Completed in 1891, the Wainwright Building by Louis Sullivan is perhaps St. Louis’s most influential building, commissioned by Ellis Wainwright from the firm of Adler and Sullivan.  Discarding revivalist trends in skyscrapers of the time, Sullivan created an entirely new vocabulary for a tall building.

Sparsely adorned vertical lines dominate the structure, cutting through the horizontal lines of the spandrels, themselves ornamented in newly created designs.

The attic floor, with its simple cornice, features Sullivan’s distinctive circular motifs repeated around the building’s facade.  The floor hides mechanical equipment.

The base of the building highlights the building’s steel skeleton construction, unleashed from the need for stocky walls to support the skyscraper, the first floor is punctuated with large storefronts windows, defying the pair of windows that extend the height of the building above them.

Luckily, the Wainwright was saved from demolition, but at the cost of sacrificing its original floorplan and its neighbor, the DeMenil Building, built by the owner of the Chatillon-DeMenil House.

In fact, all of Real Estate Row, one of the great stretches of tall buildings in America, was destroyed in the making of the Gateway Mall and the atrium of the Wainwright.

I was intrigued by the simplicity of the non-public exterior walls of the Wainwright; they are just your standard brick wall with windows common at the time.  It is not surprising, as of course these elevations would have been concealed by other tall buildings, now long gone.

Sullivan would go on to design one of the most innovative mausolea at Bellefontaine Cemetery, the Wainwright Mausoleum.

I debated having a separate tag for the Wright Building, the older rump of the combined Arcade-Wright Building, but I decided against it.  It’s a beautiful building, but its fate and character are intrinsically linked to its newer, and encompassing neighbor, the Arcade Building.

It’s a simple building, with strong vertical lines cutting through the horizontal lines of the window lintels, showing the influence of Louis Sullivan.  Interestingly, and not surprisingly, the floors do not match up between the two buildings.

But at the bottom, there is some interesting ornamentation, close to where people on the streets could see it.  The cornice was removed, but the stone is still sitting up on top of the roof if I remember correctly; it will be replaced when the building is renovated.

What will we do with the giant empty hulk of the Railway Exchange Building?  It seems that the age of the august department store in downtown is over, because, despite angry nostalgia when they close, nobody shops at them.  My heart sunk when I walked in to buy a wedding gift at the downtown Macy’s in St. Louis last summer; while the employees were friendly, there was absolutely no reason for anyone to go out of their way to that store.  Any trace of the interesting architecture, which you could catch in glimpses before during the Famous Barr days, was gone.  I knew it was only a matter of time…

Which brings to my happy discovery from my recent trip to Chicago; the iconic Carson Pirie Scott Building, designed by the great Louis Sullivan, has found new life as a Target.  I examined an urban Target last year in Seattle, and I was happy with the results.  I had visited the venerable Carson Pirie Scott before it had closed, and it was a sad sight; low quality merchandise, a tired and run-down interior pervaded.

Sullivan’s masterpiece has never looked better in all the time I have visited Chicago; restored and cleaned, the interior lobby is beautiful.  Interestingly, since it is an historic landmark, the Target sign had to be creatively inserted on the interior of the building.

Likewise, while you feel like you’re in a Target, their designers left important design elements, such as the capitals of the columns intact.  We can bemoan the death of Famous Barr/Macy’s, but we must also find a solution for the vast empty retail spaces left behind.  Is a Target the best option?  Perhaps.

Hey, at least there is a gigantic parking garage for everyone in St. Louis.

What an amazing building, and hopefully its future will be brighter after the darkness after the sunset of the Macy’s closure.

Just look at that ornament; Louis Sullivan was making history with the design of this building, and many others in his career.

The former Bell Telephone Exchange Building has had an interesting history; built for operators, it has changed hands repeatedly.

The rusticated Romanesque Revival facade is typical of St. Louis architecture before the advent of Louis Sullivan’s imprint on the buildings of St. Louis.  I see a little Renaissance influence in the roundels between the arches.

This building housed City Grociers, which went out of business several years ago.  It is now the very tasty Bailey’s Range, which I recommend.

Built on the first floor and foundations of an earlier building, the Paul Brown Building makes up roughly the other half of the block occupied by the Arcade-Wright Building.

I find the decoration in terracotta hard to quantify: what style is it really other than a playful mixture of different styles such as a dentilated cornice paired with what almost looks like Moorish arches?

Even more fascinating is how the terracotta has little black specks mixed in with the tan/buff clay.

Not sure what these figures represent on the front portal, but one looks like a painter.

I was planning on posting about the long vacant Arcade Building today anyway, but then came the announcement that the building will finally be renovated into apartments.

The Arcade Building is interesting in that it is one of the few large skyscrapers not in the Chicago School style of Louis Sullivan and other architects, but instead Gothic Revival, but certainly with some Chicago influences in its fenestration.

The standout feature of the exterior are these fantastic bay windows, breaking up the monotony of the external wall just above street level.

I caught the light just as it was shining against the terracotta “stone blocks” of the first floor.

The ground floor is broken up by these squat Gothic arches.

I never get tired of the Chemical Building, which is easily one of the most beautiful skyscrapers in downtown.  I’ve come back to it on multiple occasions, and this time, as the sun set a few weeks ago, it was looking as good as ever.

I sometimes forget about the Frisco Building, in favor of the nearby Chemical Building or Arcade Building; in fact, I think this is the first dedicated post for it in six years.  But it is still a very cool skyscraper, with long vertical bands of buff brick with handsome terracotta elements.  It also bears a somewhat interesting distinction; it is one of only a handful of the major downtown office buildings that has never been abandoned or converted into residences.  As such, it hasn’t received a flashy rehab, but it is occupied, healthy, and a valuable contributor to the Old Post Office Square.