Update: Renovation of the LaSalle Building into a Hotel Indigo is now complete.

A long-forgotten stretch of Broadway is finally seeing redevelopment. First up is the LaSalle Building, which I have photographed in the past, but that Built St. Louis has covered with much better images.

Korte Construction has a great page explaining its renovation of the building, and tells about how the LaSalle used a particular type of pilings. The building was simplified back in the day, with some of its decorative terracotta removed. You can see how the brick is being relaid on the corner, exposing the steel skeleton holding up the skyscraper structure.

The sadly muddled old Mercantile Library next door is being renovated into apartments or condos, or something. This building has been so horribly ruined by 1950s renovations that I would have been perfectly fine with it being demolished and replaced with a taller building.

The little guy sandwiched in between them is being renovated along with the LaSalle Building, and I think I spy a new elevator tower coming up from its rear. I was never a fan of its weird reskinning, and I hope the new design complements its taller historic neighbor.