Bell Telephone Building, Sunset, November 2016
Art-Deco
Dance Hall, Theater, Beer Hall
The Casa Loma Ballroom continues to be a landmark on Cherokee Street. While the Cinderella continues the replacement of its original terracotta. But an old Anheuser-Busch pub still sits in limbo, its owner holding out.
Western Near North Side
If I could accomplish anything, it would be convincing people how beautiful the houses built right after the Civil War were: urban, compact, and useful. As it is, these wonderful houses will end up as piles of rubble, as part… Continue Reading
Kingshighway at Gravois Avenue
Kingshighway, the busiest traffic artery in St. Louis, comes to a rather anticlimactic end at a group of beautiful buildings on Gravois Avenue. But again, occupancy is good, and there is an interesting mix of building stock. There’s this cool… Continue Reading
Gravois at the City Limits
Gravois Avenue tries to keep its urban character right up to the city limits, but the Missouri Department of Transport has done its best to make this stretch of historic buildings about as inhospitable to human beings as possible. It’s… Continue Reading
Art-Deco Ornament, Princeton Heights
Dead Olive Boulevard
It starts out strong enough, rows of rehabbed buildings with award-winning restaurants around Compton Avenue. Then it starts to get a little more quiet, and the buildings, while well-maintained, start to look a little less august. And then the giant… Continue Reading
Banneker School
While Ittner and Milligan schools in St. Louis are amazing, it’s always interesting to see how educational architecture developed after their tenure. George Sanger took over as architect of St. Louis Public Schools in the early Twentieth Century. Many of… Continue Reading
Hi-Pointe Theater
The Hi-Pointe Theater would never be built today; the corporation would require a giant parking lot, and it would never be located so close to the street. But it was built, and it is still a landmark after all of… Continue Reading
The Delmar Loop and its Environs, Revisited
The Loop still has some great architecture, and the street is still busy with the construction of the trolley moving further east. Narrowing the street to encourage pedestrian traffic is a winning formula, even as it is still considered to… Continue Reading