Just north of the St. Louis University campus, just west of the Fabulous Fox Theater, KWMU, the Sheldon and many other arts institutions in the Grand Center area was an announcement for 27 single family homes and a 35-unit apartment building.
My memory was reinvigorated on this project by a St. Louis Public Radio website back in August, 2019.
“A $30 million housing development backed by philanthropist and arts patron Emily Rauh Pulitzer is poised to remake a virtually empty block on Olive Street in the Grand Center area of St. Louis.
When finished, the development will include 27 single-family homes and a building with 35 apartments, mixed between one-bedroom and two-bedroom units. Developers plan to begin construction on four model homes, each designed by a different architect, in the fall.
Steve Trampe of Owen Development and James Maloney, manager of the Pulitzer Family Office, join Pulitzer as principal developers of the project, known as Olive West. It will be located on Olive Street between North Spring Street and Vandeventer Avenue.
Seven accomplished architects have been recruited to design elements of the project. That will ensure a mix of styles that will complement existing buildings in the neighborhood, Trampe said.
Participating architects include Tatiana Bilbao of Mexico City, who is creating one of the four customizable home designs; Michael Maltzan of Los Angeles, who is designing the apartment building, and New York City-based firm MOS Architects, which is designing another of the home styles. ”
This stretch of Olive has been in the sights of developers for awhile, a NextSTL story from 2014 spoke to student housing ideas.
This stretch of Olive in the central corridor is barren, a dead zone right in the middle of the city.
Unfortunately, the block became more barren due to this project…so it goes.
There were a few handsome buildings that remained up until recently when they were demo’d for this project:
In a perfect world, the last one, if not all three would have been worked into the new development. Not to be. They are gone. The one remaining historic building is the former Henry L. Wolfner Library for the Blind Building.
Vanishing St. Louis and Preservation Research both covered these lost buildings. The Wolfner Library building was also a telephone operation per the latter publication:
“...the former Lindell Telephone Exchange/Wolfner Memorial Library for the Blind (1899-1902), whose original Renaissance Revival front was designed by the not-so-insignificant firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge. Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge also designed the Art Institute of Chicago (1893) and many other architecturally-renowned works in the US and Canada – a plus for a district that touts its concentration of works by important architects across time like Tadao Ando and William B. Ittner.”
It’s strange that organizations who value the arts, don’t see this architecture as art. Sometimes money is a strong force in life. Yet, the St. Louis Public Radio story included the following statement: “(the) developers say they will not make any money on the project.”
But, time marches on. And with an eye toward the future, you can imagine a unique, modern architecture row that is of it’s time.
And the front section of the Wolfner Building will be saved.
So with that downer, why am I feeling this one? Well, because the overall project is architecturally ambitious and will bring some human density with the add of the apartment building and single-family homes. And the first looks at the designs are pretty impressive. And it’s been reported that the developers want to bring big-name designers to the project, while keeping the development affordable to middle-income buyers and have stressed that their intention is not to maximize profit but to boost and revitalize the local neighborhood.
Some of the developers involved in this were behind the Continental Life Building rehab, and that is a top ten building for me in St. Louis. Cup half full, folks.
So what will these new homes bring? CityScene STL included some renderings in a post from in July, 2019.
Image copied from CityScene STL
The thing that really caught my eye was the apartment building which would be at Vandeventer and Olive. It looks pretty damn cool.
Image copied from CityScene STL
CityScene STL reported that that designs will come from a group of seven architects:
Michael Benz - St. Louis (Wolfner Building rehab)
MOS Architecture - New York City (Housing)
Productora Architects - Mexico City (Housing)
Marcias Peredo - Guadalajara, Mexico (Housing)
Tatiana Bilbao - Mexico City (Housing and Planning)
Michael Maltzan - Los Angeles (Apartment Building)
Mitchell-Wall Architecture - St. Louis (Partner)
If you are into modern architecture, check out the work and see what high level of creativity is involved here. This could be something completely unique for St. Louis.
One other bonus is that that development seems to include a critical corner property at the northeast corner of Vandeventer and Westminster Place. Maybe there is hope to reopen Westminster, which is currently closed off with a fence at Vandeventer.
We used to be an architectural powerhouse, and not all old buildings stand the test of time. These will add to our resume as a future-looking, architecturally important place. One with generation after generation of new ideas. We have so many blank canvases, the artists may just choose to take stab at their work here more and more.
This will be fun to watch now that the slow sting of loss is fading.
