It’s long been accepted that Adler and Sullivan’s original design of the round windows on the second floor with bearcat terracotta sculptures and a Damascus arch entryway (seen here) for the 1892 Union Trust Building were removed at some point in the early Twentieth Century. However, we now know it was incorrect to believe that…
Tag: Skyscrapers
Former Pet Milk Building
The former Pet, Inc. headquarters building at 400 South Fourth Street was originally built in 1969. It was designed by the supposedly noted architect A.L. Aydelott. When completed, it was 300,000 square feet and cost $7,500,000 to construct. It has now been converted into apartments and rebranded .400, a baseball reference owing to its proximity…
Heaviest Corner on Earth, Birmingham, Alabama
We’ll start our Birmingham tour with the first landmark, the “Heaviest Corner on Earth,” whose name originated at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, referring to the four historic skyscrapers at the intersection of 20th Street and 1st Avenue North. As I remarked yesterday, I think Chicago actually has a heavier historic intersection at South…
Stouffer’s Hotel, Demolition Continues
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.
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 &…