Sweet!!!
Walked by today and they were working on cutting out the windows to make them larger... Should be interesting to see what sort of transformation this building makes!
http://imgur.com/a/5DJnI
http://imgur.com/a/5DJnI
- 1,320
I hope that's the plan. That building has the tiniest windows.
This project is increasingly a departure from the Brian Hayden playbook.
The WS Hotel, Millenium Center, and 720 Olive apartment conversions were all in basically sound buildings that had very recent or current tenants/use. Basically apartments could be plugged in with limited redevelopment, remediation or heavy construction - and limited costs.
So far the Alverne appears to have balconies added to it, larger windows cut into it, and I believe the plan is to have most of the apartments be duplexes, which will involve cutting a lot of stairwells into every other floor.
I take it as a sign that Hayden's doing well and able to invest more in a more ambitious and transformative project. Hopefully the Alverne turns out well, and more significant investment and historical redevelopment of more problematic buildings is a sign of things to come from Mr. Hayden.
The WS Hotel, Millenium Center, and 720 Olive apartment conversions were all in basically sound buildings that had very recent or current tenants/use. Basically apartments could be plugged in with limited redevelopment, remediation or heavy construction - and limited costs.
So far the Alverne appears to have balconies added to it, larger windows cut into it, and I believe the plan is to have most of the apartments be duplexes, which will involve cutting a lot of stairwells into every other floor.
I take it as a sign that Hayden's doing well and able to invest more in a more ambitious and transformative project. Hopefully the Alverne turns out well, and more significant investment and historical redevelopment of more problematic buildings is a sign of things to come from Mr. Hayden.
This is actually a building I'm not sad about not getting a historic renovation. This building is downright ugly and any alterations to its appearance will be welcome. Wider windows will definitely help, hopefully a paint job and some lighting is on the way.
Without seeing kingbee's previous update, I walked by today and was kind of surprised by this window replacement. This is what the new windows will look like.
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Awesome.
So this will be a pretty thorough and costly rehab. But remember, they only paid something like $600K for the entire building.
Awesome.
So this will be a pretty thorough and costly rehab. But remember, they only paid something like $600K for the entire building.
The lowest level of windows (appears to be the 3rd story to me) are original right? Looks like those are the inspiration for the new ones they're cutting.
I'm cool with that.
I'm cool with that.
- 3,762
they're all original, but bigger windows can't hurt.
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http://www.builtstlouis.net/opos/images ... erne02.jpg
http://www.builtstlouis.net/opos/images ... erne02.jpg
Right, I was just clarifying that that lowest level of arched windows was indeed already there as opposed to having already been newly cut.
Can we bring back those upper level balconies and detail? That's some nice stuff.
Can we bring back those upper level balconies and detail? That's some nice stuff.
It's sad that this building was so butchered over the years; any architectural feature was stripped off to "modernize" in the 1960's(?). Larger windows will definitely help. The building has those tiny windows because they had a large number of small guest rooms; it was originally built as a clubhouse for a club that no longer exists. It was later the Hotel DeSoto and finally a convent for retired nuns.
