Jacksonville was founded by groups of “Yankees,” from New England, many of whom were graduates of Yale University. I can’t help but think the influence of the large town commons and greens of cities such as New Haven played a part in the design of Central Park, the outsized town square of Jacksonville. The center…
Tag: Skyscrapers
Queeny Tower Demolition Complete
The old Queeny Tower has been annihilated, and the site is cleared without even a water-filled hole left behind. The site is now being prepared for future construction. Some interesting remainders have been left; for example, up above the cantilevered remnant of the skybridge which connected the Queeny Tower to the main building of Barnes…
The Roebling Bridge, Between Cincinnati and Covington
One of the most important bridges in the history of architecture and engineering spans the Ohio River in between Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky. Opened in 1866, years before the revolutionary Eads Bridge in St. Louis, it served as the important prototypical step for the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Construction faced the same challenges:…
Chouteau Trust and Banking Building
The old Chouteau Trust and Banking Building is one of those landmarks that maybe gets taken for granted, sitting right at the eastern gateway to the Grove neighborhood. But it is significant for being such a large office building in what is otherwise a low-rise neighborhood. It is perhaps obvious that it once had a…
Demolition Progressing, Queeny Tower, Mid August, 2021
Update: Demolition was completed by October of 2021. Like many things in life, it takes more time to get going, but then once you get started, it starts going fast. Such is the case with the demolition of the Queeny Tower, which is now coming down quickly. They were working well into the evening last…
More Demolition, Queeny Tower
Update: See the progress of demolition in mid-August of 2021 and was complete by October. The demolition of the Queeny Tower is proceeding, and when I stopped by on the last Saturday of June, the Caterpillars were working away moving debris around. Part of the top of the tower is clearly gone, and they are working…
Merchant Laclede Building, Revisited
The Merchant Laclede, or Merchant’s Laclede Building, depending on whom you ask, was another of the historic skyscrapers in the financial district of St. Louis, often forgotten in favor of the more famous Chicago School buildings to the west. It was built in 1886. It’s been simplified over the years, losing its pediment and conical…
Security Building, Revisited Again
I found some photos of the Security Building deep in the St. Louis Patina archives, and I thought they should see the light of day. The standard story always goes is that it’s the last, or one of the last Romanesque Revival skyscrapers in St. Louis before the coming of the innovative Wainwright Building, but…
Views of Central St. Louis from St. Louis University Hospital’s Parking Garage
I was checking out the beautiful Emil Frei & Associates stained glass windows in the chapel of the new St. Louis University Hospital, and when I looked out from my perch in the parking garage, I captured the stunning view of the skyline of the central corridor of St. Louis. Above is the Central West…
Unbuilding: The Queeny Tower
Update: See more demolition work in the early summer of 2021 and in mid August of 2021. The demolition was complete by October of 2021 and the site cleared. They’re tearing down the Queeny Tower, which while not the most distinguished building architecturally in St. Louis, has an important role in the history of medicine in…