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Eleven Most Enhanced Buildings Awards, May 2000 Landmarks initiated the 11 Most Enhanced Awards in 1996 to recognize the city's
best examples of quality rehabilitation, adaptive reuse and outstanding new
construction in historic contexts. To be considered for our 2000 citations, a
project must have been completed between January 1, 1999 and May 1, 2000. The
jury also looks for geographical balance, for different building types
exhibiting various styles and dates of construction along with a range of
ownership and financial collaborations. Humboldt School Humboldt Middle School, located at 2516 South Ninth Street, is a handsome three story brick building named after Alexander Humboldt, a scientist and explorer. It first opened its doors in 1908 and was the first of William B. Ittner’s elementary schools designed with an auditorium. The school now serves approximately 300 students in grades 6 through 8. William Butts
Ittner (1864-1936) graduated in 1884 with the first class granted diplomas by
Washington University’s Manual Training School – an exemplary institution
attracting national attention.
After a degree in Architecture from Cornell University and travel in
Europe, Ittner began his St. Louis practice in the office of Eames &
Young. Next came a few years on
his own and brief partnerships (William Foster, then Link & Rosenheim)
before Ittner was elected to the new office of Commissioner of School
Buildings for the Board of Education.
Ittner continued on staff until 1910, then served as “consulting
architect” to the Board until October of 1914 when he resigned to devote
himself to a private practice that would produce hundreds of schools in
almost 30 states. Like other Ittner designs, Humboldt has large spacious hallways, arched windows and tall towers on each side of the building. It also has classic tripartite brickwork with different patterns flowing downward from each floor. The front of the building is decorated with attractive mosaic intaglios. It was restored to maintain its original beauty and light airy feel with original hardwood floors and light filled corridors, but it has been modernized for the twenty-first century with air-conditioning, state-of-the-art computer and science labs and a consumer and family science lab, and a new 5600 square foot gym/auditorium. The St. Louis Public School’s Planning Division did the program design. Project architects for the $7 million total project were David Mason & Associates and the construction managers were BSI Constructors Inc./Kwame Building Group, Inc. Hamilton Brown Shoe Company
In 1888, the Hamilton-Brown Shoe Company built a factory at the northeast corner of 21st and Locust in a fading upper-class residential neighborhood. Already a force in St. Louis industry, the company doubled its sales between 1890 and 1900. By the early 20th century, Hamilton-Brown with six manufacturing facilities claimed world leadership in boots and shoes. The building at Olive and 21st (designed in 1903 by Isaac Taylor) is one of only two to survive. The original factory at 21st and Locust was the center of a firestorm in the mid-1970’s that almost destroyed the nearby Lambert Pharmaceutical and Swift Printing Company buildings. The Lambert Building has since been converted to housing; the Printing Company is now Schlafly’s Tap Room. After passage of the State Historic Rehab Tax Credit in 1998, it was possible for the elegant facility at 21st and Olive to find a new use. Owners Welsch, Flatness & Lutz, an insurance agency, moved from Gateway One on the Mall to their new quarters designed by the Lawrence Group, Inc. Paric Corporation was the contractor for the $4 million project financed by Allegiant Bank; LANDMARKS prepared the National Register nomination. SJI
COMPANIES
After World War I, a new growth industry in St. Louis based on the automobile began to create a corridor heading west along Locust past Jefferson to Grand Avenue. One of the early giants was a six-story building at 2300 Olive completed February 1917 as a regional distributorship for Willys-Overland, a Toledo, Ohio, company. Designed by Mills, Rhines, Bellman & Nordhoff (Toledo), the new facility hosted the Saint Louis Auto Show’s first indoor event. Eighty years later its enormous floor plates and large freight elevators were enticing features when SJI (a promotions, events, consulting business) decided to consolidate its operations and located this vacant, city-owned hulk. Passage of the State Historic Rehab Credits in 1998 and a successful National Register nomination by Karen Bode-Baxter assured that the project would go forward. In spite of many delays and costs escalating from a hoped-for $5 million to the reality of almost $8 million, the formidable historic building adapted by Gray Design Group, built by Interior Construction Services, and financed by Southwest Bank is now open for business with a lobby decorated by Willys-Overland memorabilia. North
Newstead Phase I Project
Although the automobile soon competed with streetcars on early 20th century St. Louis roads, the location of transit lines continued to dictate most of the city’s working and middle-class residential development. Proximity to recreation and open space at Fairgrounds and O’Fallon Parks may also have lured the assortment of owners who built sturdy red brick flats lining nearby streets in north St. Louis. Individual
owners financed and built these flats. Once abandoned, however, it seems to take every funding
source available to bring them back to service. The ambitious North Newstead Phase I Project took on nine deteriorated properties built
between 1908 and 1916. built at costs ranging from $5,000 to $6,500. One was too far gone to rehab, and a
new building was erected in its place.
