I think any attempt to tear down Desloge would be one demolition too far for the people of St. Louis. There's absolutely no reason for them to do it when they already tore down Pevely.
The Firmin Desloge building is within a preservation review district. Ordinance# 66609. Should trigger preservation review. Interestingly the area east of Grand (the med school included) dones't seem to be protected.
I attended an alumni meeting at SLU Saturday morning in the ABI building. Not a lot of details, however, part of the introductory remarks involved a thumbnail sketch of the Hospital reacquisition. As mentioned, it sounds like the new hospital will be constructed north of the current building; no mention of demo. There were no renderings, drawing, or diagrams, however, plans will include what will likely be a doctor's office building at Grand and Chouteau. I don't know if this applies to all departments with a presence in the Anheuser Busch Institute, however the chairman indicated that they would likely be out of ABI and into the new building in (an estimated) 5 years.
^ I would like to see a push from SLU to implement the TOD vision laid out for the Grand Station a while back. I know Biondi didnt want SLU to be like "them", meaning Washington University, but I think its an absolute waste that the land around the Grand Station is still industrial and hasn't been transformed. With the right strategy we could have a nice line of TOD/walkable neighborhoods from the Grand to Delmar stations. I would imagine that many SLU students would love to live in apartments right next to the Grand station. All the energy being used to demolish interesting facilities like Pevely should have been used to demolish the industrial blight that separates the main campus from the medical campus.
^I'm with you. I'd add that the medical arena is a built in dress-rehearsal for many young professionals often coming from diverse geographical backgrounds. Many coastal types end up in STL due to the limitation/competition of medical school options in their home state (California) or by the nature of the match for residency or fellowships (east coast) . While the Wash U medical campus experience offers a great example of the urban lifestyle one can adopt while in STL (either for medical school or residency, or hopefully beyond), SLU's unnecessarily lacks transit punch. The neighborhood around SLU's campus becomes a negative to candidates and housestaff alike and it is a shame that the metro's proximity is close enough to change that, yet far enough and developmentally isolated enough for it to be nearly moot as it stands now.
Thousands of medical student and residency candidates fly into STL every year on the interview trail and have the opportunity to take metrolink from the airport to campus. I would imagine that at Wash U that option is highly publicized given the transit and hotel accommodations. At SLU, however, that was discouraged without very careful planning due to the walk from Grand station to campus.
It would be great for future progress to rectify that.
Thousands of medical student and residency candidates fly into STL every year on the interview trail and have the opportunity to take metrolink from the airport to campus. I would imagine that at Wash U that option is highly publicized given the transit and hotel accommodations. At SLU, however, that was discouraged without very careful planning due to the walk from Grand station to campus.
It would be great for future progress to rectify that.
It's official: SSM to spend $500 million for a new hospital.
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... t=headline
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... t=headline
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500m is a lot of jack to spend in 5 years and this is great, but to answer "no comment" to a question regarding the fate of Desloge Tower sounds like a tragedy in the making. Why don't we just tear down the whole frikkin' region down and start over. What we need is a 9.4 in the bootheel.
Absolutely no regard for history.
Absolutely no regard for history.
^ I agree, it would be sad to lose the main building....such a fixture of the St. Louis skyline. It would be awesome if it could some how be turned to residential for students or a retirement home. With that said....how big is a $500M medical facility these days. I mean, I know $500M will do damage, but how many buildings and how big are we talking. Also, do you guys think they are going low rise or high rise? I'd imagine high rise would increase cost, but save space, while a more low rise campus would feel more empty space and cost less.
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^ they have so much space to utilize I suspect they will be going considerably lower than Desloge.
btw, someone seemingly in the know posted here earlier that Desloge Tower actually has few patients and is mostly used for classrooms, etc., iirc. Most patients are in the expansion. It would be a shame to lose it and I think there would be a huge fight if they propose to tear it down.
btw, someone seemingly in the know posted here earlier that Desloge Tower actually has few patients and is mostly used for classrooms, etc., iirc. Most patients are in the expansion. It would be a shame to lose it and I think there would be a huge fight if they propose to tear it down.
Long range, does $500 million spent at a SSM complex in midtown mean St. Mary's days are numbered?
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500m is about half of the current BJC expansion, right?
They are already hinting at how it is difficult for patients to get in and out of SLUH. I bet they will want to replace the historic building with a driveway leading to a circle drop off area for a low slung new hospital (since all SSM hospitals are in the burbs, that is the only model they are used to)
Firmin Desloge is clearly a historic asset. They need to work with what is there and add to it with compatible architecture.
