urbanSTL

Much of the area on the east side of Grand that was cleared to permit construction of the new SLU research building is undermined by old quarry workings and cannot support large structures. It's my understanding they were pretty much limited to building the tower where it is - the area immediately to the south is directly over one of the quarries. I don't know whether the same problem applies to the land along the south side of Chouteau.

I like this building a lot. I'm fine with the siting, too. Not every building these days needs to conform to the Nineteenth or Twentieth-Century street grid.



This building looks great at night too. They've done some really cool lighting around the first floor columns, as well as on the "aquaduct".

i saw the neon(?) blue outline of SLU's fluer-de-lis lit up last night. looked interesting.... so is that greyish metal cladding on the side of the building the final look?

what4 wrote:.... so is that greyish metal cladding on the side of the building the final look?

Wait until they take the protective covering off. Sorry, couldn't resist...

Where does the skybridge thing go? Overall I think it looks good.

The covered walkway connects with the rest of the buildings.

the project doesn't seem to make good use of the land



It doesn't make much use of the land because there's a very large quarry under much of the plot. That's why it's pushed way out to where it is and why the walkway ended up being so long. I can't remember the details, but the quarry either prevented building properly or raised some issues with research protocol (affecting techniques, making test viruses easier to get out, etc.). Again, can't quite remember, but one of those is right.



I think it looks ok. Different from the original renderings, but much better since the green was covered. The whole building is "green," though, with environmentally friendly ways of doing air, water, heating/cooling, light, etc. I think it received the silver certification from LEED.

Oh, I know I can't get in with my SLU ID There are also security guards.

jlblues wrote:

what4 wrote:.... so is that greyish metal cladding on the side of the building the final look?

Wait until they take the protective covering off. Sorry, couldn't resist...

i don't know - that dull gray metal (or whatever it is) just looks.... dull? other than that, i think the building looks great.



anyway, why do people keep getting all worked up over the use of land there? SLU got a grant to build a center for infectious disease research, and that's what they did. i don't recall them ever announcing they were in the business of setting up retail/commercial shops, residential apartments, lofts, condos etc. Why would they even do that anyway - where's the demand?

^I think people are referring to the possibility of using all of that space for future SLU Medical Center buildings or maybe dorms or something, rather than just a giant empty lot. From the layout, it doesn't seem that SLU is considering that. I guess what they have doesn't preclude that, but they might have to tear down that silly covered walkway they just finished and on which they spent a ton of cash. Unfortunately, I don't see anything ever being built on the corner of Grand and Chouteau. Even if there is a quarry underneath I would think they'd still be able to put up a two-story building.

jlblues wrote:^I think people are referring to the possibility of using all of that space for future SLU Medical Center buildings or maybe dorms or something, rather than just a giant empty lot. From the layout, it doesn't seem that SLU is considering that. I guess what they have doesn't preclude that, but they might have to tear down that silly covered walkway they just finished and on which they spent a ton of cash. Unfortunately, I don't see anything ever being built on the corner of Grand and Chouteau. Even if there is a quarry underneath I would think they'd still be able to put up a two-story building.

if the demand is there, who knows. although if that quarry is just filled with a bunch of dirt and is fairly deep, i just don't know how you could build anything on it.