I like that. It should look really good. It makes good use of the angled corner.

Zezuz wrote:There is now a model open at the Gaslight Square Condos. I'm not sure about the door color choice - it will be interesting to see how it blends with the future staircase. I do really like the windows on this building.

Those condos look good. I hope they're building plenty of them, to create a dense, urban atmosphere.

Zezuz wrote:There is now a model open at the Gaslight Square Condos. I'm not sure about the door color choice - it will be interesting to see how it blends with the future staircase. I do really like the windows on this building.

I normally wouldn't like such a bright color for a door, but on this building it works! The gold contrasts nicely with the black frames of the door(s) and windows.



Zezuz, what's with the exposed concrete block area under the doors, though? I assume they are going to put in solid stone or concrete staircases?

Those condos look great.

Yeah, I was told the staircases will completely cover the exposed concrete. From the rendering a couple of pages back it looks like the stairs will be a mix of brick and concrete.

The building looks good in these photos. Unfortunately, in real life, this building is really, really, ugly. The massing and proportions are awful, and it doesn't relate to its neighbors at all. It's footprint is much larger than anything else in Gaslight Square, and the way it addresses this major corner-site is awkward at best.



I can't help thinking about a beached whale every time I pass this building. Just my opinion, though.

the way it addresses this major corner-site is awkward at best

This is actually one of the things I like best about the condos. I like how the building utilitizes the awkward corner and sits right up to the sidewalk on all sides. What do you think should have been done differently?

Framer wrote:The building looks good in these photos. Unfortunately, in real life, this building is really, really, ugly. The massing and proportions are awful, and it doesn't relate to its neighbors at all. It's footprint is much larger than anything else in Gaslight Square, and the way it addresses this major corner-site is awkward at best.

Since we don't have photos showing the entire building, here is a rendering of the condo project.

Arch City wrote:



New construction

13-unit building

from $225,000



http://www.cornerstone-stl.com/properti ... index.html

I've never been a fan of buildings with one corner cut off at a 45 degree angle. I don't know why, that's just me. And yeah, I know its a rather difficult site.



But my main problem with this building is the setback on the top floor. I would rather see a building that reaches out and anchors an intersection. like those old buildings with a corner turret and a high, peaked roof. This building is just the opposite. It seems to pull back, to recede from the corner. And this is probably the only building in Gaslight Square that feels horizontal, rather than vertical. This is exactly the kind of form you find in a suburban office park.

Xing wrote:Now, only if they did more of that through-out the upper portion of the building.

Check out the pictures below.



View from Olive:

Framer wrote:But my main problem with this building is the setback on the top floor.

I agree with you about the setback. Olive and Boyle is a large intersection and the setback doesn't help minimize it any.



I like the building's 45 degree angle. This way the building doesn't seem so horizontally overpowering on Olive or Boyle streets.





View from Boyle:

What is truly awful is the one caddy-corner to it, on the other side of Boyle. It looks so cheap and tacky and in my opinion is a complete was of space with great potential. Does everyone know what building I'm talking about. Absolulely pitiful!

I agree 100%. The vinyl fence that faces Boyle and cuts diagonally across the lot is what bothers me the most. I believe that building was built for the church across the street. I've heard that it was built as a nun-house - the building looks like 3-4 individual townhomes, but they actually open to one another inside.



There are still two high-profile corners left - I hope the future buildings add as much density and use space as well as the Gaslight Square Condos.

This is a case where the real building looks better than the rendering. I like it. I can understand Framer's wish for a taller corner. The lower corner is unexpected. You know, some big awnings over the terraces would really help with that. I would love to have one of those terraces.



The windows are handsome, brickwork on the lower part is a nice touch. In my view, the building accomplishes a lot of things.

I just took a tour of the model and I'm really impressed with the views and open layout. From the third floor you can see tops of buildings on the SLU campus and also a decent ways down south Grand. The laced windows and high ceilings give them a kind of finished loft feel.

I think it looks nice as well - kind of reminds me of the building that houses 6 North at Sarah and Laclede. The yellow doors are a very simple, but cool, touch.

Looks like I'm in the minority here, but let me point out another thing I dislike about the above condo building: It ruins the established building line. You've got all of the other buildings on the block lined up nicely, and then this one juts way out at the corner, breaking the line. Again, to me it looks like a beached whale. This is the kind of thing that zoning and design review is supposed to prevent.

You've got all of the other buildings on the block lined up nicely, and then this one juts way out at the corner, breaking the line.

You're right, the condos do not have the set back like most of the other homes on the block. But I think the plan has always been for the buildings on the four corners to be right up on the sidewalk, which I personally like. The Selkirk building and the townhomes on the southwest corner of Boyle and Whittier break this line as well...

^Good point about the Selkirk's building. I guess that sets a historical precedent.



I still don't like this new building, but I guess I've bashed it enough.

The front of this building looks like the back of a building! Beside that hideous fact, the function of this structure at this famous intersection makes absolutely no sense at all, IMO. There should have been retail below, residential above. Who on earth is responsible for this stupid design? If I lived in GS, I'd be getting my neighbors together and going to my alderperson and the developers and raising Cane, big time. Such a silly looking, out of place structure does not belong in the midst of well designed attractive homes and structures.

Marmar wrote:The front of this building looks like the back of a building!

How so?