Scooter Ride #1

I jumped on my 2010 Kymco People S250cc scooter on a sunny, hot morning for a long ride this weekend.

North and Central parts of the city are my favorite places to ride. So much is changing in these parts of St. Louis, sometimes I feel like I lose my bearings on where I'm at. In some cases, new buildings are up, constructions fences are blocking the views I'm used to or sadly, buildings have crumbled or fallen to the ground.

Here are some photos and a couple words on my random ride. 

Today, I just wanted to head north on Jefferson to see what shape the new National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) campus is taking. If you recall, the historic and transformational project will bring a new $1.75B campus in North City. The NGA is currently near the ABI brewery.

The site is now surrounded by construction fence. Not much stands behind the fencing save for a suburban style church building.

This next one just caught my eye:

The former United Way Youth and Family Center by St. Louis Place park is fixing to collapse in full. The trophies in the upper window caught my eye:

Perfect building with round and arched windows; reminds me of a firehouse:

Sun shining through the remaining stained glass in this former beauty.

Bricks being palleted up and shipped off to other cities.

I've got a growing library of metal and neon and ghost signs building on my hard drive, this is one of my favorites. Frogs!

A perfect building on Labadie Avenue, all wrapped up in a bow:

The Greater Ville Neighborhood has lots of great signs still hanging on:

Always great to see investment in sidewalks, especially with tree boxes cut out for future plantings.

 Exposed backside:

The Euclid School is up for sale just north of the charming Fountain Park:

 Mother Nature taking over:

Incredible architecture and workmanship on display in so many neighborhoods:

 One of my favorites:

Those wooden address placards are everywhere in St. Louis.

 A recent job...the lug nuts were still sitting there:

 Cabanne Place is a personal favorite:

Hey, they don't all have to be brick:

 Just check this masterpiece out:

With a head full of fascination, hope and sadness competing for space in my brain and gut, it was time to head home. I set my sites on a construction crane off in the distance and headed toward it. I ended up on Pershing Avenue which has a collection of some of the most amazing apartment buildings in the city:

The crane was building new apartment called Tribeca Apartments. NextSTL reported on this back in 2015. The building is infill, taking up a former surface lot. Yeah!

Then I went over to check out the CWE Apartments, a relatively new development (new to me anyway). I've seen this building from Lindell and Union many times, finally went back to check it out. And, I was pleasantly surprised to see the leafy ivy growing up the building.

Then I headed toward the Central West End to follow the next construction crane on the horizon, this one at Euclid and West Pine. They call it "The Euclid" and it will be a handsome, contemporary new apartment building. There used to be a one-story cleaners at this corner. So, this will bring some added density and make this neighborhood even more "big city".

Then I headed over to the St. Louis College of Pharmacy campus with their relatively new sleek glass buildings...man, these look great to me:

Another crane popped up on the skyline, this one peaking out over the buildings in Forest Park Southeast Neighborhood at Manchester and Sarah Street. It's called Chouteau's Grove and will be a mixed use retail and apartment building. The construction you see in the photo below is the parking garage. More density, more shopping options to rebuild this part of the city. This used to be a massive vacant lot just west of a bank.

Wow, that was fun. Sometimes you just have to take a long ride to parts of the city outside of your workaday routine to appreciate this city in full.

I will continue to document these scooter rides over the course of the year.