3,500th Post: Could We Please Just Stop Building Crap?

So it’s been over a decade since the Century Building has been torn down, and the 9th Street Garage, built in its place, has managed not to collapse in that time period. A friend of mine, who worked on the garage, said it was not built properly and had to be repaired during construction. They…

Ten Year Anniversary of St. Louis Patina

I hope my readers, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of this website, will allow me to talk about something other than St. Louis architecture. As I’ve said before, over the last decade St. Louis Patina has become something much more than a just a place for pictures of beautiful or abandoned buildings (though…

9th Anniversary and 3,000th Post

Due to a coincidence, the ninth anniversary of this website (technically back in May, but who’s checking) and my 3,000th post (again, a technicality since a few have been erased over the years or imported from other defunct blogs I had) arrived at the same time of year, so I thought, I should write something…

2,500th Post

On the occasion of my 2,500th post here at St. Louis Patina, I thought I would address what has been in the news over the last six months. If you haven’t read my recent article at St. Louis Magazine, read it first, and then come back and read the rest of this post. I don’t…

250th Anniversary of St. Louis

St. Louis was founded today, or maybe it was yesterday; I can’t be sure. While it might offend some of my readers, I take little stock in the arbitrary date today that is the probable date of the founding of St. Louis.  Or was it yesterday?  Regardless, this anniversary first off ignores the fact that…

2,000th Post: In Search of Bob Reuter

Update: See a documentary of Bob Reuter here. I always go back and take a mental inventory of where I was when a friend of mine passes away. What was going on, and did I feel anything different? I know exactly where I was when Bob Reuter tragically fell to his death in an open…

Six Year Anniversary of Saint Louis Patina: The Inspiration of Ruins

I realized today, having just taught my Renaissance art class on Monday, that the Renaissance never would have happened if it had not been for the trauma of the collapse of the Roman Empire.  There would have been no need to be inspired to recreate the past glories of Rome in the Sixteenth Century if…