Studio Gang Architects Make a Statement in St. Louis: 100 Above the Park

The luxury apartment building craze isn’t limited to Chicago.

The tallest residential building in St. Louis is under construction in the trendy Central West End neighborhood at 100 North Kingshighway.

If the design seems vaguely familiar that’s because it’s being designed by Jeanne Gang at the Studio Gang Architects, who also designed Aqua in Lakeshore East in Chicago.

Aqua has won architecture awards.

At 36 stories, it will be the tallest in the city but still a little shy of the tallest residential structure in the region as apparently there is a slightly taller condo building in Clayton. Several commercial buildings are also taller.

It will be just 65 feet taller than the new luxury tower being built at Ballpark Village.

But the design is what is unique.

Overlooking Forest Park, according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the units are designed to have wide views east and west which would include the park and the downtown.

“In a climate with four distinct seasons, we wanted to make it possible for residents to enjoy the different views and natural changes in light over the course of the year,” Gang said. “By experimenting with the geometry of the facade and refining the apartment layouts, we were able to make every apartment into a corner unit perched above the park and city.”

Tiers of four stories will repeat over the height of the building, with the facade’s angles producing outdoor terraces for a fourth of the apartments. Working with opportunities provided by the site orientation and environmental forces, the building’s leaflike shape and tiered design will cut energy use and increase residents’ comfort, Gang said.

This is the Studio Gang’s first project in St. Louis.

The developer, Mac Properties, owns other apartment buildings nearby in the Central West End, in Chicago’s Hyde Park and in Midtown Kansas City.

There will be a luxury price for these apartments at around $3 per square foot.

Those are Chicago prices.

Eli Ungar, founder of Mac Properties, said about 40 percent of the apartments will have one bedroom. About 40 percent will have two bedrooms and the remainder will be divided equally between studio and three-bedroom units. Rents near $3 per square foot per month, high for St. Louis, are possible in a neighborhood as “exquisite” as the Central West End, he said.

One Hundred will be the growing neighborhood’s “newest and shiniest” development and will be “in line with the nicest stuff in Clayton,” Ungar said.

The building’s website is now active.

Move-ins are expected in summer 2020.

Is this building a sign that St Louis is turning a corner?

See the building’s website here.

6 Responses to “Studio Gang Architects Make a Statement in St. Louis: 100 Above the Park”

  1. Interesting, same developer as Solstice….

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  2. haha good luck getting those rents

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  3. “haha good luck getting those rents”

    We’ll see. They are going to be asking similar rents for the new tower in Ballpark Village too.

    This building actually makes more sense as it is just steps away from the biggest hospital complex in the city/region. It would be like building it right next to Northwestern’s Chicago campus.

    But I’m more surprised by some of the newer loft conversions.

    This is a beautiful conversion of an old industrial building but it’s in the middle of nowhere. Yet the 1-bedroom are $1350-$1400. That seems like a lot, to me.

    https://www.woodward-lofts.com

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  4. Interesting, thanks Sabrina!

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  5. “it’s in the middle of nowhere.”

    As has been noted, everyone drives everywhere. And that’s 3 minutes from both 44 and 64, and 5-6 minutes from both the SLU hospital *and* the WashU med campus. And stumbling distance from Urban Chestnut.

    Which isn’t to say I’d choose to live there, at those rents, but it makes some sense.

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  6. “Which isn’t to say I’d choose to live there, at those rents, but it makes some sense.”

    Nah.

    St Louis wants to be urban just like every other city. Because it was abandoned, people are forced to drive places. But if the restaurants are there, like they are building on Grand, for instance, then they will walk.

    So it’s nice that they are converting some of these buildings, but it truly is in the middle of nowhere. At least the loft conversions in Soulard and Lafayette Square are near something (as are the ones in downtown St Louis.)

    But you have to start somewhere. I’m just surprised at the rents, is all.

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