^Not one bats 1.000 
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Crap. Confused General Re with RGA. My bad.wabash wrote:Not sure where you heard this, but it's not true.gone corporate wrote:strong primary ownership by Berkshire Hathaway.
One of RGA's biggest competitors if General Re, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Other than that there is no affiliation between the two companies.
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Here are renderings of the new HQ campus. There will be 2, five story buildings connected by a three story lobby and a 3 level parking garage.
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What a joke. I can see the tag line now:
"Practically screams small time!"
Zero percent chance I would ever work in this hell-hole. Not a very smart plan if they want to attract young, talented individuals.
"Practically screams small time!"
Zero percent chance I would ever work in this hell-hole. Not a very smart plan if they want to attract young, talented individuals.
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^Relax. StL County investment is still positive regional investment. I had trouble placing this at first - this will be built out on the cornfield just east of the Dierbergs HQ. Rather insignificant bland design though.
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I'll agree with that.newstl2020 wrote:Not a very smart plan if they want to attract young, talented individuals.
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Don't really have to go any more in depth than this.this will be built out on the cornfield
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BTW, I couldn't really place where this was, but drove by on the way to pumpkin picking the other day. I can say without a doubt that I would never chose to work in such a location. I don't know when it will actually happen, but there will be a demographic shift when more people in offices like RGA want a more urban work environment...we're getting closer to a generation of CEOs that will want something different and then we'll see companies move back to the city.Alex Ihnen wrote:I'll agree with that.newstl2020 wrote:Not a very smart plan if they want to attract young, talented individuals.
I can't get too excited about this location or design either. But it comes to a point where money talks and a stable well paying job matters a lot more when their is a spouse and a couple of kids at your kitchen table. Or in RGA case, what they care about is attracting talented individuals. Who says they have to be youngAlex Ihnen wrote:BTW, I couldn't really place where this was, but drove by on the way to pumpkin picking the other day. I can say without a doubt that I would never chose to work in such a location. I don't know when it will actually happen, but there will be a demographic shift when more people in offices like RGA want a more urban work environment...we're getting closer to a generation of CEOs that will want something different and then we'll see companies move back to the city.Alex Ihnen wrote:I'll agree with that.newstl2020 wrote:Not a very smart plan if they want to attract young, talented individuals.
+1dredger wrote:I can't get too excited about this location or design either. But it comes to a point where money talks and a stable well paying job matters a lot more when their is a spouse and a couple of kids at your kitchen table. Or in RGA case, what they care about is attracting talented individuals. Who says they have to be young
I'm a little put off by the "young, talented individuals" complaining that they cannot find jobs *anywhere* after college graduation, yet complaining that they'll never work in a faceless hell-hole (albeit new and presumably modern, tech-wise) in the suburbs.
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^ Seems a bit of a straw-man argument. I'm saying I'd never work out there, but I've also found a job. And in fact, anyone would be an idiot if they passed up a job out there if they had no other options. The point is, many people (and more and more people) would not chose to work in such a location. Individuals certainly complain about finding work at times, but companies complain about not being able to find young talent as well.
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Obviously, if you didn't have any other options, you would not give two shits about where you worked and would be thankful to have the job. If they are trying to attract employees who have no other options, this location is going to suit them well into the future.justme123 wrote:+1dredger wrote:I can't get too excited about this location or design either. But it comes to a point where money talks and a stable well paying job matters a lot more when their is a spouse and a couple of kids at your kitchen table. Or in RGA case, what they care about is attracting talented individuals. Who says they have to be young
I'm a little put off by the "young, talented individuals" complaining that they cannot find jobs *anywhere* after college graduation, yet complaining that they'll never work in a faceless hell-hole (albeit new and presumably modern, tech-wise) in the suburbs.
Edit: Having RGA is good for the metro area. It just gets extremely tiring watching companies in every other city move into urban areas and seeing the influx of young people (who, btw, despite the apparent disdain are the drivers of urban growth across the country) while watching StL companies build brand new 20 year old campuses in the county. The ten year lag on the rest of the country seriously needs to evaporate if we are ever going to be a competetive metro, and this needs to start with the corporate leadership. It isn't 1992.
Yep. Companies don't have problems finding people they have problems finding *talented* people. What would be interesting would be a poll of these "talented people" to see how much a connected urban campus mattered vs a disconnected suburban one.