Together, the new and old provide 26 units of affordable housing
designed by Grice Group Architects.
Built by R. G. Ross Construction Co. for a total cost of $3,932,765, the
complicated financial package includes the Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance, the
St. Louis Equity Fund, the Missouri Housing Development Corporation and St.
Louis’ Community Development Agency. Benton Park Strolling Bridge
A 1912
postcard shows one of the rustic stone bridges in Benton Park, handsomely
restored and replanted after the 1896 tornado. The next major changes to the park resulted from a
mid-1950’s bond issue, but many were “improvements” in name only. LANDMARKS prepared a National Register nomination for the Benton Park
neighborhood in 1985. Renewed appreciation
of its historic buildings coincided with resident’s interest in upgrading the
park bounded by Jefferson, Arsenal, Wyoming and Illinois. A master plan from 1993 prepared for
the neighborhood association suggested the addition of an amphitheater and
bandstand in front of the Strolling Bridge, a 19th century feature
disfigured in the 1950s by heavy concrete block infill. A few years later the association
wisely decided to focus on the bridge.
One of two sketches by resident architect Ray Simon was selected to
replace the concrete blocks with a unique wrought iron gate. After a lead grant of $42,000 from
the Whitaker Foundation, former Alderman Marti Aboussie located additional
funds for the $112,000 project.
Charles K. Hooker, the horticulturist and planner who heads the
neighborhood committee, credits Dan Skillman from the City Parks and
Recreation Department with careful attention to construction. Old Chain of Rocks Bridge
The Old Chain of Rocks Bridge is a very different span dating back to the era of Route 66. Completed in 1929 at a cost of $2
million, the toll bridge (only 24 feet wide and a mile plus in length) was
purchased by the City of Madison, Illinois, in 1939. Madison continued to operate it as a
toll bridge until the free bridge at Interstate 270 opened in 1968. For almost 30 years, rust and vines
took over the 15 spans. The
future looked bleak. A 1995
publication documenting all the bridges across the Mississippi recounted the
Chain of Rocks history and then concluded: “If the bridge must go, at least it has had its day of
glory.” But
in 1996, Trailnet, a regional land trust engaged in the development of
bicycle/pedestrian trails leased the bridge from the City of Madison and
embarked on a daunting $4 million restoration. Landmarks held an early event at the bridge on Mother’s
Day during Preservation Week 1997, but the bridge did not open to the public
until 1999. The longest
pedestrian/bicycle bridge in the world, the 15-span Chain of Rocks Bridge
offers superb views of downtown St. Louis and the two castle-like intake
towers. It is a key element in
Confluence Greenway, a 40-mile riverside park due to open in 2004. Funding sources include Federal, State of Missouri and Illinois, Edward
Jones, Waste Management and private individuals. Johannes-Cohen Collaborative and Modjeski & Masters
shared architectural/ engineering responsibilities. Collins & Herman, Haelan Co. and CCCI have all been
involved in the nuts and bolts of restoration. University Lofts
The University Lofts at 16th and
Washington Avenue should set the standard from which all housing conversion
projects will be judged. Much of
the project’s excellence can be traced to a singular collaboration between
Washington University School of Art, the Regional Housing and Community
Development Alliance, and Bank of American Midwest. Designed in 1907 by Albert B. Groves, the eight-story
mercantile building at the northwest corner was named for one of its many
tenants—the Drygoodsman, an influential magazine catering to the
wholesale clothing trade. Redesigned
almost 100 years later by Johannes-Cohen Collaborative, the $5.6 million
project built by HBD Contracting Inc. features dramatic residential lofts
(both affordable and market rate), a first-floor Des Lee Art Gallery operated
by Washington University, plus the School’s printmaking and visiting artists
space on the top floor. This
should help assure the continued presence of artists on Washington Avenue as
St. Louis’ once ad hoc Loft District enters a new phase. Chase Hotel
John
Albury Bryan’s book on Missouri architecture was completed in March of 1928,
just in time for the American Institute of Architects’ national meeting at
the new Chase Hotel. Designed by
Preston J. Bradshaw, the red brick hotel (part of a $1 million plus complex
including the Chase and Chester Apartments) fit comfortably into the rather
conservative Central West End.
