Gateway One (the Peabody Coal Building) should have never been built. St. Louis should have never built the Gateway Mall, either, but since it did, at the bare minimum it could have at least done it correctly. Sigh.
A Blog detailing the beauty of St. Louis architecture and the buildup of residue-or character-that accumulates over the course of time.
Gateway One (the Peabody Coal Building) should have never been built. St. Louis should have never built the Gateway Mall, either, but since it did, at the bare minimum it could have at least done it correctly. Sigh.
Totally, totally agree. I was livid when that thing went up.
Glass boxes that have no personality are everywhere. The Peabody Coal Building is emblematic of the lack of imagination and carelessly monotonous design which is killing the uniqueness of cities all over the world. Most contemporary architects are just full of themselves and they come from a Modernist Academy that dictates no deviation from the steel and glass dictum. The Gateway Mall idea was just another excuse to tear down two beautiful Beaux Arts structures that featured exemplary terra cotta detail and were distinctly woven into the fabric of the older section of downtown. The city father’s have succeeded in their quest to virtually kill downtown by tearing down all that was good about it and turning the place into a weekend playground for boorish suburban sports fans.