urbanSTL

The old buildings are pretty much gone already.

Gateway City wrote:I think it would be cool if some street and park trees had fruit on them. We have nuts and flowers, but why not something we can pick right off and eat? Seattle is building a food forest, why don't we just put a few fruit trees somewhere? I would love living somewhere that I can grab some off a tree and eat it whenever I want. If I were looking at moving into this building, such a thing would be attractive to me. It would definitely add a lot of gumption to the area.

That's like 80 lawsuits waiting to happen.

Looks like foundation work is underway.

Ebsy wrote:

Gateway City wrote:I think it would be cool if some street and park trees had fruit on them. We have nuts and flowers, but why not something we can pick right off and eat? Seattle is building a food forest, why don't we just put a few fruit trees somewhere? I would love living somewhere that I can grab some off a tree and eat it whenever I want. If I were looking at moving into this building, such a thing would be attractive to me. It would definitely add a lot of gumption to the area.

That's like 80 lawsuits waiting to happen.

Why?

"Grrr, you can't eat for free! This is AMERICA, you can't be free to do what you want here! I'm the government, and I'm gonna regulate EVERY aspect of your life! Who do you think you are, experiencing nature as you stroll toward your home?! Not on my watch!"

Seattle pulled it off on a much grander scale than this. We could at least try it with a vacant lot.

Growing up there were lots of blackberry bushes along the alley behind my house in Skinker-Debaliviere. These were full-on alley blackberries, not some overhanging garden plants. Between those, the apricot tree in our backyard and the cherry tree in our front yard, my childhood was very fruitful.

Side note: having an Apricot tree is awesome, but they're really susceptible to late frosts. Maybe climate change will help with that.

Gateway City wrote: Why?

"Grrr, you can't eat for free! This is AMERICA, you can't be free to do what you want here! I'm the government, and I'm gonna regulate EVERY aspect of your life! Who do you think you are, experiencing nature as you stroll toward your home?! Not on my watch!"

Seattle pulled it off on a much grander scale than this. We could at least try it with a vacant lot.

People sue McDonald's for serving their coffee too hot. You don't think that they will sue if their child eats too many blueberries and gets sick?

Seattle's got their food forest, why can't we have something similar? I guess we should wait and see how things go for them.

Good to see one good thing come out of Seattle, though!

Seattle also gave us Bing Crosby, Jimi Hendrix, and Nirvana.

...Well, they also gave us Kenny G, so I guess it's a wash.

Don't forget 90s rap sensation, Sir-Mix-A-Lot; he of Baby Got Back, My Hooptie, and Beepers fame. He's no Nelly or even Chingy for that matter when it comes to certified sales, but he's still sold millions and damn, those songs had some bass.

KerrytheKonstructor wrote:Don't forget 90s rap sensation, Sir-Mix-A-Lot; he of Baby Got Back, My Hooptie, and Beepers fame. He's no Nelly or even Chingy for that matter when it comes to certified sales, but he's still sold millions and damn, those songs had some bass.

I've heard of Sir Mix A Lot. Nirvana sucks, though. Glad that whole thing is over with. Grunge just blows, about as bad as dubstep, a genre whose scene is too large in St. Louis for my taste. People are always asking, "Wanna go to this dubstep show?" And I think, "I'd rather you just slit my throat right now, right in front of all these people and let me die, please."

So, I'm really interested in seeing where this development goes. There are a lot of mid-rise buildings, often with no commercial space, being constructed in St. Louis right now and many more on the way. I think in a few years we'll be seeing dozens of cranes up throughout the Central Corridor and near-South City building these. In time, I hope, they will start getting taller. A 20 story building in DTW, one near Plush and GC, and another by that abhorrent CWE strip mall would really help to fill the high-rise gaps in the Central Corridor.

Nirvana sucks?

Gateway City wrote:

KerrytheKonstructor wrote:Don't forget 90s rap sensation, Sir-Mix-A-Lot; he of Baby Got Back, My Hooptie, and Beepers fame. He's no Nelly or even Chingy for that matter when it comes to certified sales, but he's still sold millions and damn, those songs had some bass.

I've heard of Sir Mix A Lot. Nirvana sucks, though. Glad that whole thing is over with. Grunge just blows, about as bad as dubstep, a genre whose scene is too large in St. Louis for my taste. People are always asking, "Wanna go to this dubstep show?" And I think, "I'd rather you just slit my throat right now, right in front of all these people and let me die, please."

So, I'm really interested in seeing where this development goes. There are a lot of mid-rise buildings, often with no commercial space, being constructed in St. Louis right now and many more on the way. I think in a few years we'll be seeing dozens of cranes up throughout the Central Corridor and near-South City building these. In time, I hope, they will start getting taller. A 20 story building in DTW, one near Plush and GC, and another by that abhorrent CWE strip mall would really help to fill the high-rise gaps in the Central Corridor.

I hope you went to The Central Saloon or The Crocodile while you lived there. 2 great venues with a lot of grunge history.

I dunno, it was too hard to get around with just one short light-rail line and walking was kind of a pain considering the never-ending rain (we're talking DAYS without it ever stopping at all). One good thing about Seattle was that they have a lot of buildings similar to this one under construction there. I'm excited to see this happen here on such a mass scale eventually as well. Eventually, it will seep into North and South City, and not just The Grove.

I thought the weather there was great. Sure there were a lot of days in a row with gray skies and damp ground but you could go outside in it without getting wet. Just imagine all of our rain here spread out over 9 months of persistent drizzle because that is what they have. Over an entire year you may never see lightning. I didn't. No thunder,... nothing. And highs in the 40s and 50s all winter. They were constructing the first leg of that line then. They had some 24 hour bus service at the time also as well as commuter rail. It's more modern and they don't face the exodus issues we and some of our Midwestern brethren do. They have a lot of clapboard sided housing in washed out colors that really add to the harborside feel. They also have a lot of more generic looking housing also.

We here will be also looking up at the slightly wetter and warmer, riverside Portland before long. They have a fairly extensive rail transit system.

We were much bigger much earlier though. I hope we can restore those buildings throughout the city that could be used for dense housing first. I'm not so big on regulating aesthetics on new construction though. They just don't make 'em like they used to.

First floor framing is underway, and yes, it's another large-scale, wood-framed building.

Not sure if this link will work, but the current issue of St. Louis Construction News and Review has an article about the proliferation of wood-framed mid-rise construction in St. Louis. Starts on page 22:

http://www.stlouiscnr.com/current_issue ... dium=email

^Agreed. The massing on this project is really turning out nicely along Sarah.

Just drove by Sarah today. Having a solid 3-5 story street wall along the eastern side of the street makes a real positive difference. It's shaping up nicely.

Taken 11/30:

That really does make a huge difference, as will the new building at Sarah and Laclede.

Interesting. Thanks for the link.

I'm surprised to see the two-bedrooms listed on a "per bed" basis. Perhaps that's a new trend that I'm just not familiar with, or maybe they pivoted some of their marketing more toward students since this comment was published in the P-D in February: "Hallmark won’t turn away student tenants but is marketing West Pine Lofts to people whose jobs are in the neighborhood." The per bed approach seems more student focused.

$849 per bed for a two bedroom seems extremely high to me. I guess you're getting a brand new apartment, which is nice. But $1,700 for a two bedroom makes it less surprising that "leasing at West Pine Lofts is slower than Hallmark had expected" (again, according to the article).

However, it's good to see the 1-bedrooms are listed as "Sold Out" at $1069 per month.