St. Louis had a couple of skyscrapers planned in downtown St. Louis, but thanks to Andrew Raimist, to whom full credit is given for this post, I learned that there was a forty story tower planned on Broadway, that would have slid right in between the two large buildings above where the small building on…
Tag: Office Buildings
Kansas City, Baltimore, Dayton, Louisville and Indianapolis Skyscrapers
Rounding out our survey of early Twentieth Century centerpiece skyscrapers, we look at a couple more, starting first on the other side of Missouri in Kansas City. The Kansas City Power and Light Building, built in 1931, was the tallest building in Missouri until 1976. Designed by the Kansas City firm of Hoit, Price &…
Smith Tower, Seattle
The skyline of Seattle is interesting; today most of the tall buildings are from the last fifty years and can be seen in one long line from Puget Sound. But to the south, sitting off by itself is the Smith Tower, built in 1914, in the Pioneer Square neighborhood. Designed by the firm of T….
Carew Tower, Cincinnati
The Carew Tower cuts a thin profile in the skyline of Cincinnati, not far from the Union Central Tower. It was named after the department store that was demolished to build the Art-Deco building in 1931. Designed by Walter William Ahlschlager, a Chicago architect, and William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich of New York,…
Union Central Tower, Cincinnati
Standing out to the west of Cincinnati’s downtown skyline, the Union Central Tower is our next notable skyscraper built in an American city in the second decade of the Twentieth Century. In this case, the architect is Cass Gilbert, in his one skyscraper design outside of New York. Of course, Gilbert designed the Art Museum…
Leveque Tower, Former American Insurance Union Citadel, Columbus, Ohio
Clocking in at 47 stories, the Leveque Tower in downtown Columbus, Ohio, is a standout example of an Art-Deco skyscraper that opened in 1927 as the American Insurance Union Citadel. It was built as a 600 room hotel with an attached theater. The architect was Charles Howard Crane, who was actually active mainly in Detroit….
Spires, Skyscrapers and American Skylines
I was thinking recently about how Western Civilization cities are defined by their skylines. In Europe, major cities were dominated by the spires of their churches and in their cathedrals. Take the city of Cologne; if you look above there is sort of a gentle pyramid shape formed if you follow the lines over the…
Downtown Granite City, Early March 2025
I last stopped by downtown Granite City in Spring of 2024, and there has not been much happening other than at the Granite City Arts and Design District on the far side of the area. I did discover another Sinclair Dinosaur which had been put on display along with a bunch of other Route 66…
Eldorado Estates
Near Mid Rivers Mall we came upon the neatest trailer park, complete with a stone entryway with the name, Eldorado. The clubhouse is the Spanish Revival style, and there is a bridge over a creek in back to some basketball courts. It was well kept, and it shows that these parks are scattered throughout the…
The Crossings at Northwest, Former Northwest Plaza
I thought I would swing by the “Crossings at Northwest,” or what I called Zombie Northwest Plaza, which apparently was the largest outdoor mall in the United State when it opened in January 24, 1966. Supposedly. The last time I was by was back in 2017. The Famous Barr, designed by Raymond Loewy and William…