urbanSTL

^Oh, that's glorious!

Looks like the core is currently at 35, so one more level and then any mechanical.

sc4mayor wrote: ↑

Oct 24, 2019

Was checking out the webcam today, looks like there is about 3-4 more floors left to go.  This thing looks way, way bigger than I thought it would.  Really dominates the CWE...need like 2-3 more like it along Kingshighway now...

Which buildings do you want to demolish?

^You're not going to getting anything like One Hundred on those tiny lots next to the Montclair.  Maybe a smaller tower on the north lot, if they didn't include parking, or the south lot, if they tear town the Greek Orthodox church and orient the building and / or podium east-west.

A supertall on one of those lots?

Those lots are perfect for a couple of sliver buildings. The STL market probably can't support one now, but maybe in a few years. 

I would love to see someone take stab at condos. CWE hasn't seen a new condo offering since Park East tower. My gut feeling is you could successfully sell a taller condo building.

^4101 Lacelede is a recently completed CWE condo project.

It might have done alright, but the units didn’t seem to be flying off the shelf exactly.

sc4mayor wrote: ↑

Oct 26, 2019

^ It was really just a passing comment about wanting to see more tall striking buildings in the area.  They don't even have to be on Kingshighway or exactly like One Hundred for that matter.  Just more height and more bold design is what I'd like to see.  I guess I should have been more vague. 

Well, I think it's pretty safe to say that, outside of a handful of CWE residents in whose backyard it is being built, everyone wants to see that.  But the question was:  the empty lots on Kingshighway aren't for sale, so what buildings should be demolished?

sc4mayor wrote: But since we're getting specific, the Forest Park Ave frontage on the south lot is about 130 or so feet and about 75 feet along Kingshighway.  The north lot has about 145 feet or so along Laclede and around 100 feet on Kingshighway.  Contrast that with one of St. Louis' newer builds, the Roberts Tower, which is about 50ft by 120ft.  I really don't see why any demolition would be required to put up a couple pencil towers there.  You could even build an underground garage beneath all three buildings they could share.  But it was really just wishful thinking.  I'd be plenty happy with just seeing the lots on Euclid and Kingshighway at Lindell get filled in.

The Roberts Tower really isn't a good example.  It only has apartments on one side.  The other sides only have one balcony, a few prison windows, and a great big mass of painted concrete.  That was only allowed because it was built up against the Mayfair Hotel, which the Roberts Bros. also owned, and, frankly, because it was the Roberts Bros.  That would never fly in the CWE, even if it was economically viable, which I'm not sure it ever was.

As an aside, that entire parcel along Kingshighway, between Forest Park Ave. and Laclede, is already an underground garage, which serves The Montclair.  The Montclair is owned by the same company that is developing One Hundred.

framer wrote: ↑

Oct 26, 2019

Those lots are perfect for a couple of sliver buildings. The STL market probably can't support one now, but maybe in a few years. 

I am not sure that even qualifies as a pencil tower, but sure there are dozens of these things going up in Manhattan.  But I don't think they are viable anywhere outside of Manhattan or Hong Kong.  Nowhere else has the property and rent prices to justify them.  

Incidentally, in Midtown Manhattan, the height of new residential buildings is capped by a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 10.  So, developers of these pencil towers have to buy the air rights of many, if not all, of the buildings in the neighborhood in order to build higher.  Basically, they are buying the right of any owner to build a taller building on any of the properties in the future, and then adding that height allowance on to their property instead, which can easily cost much more than the actual property on which they are building...

And yet i still agree with sc4mayor on this one

aprice wrote: ↑

Oct 28, 2019

And yet i still agree with sc4mayor on this one

How do know what you are agreeing with?  The claim keeps changing.

Question: What’s going to top out first, 100 or OCW?

^The core will be 100 for sure. Foot race to pouring the actual roof though. I'd still put money on 100. OCW is at a transfer floor of sorts currently with the NorthWest portion of the building topping off so it should speed up again after this pour, but they have been slower overall on a per floor basis.

I'm getting greedy, this isn't even topped off and I'm ready to see another one rising in the CWE to complement it.

^Nice shot! Haven't seen that perspective from street level yet.

Anyone have an ear to the ground and hear any rumors about installation of the final facade on the current gypsum wedges? I'm hoping they aren't waiting to have the entire facade prepped before they do any, but at this point we are getting close regardless.