I haven't heard anyone comment about the West End Estates development by C.F. Vatterott near the Central West End. There will be approximately 60 new homes built once it is completed. It has been a little more than a year since the ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on Sept. 9, 2004 and already more than 30 homes have been sold or are under construction. These homes again are spaced far apart, use brick on the facade and employ vinyl on the side and rear elevations. I haven't been there to see these in person yet, but curious to know if they look glaringly out of place in the neighborhood.



related links:

http://www.cfvatterott.com/

http://www.urbanstlouis.com/wendestates.html

Of course, I haven't seen them in real life either. Just from a glance at the website, they don't look bad. I know we all hate vinyl sides. But, the bay windows, porches, etc. look nice. These are certainly not the worst I have seen. Curious to see how they look in person.

I've driven by this development, and it's not bad - nice front porches, dormers, and other neat touches. Looks to be a quality development, almost quasi-Tower Grove designs.

I haven't seen them in person, but they look good based on the website. Actually, the photos of the finished product look MUCH nicer than the cheesey renderings! Looks like a good price too. I hope that doesn't mean they're cheap quality. As has been mentioned elsewhere, once the trees grow and people start adding their personal touches, it should look like a real neighborhood.

Quality seemed pretty good. The sizes of the houses are actually really nice, the yard sizes are a bonus. The prices are pretty good also, compared to the other side of Delmar for new housing, it's probably about 10-20% less from what I remember for same product quality from what I saw.



Only concern I had was that it appeared that there was a little vandalism in the neighborhood while I wandered through one of the homes (broken window in basement from a rock most likely.) But who knows it could have just been random. I'd personally recommend more focused lighting in the neighborhood. There's a public park to the east that really needs more lighting (or at least some, currently there's basically none), but even though it's completely dark there seems to be pretty much constant loitering at night.

I am glad that Vatterott builds up a two half blocks facing the same street so that it sits uniform and protected. This development sits amongst some vacant land that is prime real estate with the future Delmar streetcar and proximity to CWE and Delmar Loop. There are several great and architecturally significant mid-rises in the area. I did a photo thread of this area and would recommend readers take a look.

http://www.urbanstl.com/viewtopic.php?t=1226