Demolition has proceeded on the lower of the two cylindrical towers of the former Stouffer’s Riverfront Inn, or whatever name you best know it as, in downtown St. Louis. Demolition began with the low-slung wing that connected the two towers, and some preliminary demolition has begun on the lower floors of the original tower.
Tag: Skyscrapers
From the Vault: Philadelphia, March 2006
I was digging around in the vaults when I came across some twenty year old photographs of Philadelphia. They’re so old that they pre-exist my move back to St. Louis from the East Coast and the founding of St. Louis Patina. This is about five cameras back and lots of growth in my picture-taking abilities….
Demolition Commences, Former Stouffer’s Riverfront Hotel
Apparently it was a big deal when the Stouffer’s Riverfront Hotel opened downtown. Personally, I see it as a symptom of a larger problem: the belief that turning St. Louis into a giant showpiece of Modernist superblocks would save the city. I think we can all agree it failed miserably. One thing that always sticks…
Moline, Illinois
Moline is contiguous with Rock Island, so we entered the former from the west. Moline is famous for being the home of several industries, including an elevator manufacturer and John Deere, which everyone has heard of. First up is the former headquarters of Montgomery Elevator Company, which is now abandoned. The tower functioned as the…
Downtown, Davenport, Iowa
Continuing and ending our end of the month look at Mississippi River towns north of St. Louis for the time being, we come to the Quad Cities, and first we will look at Davenport, Iowa. Of course, Davenport, and Rock Island, Illinois on the opposite bank (which we’ll look at in a few days) are…
The Never Built Central Tower
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…
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…