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As much as I would love to see RGA build in the city or in Clayton, it already is located in West County, and probably a lot of senior management (decision makers) live in Wildwood, Chesterfield, Clarkson Valley, et al. It's a long drive from Wildwood to downtown or Clayton, but it's a hop to a cornfield nearby. I see why they did it, and I doubt that RGA didn't even consider building in the city or Clayton (it's a big project, they likely ran the numbers). It's just that on the whole, what's less work for them and their employees? I also would point out that it's a reinsurance company (not even retail insurance, these people actually sell insurance policies to other insurance companies), so I'm not wholly surprised they went with a traditional suburban campus with an unobtrusive design rather than with a cutting-edge new building or a renovation of a century-old warehouse.
The bigger question in all this, how do you get a corporate HQ to move into downtown when its executive base is firmly planted in the suburbs or exburbs? Do you even try as you spent precious resources on something that is not a gain for the region at the end of the day? St. Louis region certainly has its share of campus/corporate expansion lately including
Edward Jones,
Express Scripts,
Scottrade
Mastercard
now RGA
I don't think you can find a good answer other then a corporate relocation from the outside or convince smaller startups in the downtown core to begin with. Nor can you argue the city has been left out as of late with some very solid and expanding companies committed downtown.
Ralcorp
Peabody
Stifel Nichol
Wells Fargo Securities firmly planting its flag
Nestle/Purina signing more space downtown
At the same time, you certainly don't need more of what you saw with Centene playing the city to get its desired property in Clayton or law firms following their clients.
Edward Jones,
Express Scripts,
Scottrade
Mastercard
now RGA
I don't think you can find a good answer other then a corporate relocation from the outside or convince smaller startups in the downtown core to begin with. Nor can you argue the city has been left out as of late with some very solid and expanding companies committed downtown.
Ralcorp
Peabody
Stifel Nichol
Wells Fargo Securities firmly planting its flag
Nestle/Purina signing more space downtown
At the same time, you certainly don't need more of what you saw with Centene playing the city to get its desired property in Clayton or law firms following their clients.
Positive investment, true. It's sad, but this is a terrible design. Except for manufacturing and research, the single campus model appears to be on its way to becoming a relic all across this country.
RGA is a prominent F500 financial firm. If it insists on building a suburban campus, shouldn't RGA want signature buildings on its campus? These are not "signature". Awful. They look like Maryville Centre buildings. The base of the building looks like a ripoff from the base of H&R Block's HQ's in downtown Kansas City.
I could be wrong, but my hunch is that RGA used local and older architects, who are more likely to be conservative in design in my opinion, and the design is likely limited by Chesterfield's strict height restrictions.
It's great that jobs are going to be created by RGA; and RGA, no doubt, is showing its commitment to STL, however, this design appears not to be too distinguished from any of those late 90's - early 2000's era buildings in Chesterfield.
They are terrible. Step it up, St. Louis!
RGA is a prominent F500 financial firm. If it insists on building a suburban campus, shouldn't RGA want signature buildings on its campus? These are not "signature". Awful. They look like Maryville Centre buildings. The base of the building looks like a ripoff from the base of H&R Block's HQ's in downtown Kansas City.
I could be wrong, but my hunch is that RGA used local and older architects, who are more likely to be conservative in design in my opinion, and the design is likely limited by Chesterfield's strict height restrictions.
It's great that jobs are going to be created by RGA; and RGA, no doubt, is showing its commitment to STL, however, this design appears not to be too distinguished from any of those late 90's - early 2000's era buildings in Chesterfield.
They are terrible. Step it up, St. Louis!
You'd be surprised at how many dont run the numbers. They already owned the land, its close to home, and like you said, its not a retail insurance company so the added benefit of visibility from being located in a downtown doesn't apply to them.stlhistory wrote:As much as I would love to see RGA build in the city or in Clayton, it already is located in West County, and probably a lot of senior management (decision makers) live in Wildwood, Chesterfield, Clarkson Valley, et al. It's a long drive from Wildwood to downtown or Clayton, but it's a hop to a cornfield nearby. I see why they did it, and I doubt that RGA didn't even consider building in the city or Clayton (it's a big project, they likely ran the numbers). It's just that on the whole, what's less work for them and their employees? I also would point out that it's a reinsurance company (not even retail insurance, these people actually sell insurance policies to other insurance companies), so I'm not wholly surprised they went with a traditional suburban campus with an unobtrusive design rather than with a cutting-edge new building or a renovation of a century-old warehouse.
