most of this topic is in new NGA construction thread and some in State of Downtown and a few others. 

This is old news but a good starting point for this thread 

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/st ... 3-and-2025

Not sure if this is the best thread to talk about trends in the geospatial industry in St. Louis but there has been a lot going on. During the pandemic there have been a lot of shakeups at many of the companies with presences in St. Louis and as I understand it, most have gone to working mostly remote. At the company I work for there has been A LOT of hiring in the past couple years in the St. Louis office, and this has continued during the coronavirus pandemic. Having talked to some people there seems to be a consensus that a lot of the lower level work done is going to continue being remote, both for safety reasons and to save on office space. This also means that while St. Louis will continue to be a center for geospatial jobs, many of the people with those jobs might not live in St. Louis and be working remotely from elsewhere in the country.

A new center aims to make St. Louis a hub of global AI innovation
The Spirit of St. Louis AI Innovation Center has backing from tech behemoths of NVIDIA, Amazon Web Services, Google, World Wide Technology, and others.

Sounds promising

unfortunately it sounds like an excuse to litter the region with data centers.

urban_dilettante wrote:unfortunately it sounds like an excuse to litter the region with data centers.

God forbid St. Louis embrace the infrastructure powering the next technological revolution and bring billions in private investment along with it. Better to let other regions capture the investment, jobs, and supply chains I suppose.

They're not rushing to build data centers in NYC/SF, they want to build 'em in cheap backwater places. Good tech jobs aren't going to automatically follow data center construction.

PeterXCV wrote:They're not rushing to build data centers in NYC/SF, they want to build 'em in cheap backwater places. Good tech jobs aren't going to automatically follow data center construction.

A simple Google search would’ve told you the regions with the most data centers are:
-Northern Virginia (Ashburn/Dulles)
-Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
-Silicon Valley, California

Not exactly backwater towns.

This will have nothing to do with data centers other than potentially softening the narrative around AI. Its a wise decision by GeoSTL. Future of tech employment is built on AI. See a start-up you like but can do better? Great. Get a claude subscription and quit your job. The competitive advantage can be yours in six months. 

I have a good friend at an insurance start-up that's been around for five years. Value of acquisition has dropped significantly because any interested buyers can just recreate the concept. They've laid off 75% of the company. It's the future. 

STLcommenter wrote: ↑

3:06 PM - Aug 28

urban_dilettante wrote:unfortunately it sounds like an excuse to litter the region with data centers.

God forbid St. Louis embrace the infrastructure powering the next technological revolution and bring billions in private investment along with it. Better to let other regions capture the investment, jobs, and supply chains I suppose.

the exact same argument was made in favor of building highways through the City, and that worked out great.

urban_dilettante wrote:

addxb2 wrote: ↑

5:35 PM - Aug 28

This will have nothing to do with data centers other than potentially softening the narrative around AI.

this is what i was getting at. NVIDEA, in particular, wants to build tons of data centers, and they can use an effort like this as leverage to argue that they're "needed".

addxb2 wrote: ↑

5:35 PM - Aug 28

Future of tech employment is built on AI. See a start-up you like but can do better? Great. Get a claude subscription and quit your job. The competitive advantage can be yours in six months. 

I have a good friend at an insurance start-up that's been around for five years. Value of acquisition has dropped significantly because any interested buyers can just recreate the concept. They've laid off 75% of the company. It's the future. 

this just sounds very bleak to me. i don't understand why anyone wants a future like this, where expertise and work are worthless because anybody can just ask Claude to reproduce your work and steal it.

(guess i ended up logging in again... most likely going to regret it. 🫤)

addxb2 is basically the mascot for establishment liberal capitalism on here so thats why he always says objectively awful sounding things spun in a positive way.

Also, don't forget all the albatross office buildings we just had to build 40 years ago because that's what the market demanded.

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Anybody know how the move into the new new NGA building is doing? Are the pretty close/finished?

The old NGA site is still a secured location, are they planning to keep a presence there? Hoping it gets redeveloped at some point. The old Arsenal is a cool area that I would like to explore one day. A proper build out of the campus would also nicely complement a redevelopment at Lemp

It's active. (Not sure how many employees are there). The site looks nice. I think it'll take a couple years for the plantings to feel more mature. 

Their biggest design uh-oh is the flanking garages on east and west elevations. The best views/shots are looking southeast toward the skyline. There's a plaza at Cass and Jefferson that incorporates mounds, native species, and evergreens. Benches are placed on the Jefferson side. Sidewalks, and surrounding infrastructure is new and feels much nicer than the before. 

The federal government took possession of the old NGA campus I think last month... it's no longer in NGA hands. No plans announced yet.

SRQ2STL wrote: ↑

7:25 PM - 17 days ago

The federal government took possession of the old NGA campus I think last month... it's no longer in NGA hands. No plans announced yet.

I can't imagine any fed agencies want it except MAYBE coast guard, but even that I would doubt, they wouldn't need all the buildings. I will be interested to see what the end result is. Maybe some kind of industrial use that wants rail access. I would say river access but it is blocked by the coast guard. AB or Sigma could expand if they are looking for land.