostFeb 08, 2023#182023-02-08T18:14+00:00

The defacing has begun. Both literally and figuratively.

framer · PostFeb 08, 2023#192023-02-08T20:08+00:00

Philistines!

moorlander · PostMar 08, 2023#202023-03-08T20:01+00:00

Just a skeleton remains

framer · PostMar 08, 2023#212023-03-08T23:11+00:00

chriss752 · PostMay 06, 2023#222023-05-06T00:24+00:00

This is much more of an intensive renovation than I thought it would be. Honestly, I would just put a glass curtain wall back near the current floors and leave it at that. Pulling the facade outwards will mess this up more than it already has been.

framer · PostMay 06, 2023#232023-05-06T16:43+00:00

The original building has been destroy. Forty years from now someone will come along and restore it's original appearance. Such is life.

Ebsy · PostMay 11, 2023#242023-05-11T02:57+00:00

Borderline criminal.

SRQ2STL · PostSep 15, 2023#252023-09-15T13:55+00:00

A very slooowwww moving project. Not much progress. Interior work continues. As does construction on the rear expansion. Otherwise new HVAC equipment was lowered onto the roof the other day. This morning, some sort of concrete pour is occurring. And work is ongoing on the roofline.