urbanSTL

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

Nov 01, 2018

^The carpet appears to match the Drury in at the Convention Center.

I'll declare you winner on this one. It's such a weird hotel. The entire original building has been converted to parking. The ground level lobby is barely used. All of the activity takes place in the upper addition on the 5th floor, pictured here. And then the 6th floor has rooms, as you can see.

^So it's a parking garage with some convention space and a few hotel rooms on top? Okay. That is weird. You've got me going through the pictures on Google Maps trying to understand the place. The guest rooms surround the central atrium where the meeting space, common space, and apparently the hotel pool are? Reminds me of a place in Columbia that was called the Holodome at one time. Used to be a Holiday Inn. I forget what it is now. It always felt like an odd hybrid of a hotel and a motel to me. An inward facing motel. Seemed to work okay, but it was definitely surprising. And on top of an old produce market in the middle of an urban core? That is indeed DEEPLY weird.

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

Nov 02, 2018

That is indeed DEEPLY weird.

This analysis is accurate. Except there's no convention space in the hotel, maybe a couple conference rooms but I can't even confirm that. But yes, it's a very strange building to say the least. I always thought it would be kind of rough / sketchy like the old Crowne Plaza or the Millennium. But I've been in there a couple times in the last month and it was much much nicer than I was expecting.
If you're referring to the Holiday Inn in Columbia, MO, I'm quite familiar with it. One of their main convention spaces in town.

Is Union Market cursed?

http://joefrank.blogspot.com/2006/01/is ... ursed.html

aprice wrote: ↑

Nov 02, 2018

This analysis is accurate. Except there's no convention space in the hotel, maybe a couple conference rooms but I can't even confirm that. But yes, it's a very strange building to say the least. I always thought it would be kind of rough / sketchy like the old Crowne Plaza or the Millennium. But I've been in there a couple times in the last month and it was much much nicer than I was expecting.
If you're referring to the Holiday Inn in Columbia, MO, I'm quite familiar with it. One of their main convention spaces in town.

There's at the very least some conference rooms. I dropped my wife off there for a small conference/meeting where one of the appliance manufacturers had a rep explaining their new models to sales staff around town. I gather it was even half decent sized.

As to CoMO, not the current Holiday Inn Expo Center out by the mall. That's much newer. There was an earlier Holiday Inn branded as the Holidome off Texas Avenue immediately east of Prodvidence. It's apparently the Welcome Inn now. Was the Quality Inn. They're apparently more of a budget extended stay place now. But there's an enormous two story interior atrium. The pool and public amenities are in the middle of that and there are two floors of guest rooms ringing it, with the second overlooking it on a balcony, much like Drury. (Just . . . older and less fancy. Though I'd guess it was rather fancy in the day. Still interesting. Lots of exposed wood.)



That doesn't even really show you how large that central space really is. From g-maps the atrium appears to be about 18,000 square feet, and it's got enough view-breaks in the middle to make it feel even bigger. The current Expo Center is only a little larger than that. At some point it could be a really neat redevelopment opportunity. (Since . . . the reviews appear to be falling off a cliff. It's cheap weekly housing now.)

Apparently that was specifically the Holidome branded schtick: indoor family entertainment. The CoMO one even included put put golf at one time. I guess there used to be bunches of them, so much that it was almost a sub-brand of Holiday Inn. Anyway . . .

framer wrote: ↑

Nov 02, 2018

Is Union Market cursed?

http://joefrank.blogspot.com/2006/01/is ... ursed.html

From the link:

1994 - The continuing fight over the Union Market lease was something of a red herring, used as one of the reasons why the Comptroller's Office would not support Drury's proposal to buy or lease the former Children's Building at 14th and Clark, across from Kiel (Savvis) Center. Kiel Partners had in their contract a stipulation that the vacant Children's Building must be either demolished or actively under renovation by the time the Kiel opened to the public.

Ultimately, the demolition permit was approved and another beautiful historic building (originally built in the 1920s as the juvenile court and detention center, and vacated for that purpose in the 1970s when the current Enright Ave facility opened) became surface parking by the end of 1995. Still later, in 2000, the old City Jail next door was also knocked down, with almost no protests, to expand the City Hall parking lot even more.

Are there any images of the juvenile court and detention center/Children's Building floating around on the internet? I did a quick Google search but nothing came up.

urban_dilettante wrote: ↑

Nov 05, 2018

Are there any images of the juvenile court and detention center/Children's Building floating around on the internet? I did a quick Google search but nothing came up.

Funny you should mention it:

^ wow, thanks! and *sigh*. another classic building gone, barred windows notwithstanding.

Is this that weird cul-de-sac off of Arsenal east of Hampton; Park Ridge or something I think it's called?

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Nov 05, 2018

Correct- there are two, the one to the east looks exactly like any subdivision off butler hill and I-55 and the one of the west is just like it but houses 1000+ sq larger.

My guess was going to be Boulevard Heights Court. It's obnoxious but it wold be nice if someone properly finished it.

Let's try this one:

^ 4255 W Pine Blvd (W Pine X N Boyle). no idea what the place is used for.

^http://www.rejis.org/

UD is correct! I never knew what the place was either, but I've always admired the buildings; an under-appreciated gem.

Forest park. Possibly walking towards someplace with a few picture frames. Or maybe just enjoying the weather. Lovely shot in the snow.

All of the above.

Looks like I have some complicated photo related decisions to make. In the meantime . . .
(Also kind of an easy one.)

^Well that was quick! I did say it was easy.

Also: not everyone here went to SLU. (I didn't. It's just my wife that does.) It's only "super" easy if you've spent time on that campus, maybe. Used to work in Midtown and I go there often anyway, but I never would have seen that end of Cupples without the SLU spouse, I suspect.

But I suppose there's good evidence of SLU alums about here, so I shouldn't have expected that to last long. But ten whole minutes might have been nice!

This was super tough! The train tracks were the best clue available. But my answer is, Westport Office Furniture - Gano Ave in the Near North Riverfront: