urbanSTL

chriss752 wrote: ↑

Feb 27, 2020

I would prefer the silo be torn down. It’s ugly and takes up a lot of space. By getting rid of it, we could have more space to develop on in the future.

Structures like the silo, the old natural gas holder, water towers, etc should be adamantly preserved and where possible creatively repurposed. These historic remnants separate St. Louis from 96% of other American cities and provide immense value to the built environment. We should preserve as much as possible and brand ourselves "the quintessential American city  - past and current". 

More European creative repurposing and less Texas Donuts in our most valuable neighbourhoods, please!

I like the thought of both mural or lighting whichever is cost effective. Weren’t they doing some sort of study or trying to get funding for projectile lighting on it. Driving by the silo always fascinates me


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I'm glad there's support for the preservation of the Silos. I actually kind of hate the shape of this structure in particular, I find the central tower to be very awkward and disproportioned. Also, it looks like a giant middle finger. That's not why I dislike it, I just wanted to say that. Maybe Ai Weiwei could do something with it. 
But at the end of the day, I think it would be a huge mistake to demolish the silos. Agricultural architecture, concrete silos in particular, had a large influence on modernist architects. Le Corbusier had an entire chapter on them in "Toward An Architecture" 
I think there's incredible opportunity to build apartments, offices, and/or labs on the same land. Hopefully the correct architectural concept would even address the awkward proportion of the central tower. 

^Artists have loved them through the years too. Here's a Sheeler:

 

And a Demuth:

Considering our focus on AgTech... this is a golden opportunity to create a national landmark for Cortex. Just takes the right idea and the right people to find it and make it happen.

Converted grain silo!

Probably impossible to justify financially... but that'd be cool.  Not sure the natural light would be fantastic in there though.  I would love the lighting or mural idea, though.

It's too bad we couldn't keep any of these bad boys up. In retrospect it would have made a sweet high ropes course.

GoHarvOrGoHome wrote: ↑

Feb 28, 2020

It's too bad we couldn't keep any of these bad boys up. In retrospect it would have made a sweet high ropes course.

I'm okay with those being torn down. Just not for what replaced them. 

shadrach wrote: ↑

Feb 28, 2020

if we moved every comment about this silo to its own thread we’d be amazed at the repetitive, circular discussion. You could pick a comment out at random and wouldn’t know if was from yesterday or six years ago. (FYI, I’ve been on this forum for about 14 years, I’ve read it all regarding this silo)

Yep.  That is true of many, many topics  on here.  Or at least all the ones that start with, "Why don't they..."   

That aside, the best potentially-feasible idea I've ever heard for the re-use of the Cortex grain elevator is to build a 10-15 story clear glass and steel box around it, and make it a mixed-use residential and/or hotel building.  The interior of the silos could be a large atrium, or more reasonably, small atriums, with balconies, as well as contain all of the elevator and mechanical space, and possibly some of the bedroom, bathroom, and storage space as well.  Then, the exterior glass box could be open living or hotel room space, and ideally, that space would be see through, as much as possible, so passersby could see the bare concrete walls of the silo through the units...

urbanitas wrote: ↑

Feb 29, 2020

shadrach wrote: ↑

Feb 28, 2020

if we moved every comment about this silo to its own thread we’d be amazed at the repetitive, circular discussion. You could pick a comment out at random and wouldn’t know if was from yesterday or six years ago. (FYI, I’ve been on this forum for about 14 years, I’ve read it all regarding this silo)

Yep.  That is true of many, many topics  on here.  Or at least all the ones that start with, "Why don't they..."   

That aside, the best potentially-feasible idea I've ever heard for the re-use of the Cortex grain elevator is to build a 10-15 story clear glass and steel box around it, and make it a mixed-use residential and/or hotel building.  The interior of the silos could be a large atrium, or more reasonably, small atriums, with balconies, as well as contain all of the elevator and mechanical space, and possibly some of the bedroom, bathroom, and storage space as well.  Then, the exterior glass box could be open living or hotel room space, and ideally, that space would be see through, as much as possible, so passersby could see the bare concrete walls of the silo through the units...

Urbanitas, I think you simply came up with CORTEX signature tower, building that literally captures history and at the same time probably be one of the most interesting tech, lab or work space that could be found in the Midwest.   Unfortunately, my checking accounting is small and too scared to look at our 401k accounts after this last week.

Maybe one of these days someone will find Chief Pontiac, though he's supposed to be downtown, not in the Central West End.

They had similar discoveries when they built IKEA, correct?  I didn't realize that cemetery was large enough to cover that much land... I can only assume that there's more under the silos site and the parking lot next to IKEA.

Would love to see more coffee go into the area. Would it hurt to brand the area bounded by Vandeventer, Clayton, Chouteau, and Boyle as the Coffee District? We already have three major roastaries in Thomas, Ronnaco, and Kaldi's in a small little area. Plus is always smells like tasty roasted coffee

Worst case scenario it labels an area where there is a lot of coffee, best case we see more coffee related development. Maybe some of the existing roastaries open cupping rooms for coffee tourists. 

Looks like Centene.

God forbid any of their employees have to touch a sidewalk... like normal people.

My partner is in a med program. When touring, a DIRECTOR said “This pathway is really nice. It keeps you cool during the summer. Warm during the winter. Also you can avoid all the scary people walking to the train”

Same director also insisted a student stop taking the train from IL due to security. Instead, drive and park for free in the Grove.