Not so its next door competitor from 1929, the upstart Art Deco Park
Plaza with a design inspired by the Savoy Plaza in New York City. Joined
first by ownership, then in 1961 by architecture, the Chase-Park Plaza
enjoyed a heyday as one of the largest hotel and convention facilities west
of the Mississippi. Big name
stars and politicians appeared almost nightly. But the 1970’s were not kind to the Central West End. Redevelopment plans for Maryland
Plaza faltered; reorganization at the Chase-Park Plaza failed to produce a
profit. The Park Plaza was
successfully adapted to apartment living in 1987; but the Chase languished
vacant until the passage of Missouri’s Historic Rehab Tax credits in
1998. Klitzing Welsch Associates
from St. Louis as lead architects were in charge of a $90 million project
built by HBD Contracting. Today
the Chase is back complete with apartments, health club, movie theaters,
banquet space, commercial tenants and restaurant. Drury Plaza Hotel
The first strong criticism
of the Bosley administration by the Post-Dispatch appeared in “Coming
Soon: a Parking Lot!” – a hard-hitting
editorial that ran on June 6, 1995.
At issue was a Bosley-influenced vote by the Heritage & Urban
Design Commission to allow demolition of the International Fur Exchange, its
Thomas Jefferson Building addition, and the neighboring building designed in
1967 for the American Zinc Company.
Two days later, a dramatic cartoon from the pen of Tom Englehardt
captured the essence of what promised to be a Downtown Demolition Derby. Demolition, in fact, was well
underway when Charles Drury (with encouragement from his wife Shirley) came
to the rescue. Over the next
five years Landmarks prepared National Register nominations, architect
Richard Henmi and Byron Foust worked and reworked plans to comply with design
guidelines for State and Federal Tax Credits. Mercantile Bank (later Firstar) agreed to participate, and
Druco Development, Inc. completed work on the Drury Plaza Hotel, a $26.5
million reinvestment overlooking Busch Stadium and the Arch. 2922 South Compton
When Tim Vogt decided to
get involved with city rehabilitation, he took on one of the most
significant, but deteriorated buildings on the block of Compton between
Arsenal and Pestalozzi. Built at
a cost of $3,500 in 1896 for prosperous shoe salesman Jerard Venverloh and
his wife Elizabeth, the three-story, late Victorian house had suffered major
vandalism and deferred maintenance.
After $189,000 of private investment in 2922 South Compton from plans by GMG Design, Inc. (including lavish new bath and kitchen),
Tim is now at work on the building next door. He also plans to open his development office – Millennium
Restoration and Development Corp. – around the corner in a vacant storefront
property at Arkansas and Arsenal. San Francisco Temple Multiplex Center The Sisters of St. Mary arrived in St.
Louis from Germany around 1868.
By 1876, they had established a motherhouse at Arsenal and Arkansas
Streets and opened an infirmary in downtown. In 1898, an anonymous donor contributed $70,000 to the
Sisters for the construction of a girls’ orphanage. The site selected for the Female Orphan Asylum was near
Calvary Cemetery. With expansive six-acre grounds and a
copper-domed bell tower, the three-story complex designed by Barnett, Haynes
& Barnett has been a landmark in the Walnut Park neighborhood since it
opened in 1900. The Sisters
continued to operate the facility as an orphanage until 1952. Now owned and operated by a
non-denominational Christian church established in1969, the San Francisco
Temple Multiplex Center serves all age groups; from a preschool center to an
adult day care program licensed through the Missouri Division of Aging. All of the renovation work directed
by Bishop Dwight H. McDaniels has been financed by tithing, offerings, and
pledges. |
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are from the collections of the
Landmarks Association of St. Louis, Inc.
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