Unfortunately Mayor Slay and Ald Roddy don't have a great track record when it comes to historic preservation.
Firmin Desloge is clearly a historic asset. They need to work with what is there and add to it with compatible architecture.
Unfortunately Mayor Slay and Ald Roddy don't have a great track record when it comes to historic preservation.
It's just amazing that the guy couldn't come up with something better than "no comment" when asked about Desloge. Like Konstructor said, it doesn't sound good.
This is a pretty shocking little tid-bit from the previously linked to Post article:
"The last major construction project at the hospital took place nearly 30 years ago, while the university owned the hospital. On Jan. 30, 1988, the university opened the doors to a $39 million addition, situated directly behind the original hospital."
This factoid really gives a sense for what a horrible steward Tenet Healthcare was, and the potential significance of the SSM purchase. This hospital is going from having every last penny wrung out of it to having $500 million invested in it with more to come. It's going from an isolated hospital without a regional network or system to support it, to being the crown jewel of the SSM system with the goal of making it (really returning it to being) a region leading medical center. When you consider what the billions of dollars poured in BJC/WUSM over the last few decades has meant for the CWE, and more recently the Grove, it's truly an exciting prospect. Undoubtedly, the benefits of this sale will be felt in the immediate and surrounding neighborhoods for years to come.
"The last major construction project at the hospital took place nearly 30 years ago, while the university owned the hospital. On Jan. 30, 1988, the university opened the doors to a $39 million addition, situated directly behind the original hospital."
This factoid really gives a sense for what a horrible steward Tenet Healthcare was, and the potential significance of the SSM purchase. This hospital is going from having every last penny wrung out of it to having $500 million invested in it with more to come. It's going from an isolated hospital without a regional network or system to support it, to being the crown jewel of the SSM system with the goal of making it (really returning it to being) a region leading medical center. When you consider what the billions of dollars poured in BJC/WUSM over the last few decades has meant for the CWE, and more recently the Grove, it's truly an exciting prospect. Undoubtedly, the benefits of this sale will be felt in the immediate and surrounding neighborhoods for years to come.
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Yes I think it will have a nice impact on surrounding neighborhoods and downtown.
Story in the Post today about whether or not Desloge will be torn down:
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 3175e.html
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 3175e.html
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Do yourself a favor and avoid the comment section (always good advice to follow). A ton of people using the typical "let the preservationists buy it if they want to save it!" And "I don't want to be in a hospital that old and out dated!"
Don't let the facts that it's just offices get in the way... Let's always look for reasons to tear things down in St. Louis. Ugh.
Don't let the facts that it's just offices get in the way... Let's always look for reasons to tear things down in St. Louis. Ugh.
If SSM does not have enough imagination to work around existing history , they could just donate the building to SLU medical school. Tt would work very well for offices, classrooms, lab space etc.
I'm I correct in that the prevailing thought is that the new hospital/center is going just north of the existing hospital or at least how SLU has proceeded with land banking and demo.. If so, keeping the Desloge for re-use of even keeping the existing use in place and putting structured parking behind it where the current hospital is makes a lot of sense to me. Add a new visitors center, atrium connecting with Deloge and walkways over to the new hospital Maybe a cool roof top park for patients, doctors, visitors on top of the new parking structure..
I've always thought it would make a wonderful conversion to an on-campus hotel. With it's steep copper roof it looks very much like the Fairmont hotels found in major Canadian cities.
^ dmmonty1, ok, I think this would be a great idea with a structure parking/roof top park behind it where the current hospital is once the new facility(ies) are built. You could turn around and incorporated what is left of the old Peveley building site for new offices and pretty much fill out Grand Ave back to Chotteau Ave.
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Looks like Desloge Tower may be safe:
The hospital will be built on the vacant land immediately north of the current 365-bed hospital, Laura Keller, hospital spokeswoman, confirmed Tuesday.
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 1d0ad.html
Construction should begin in 2017 with a 2020 completion slated.
The hospital will be built on the vacant land immediately north of the current 365-bed hospital, Laura Keller, hospital spokeswoman, confirmed Tuesday.
http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/ ... 1d0ad.html
Construction should begin in 2017 with a 2020 completion slated.
They've been renovating the ground floor of Desloge over the past month or so. Pretty sure it's safe.