But I still think they should've built in downtown Clayton (I can think of two locations they could've purchased to build on) and the SLCEC should've done everything they could to have made that happen. Increase in property values and sales taxes would've made whatever incentives they would've thrown at RGA way worth it. And the funny part is, RGA will probably still get incentives.
The architects are Forum Studio & Gensler. "Old" in the sense of they've been around awhile and but not "old" as in "stodgy".arch city wrote:I could be wrong, but my hunch is that RGA used local and older architects, who are more likely to be conservative in design in my opinion, and the design is likely limited by Chesterfield's strict height restrictions.
To get a large, more established company to relocate, there needs to be a superior net benefit. STL is a very conservative place. If the city can prove to whatever company that their bottom line will improve drastically then im sure the company will consider. But from the ones you named, they have made significant investments to their current locations that I highly doubt they will relocate to the city.dredger wrote:The bigger question in all this, how do you get a corporate HQ to move into downtown when its executive base is firmly planted in the suburbs or exburbs? Do you even try as you spent precious resources on something that is not a gain for the region at the end of the day? St. Louis region certainly has its share of campus/corporate expansion lately including
Edward Jones,
Express Scripts,
Scottrade
Mastercard
now RGA
I don't think you can find a good answer other then a corporate relocation from the outside or convince smaller startups in the downtown core to begin with. Nor can you argue the city has been left out as of late with some very solid and expanding companies committed downtown.
Ralcorp
Peabody
Stifel Nichol
Wells Fargo Securities firmly planting its flag
Nestle/Purina signing more space downtown
At the same time, you certainly don't need more of what you saw with Centene playing the city to get its desired property in Clayton or law firms following their clients.
I don't understand all the negative reaction to the design. As far as suburban corporate architecture goes, I find this rather handsome.
^Agreed.
The issue is not the design. The issue is RGA leadership either not seeing or not caring about the relationship between St. Louis' lackluster growth and their locational decision. St. Louis will never reach its world class potential as long as reginal business leaders make such choices.
The issue is not the design. The issue is RGA leadership either not seeing or not caring about the relationship between St. Louis' lackluster growth and their locational decision. St. Louis will never reach its world class potential as long as reginal business leaders make such choices.
The problem is the design.
All across this country cutting edge designs are going up - even in places such as Oklahoma City, Austin, Pittsburgh and Nashville - smaller regions than St. Louis. And I won't mention Charlotte and yes.........Kansas City. Cutting-edge designs get national and international press. Cutting-edge designs help people to view your city as hip and modern.
While people are certainly entitled to their own opinions and perspectives, I personally think anyone who doesn't see a problem with this simple shoe box design only helps to underscore why St. Louis tends to be a laggard in almost everything.
While other cities are pushing world-class designs and architecture, St. Louis is designing your standard shoe boxes and "traditional" designs. It drives me crazy.
It's just my opinion and observation.
All across this country cutting edge designs are going up - even in places such as Oklahoma City, Austin, Pittsburgh and Nashville - smaller regions than St. Louis. And I won't mention Charlotte and yes.........Kansas City. Cutting-edge designs get national and international press. Cutting-edge designs help people to view your city as hip and modern.
While people are certainly entitled to their own opinions and perspectives, I personally think anyone who doesn't see a problem with this simple shoe box design only helps to underscore why St. Louis tends to be a laggard in almost everything.
While other cities are pushing world-class designs and architecture, St. Louis is designing your standard shoe boxes and "traditional" designs. It drives me crazy.
It's just my opinion and observation.
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I work at an office in Creve Coeur with about 250 people. I know probably 150 of them on a first name basis. I can almost guarantee you that if you asked all 150 of them, 130 of them would not care in the least if we moved to the city, and those same 130 would probably prefer we stay in the county because that's where they live. I would rather work in the city in an office tower, myself. But you guys acting like the company is being inconsiderate of their employees is a tad laughable.
I dont think thats the case. I think it was more or less about attracting new talent, not about being considerate to current employees.juiceinkirkwood wrote:But you guys acting like the company is being inconsiderate of their employees is a tad laughable.
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Right. I think the consensus is that current employees live in the county and want to stay there.stlien wrote:I dont think thats the case. I think it was more or less about attracting new talent, not about being considerate to current employees.juiceinkirkwood wrote:But you guys acting like the company is being inconsiderate of their employees is a tad laughable.