Yes, they were planning to expand on the main campus. IMO - it makes sense to have the law school nearer the courts/law offices. It seems that an opportunity came up and they decided to go with it.
I think it's great we will be filling up a building downtown, but how can SLU go around knocking down buildings for their expansion and then suddenly decide they want to move across town? Did they not plan correctly for their needs? Or, as we've seen countless times, maybe they have little disregard for St. Louis' heritage despite having alternatives to demolition?
Having done my best to digest this in a short period of time I don't really see any downsides to this arrangement. I seriously hope they have some type of plan to update the fascade on 100N Tucker, however, as that would be a major plus for the area.
This should be a relative boon for downtown in general. 1000 students and ~80 faculty will add around the clock life to downtown. Expect to see expanded food options (think Chipotle, etc.) and upgrades to the entire block(s) surrounding this building. All propoerties surrounding just became more valuable.
This is also fantastic news for the downtown office market. Just like that 260K sq ft of space just dissapeared from the market. It's not 2MM, but it is definitely a fantastic start. This should make other space more valuable while also lowering the vacancy rate by a small amount (But as we know, any decrease is a good sign toward a stronger market aka future development). Exciting announcement for the city.
On a residential level, this should also be great for the apartment and condo market in downtown. I would be willing to bet a few faculty would warm to the idea of living downtown, and I bet many students wouldn't mind having apartments close as well.
As stated first, I would like to see them completely re-do the fascade into all glass, and add some prominent neon signage to the roof of the building. Hoping for those things to happen. Cool stuff going on here.
doug wrote:I think it's great we will be filling up a building downtown, but how can SLU go around knocking down buildings for their expansion and then suddenly decide they want to move across town? Did they not plan correctly for their needs?
They should have been able to predict that someone would give them a building.
I think even without a re-skin, some small things could be done to really make the building look great. The downside to this is the Victorian building SLU demo'd, insisting it needed to in order to expand its law school.
Maybe this will lead to some retail/restaurants going in at the bottom of that new parking garage attached to the City/CCMSI building at 133 South 11th St.
This move is great for that area, will bring life to it. I wonder if the students like the move. Seems like most students would not want to be off campus. However, being close to the courts is a bonus.
Clearly SLU needs a streetcar connecting the Frost, Law and Med campuses via Olive-Tucker-Chouteau-Grand. (using 7th and Park would be better, but can't see Laf Sq residents allowing a street car through middle of their 'hood)
My intitial reaction was that this is great news. Then it dawned on me that this is a significant loss for Midtown. I think the move downtown will ultimately be a net gain, but that the magnitude of that gain will depend on SLU's investment in the new law school building and their reuse of the current law school facilities. If they want to be competitive I think they'll have to pursue a major contemporary facade redesign of 100 Tucker. Some other urban schools have invested heavily in their facilities and this doesn't go overlooked by faculty and prospective students.
A few examples of urban schools building state of the art facilities:
^^I disagree. I don't think its a loss at all. SLU can expand other programs at their main campus now without having to tearing down anything.
This will also force the city to do more with the area around Soldier's memorial and the gateway mall. Its incredibly poorly lit around that there at night and there are quite a few homeless and misfits. I hope SLU demands that the city do something to keep their students and faculty safe around there.
the central scrutinizer wrote:This could also be an additional justification for a future street car running down Olive from SLU (and beyond?) to downtown.
I would like to think of transit as being a driver of economic development, but for too long people have thought that parking performs this role. There are two parking garages here, several surface lots, and on-street in the area is never full. So it's pretty easy to park here and if time is money people will do that. I also question if lawyers have ever been a big transit demographic in St. Louis.
Why is this a good deal for the City? We have moved people from Midtown to Downtown. This is not a net gain and I bet SLU will ask for incentives from the City to upgrade the building, which it does not have to give. We have feral dogs and furloughs. While it's great that downtown will have more life on the street, it's not like this is being transported from West County or Chicago. I will eat my words when lawyers become the largest purchaser of downtown condos in the next 10 years.
Pessimism duly noted. I can't imagine the city giving SLU much on this. It appears that SLU announced the move rather suddenly. Why would the city give money for an already announced move? They also won't be using historic tax credits. Wouldn't it just be brilliant if they applied for the National Register though? . They got the building for free, so they'll likely still way under budget.
The move is important because SLU needed space on its Frost Campus. The school is growing and healthy - Midtown won't suffer from the move, but downtown will gain quite a lot.
While I have certainly been at odds with SLU over many issues (deservedly so), I have to give credit where it is due. As they say, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar (though in fairness it is said you catch the most with dead squirrels), so I would like to applaud SLU's decision to adapt and reuse a major vacant building. This needs to become standard policy for the University. The loss on Lindell was a tragedy and all too typical, but today I would like to focus on another major adaptive reuse project coming to a major building downtown.
doug wrote: I also question if lawyers have ever been a big transit demographic in St. Louis.
Maybe not, but most of the people at the school will be students, not lawyers. Students can be major transit users, especially if incentives are in place (limited parking, subsidized transit passes, etc).
rawest1 wrote:The biggest concern among most people I've talked to has been...
Get ready for it....
Whether there will be enough parking.
I'm not joking.
Lol, it wouldn't be St. Louis without people demanding more parking than is actually usable.
Great move for everyone imo...I had the privilege of attending Seton Hall Law for a year in New Jersey...The law school is in downtown Newark while the Universitys campus was in South Orange...it really seemed to make sense to have the law school in the central business district near all the courts...not to mention near Penn station...
landmarks wrote:While I have certainly been at odds with SLU over many issues (deservedly so), I have to give credit where it is due. As they say, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar (though in fairness it is said you catch the most with dead squirrels), so I would like to applaud SLU's decision to adapt and reuse a major vacant building. This needs to become standard policy for the University. The loss on Lindell was a tragedy and all too typical, but today I would like to focus on another major adaptive reuse project coming to a major building downtown.
Exactly. It's nice to know there are still people out there capable of seeing the forest for the trees.
First off, I am not a fan of SLU's normal tactics regarding campus expansion. However, this move is great, especially for downtown. It will bring increased foot track to the area, along with over 1,000 students. While Midtown my suffer slightly at first, I do not think it will long term.
As someone stated, SLU is doing very well right now. Every year, they are getting more applicants and becoming more selective. Plus, if Biondi is good at anything, its fundraising. Compared to its competitors (Marquette, Depaul, Dayton, etc.), SLU typically gives out more scholarships and financial aid. It has MUCH deeper pockets and is in much better shape financially. In fact, its endowment is approaching $1 billion, which is closer to schools like Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Boston College, and George Washington than the aforementioned schools.
Ultimately, Biondi has a grand vision of becoming a top 40 university in America. Part of that vision is to increase enrollment, especially graduate level enrollment. Therefore, I don't think you will see Midtown ultimately suffer. In fact, I would look for Biondi to aggressively increase some other graduate programs on campus, thus attracting new students to Midtown.
Completely unrelated...but wouldn't it be awesome to see Lindenwood or UMSL follow suit with downtown programs? I know Lindenwood is expanding and the Public Policy program at UMSL would be a great fit downtown. Students traveling from UMSL can already get back and forth on Metro....I would suggest Wash U expand downtown but I don't ever see that happening.
. They got the building for free, so they'll likely still way under budget.
