Alise O'Brien
Officially opening in November 2018, the latest addition to the Grand Center Arts District is the reimagining of the historic Missouri Theatre Building. Constructed in 1920 as companion offices to the former Missouri Theatre (which has since been demolished, but once stood to the east), it was, among other uses, the original home of the Radio City Rockettes, who began as the Missouri Rockettes in the 1920s.
Keeping the rhythm, its new inhabitant is an artistic hotel—where guests book their rooms based on emotion, the first of its kind, they believe. The Angad Arts Hotel (634 N. Grand) is one of many rehab projects from Steve Smith, founding principal and CEO of the Lawrence Group.
Over the past decade, Smith has renovated many of St. Louis’ historic buildings such as the Federal-Mogul foundry in Midtown and Sun Theater, filling them once again with life. Until now, The Missouri Theatre Building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, has eluded him.
“St. Louis has a wonderful and rich architectural heritage,” says Smith. “Because of our big city roots over the last 150 years, St. Louis is blessed with beautiful architecture—more so, I think, than the peer cities we would compare ourselves to today.”
Andrew Weil, the executive director at the Landmarks Association, is calling Smith’s hotel rehab “the last piece to the puzzle” of a revitalized Grand Center.
But why rehab rather than start fresh? Weil says many developers see legitimate economic opportunity in old buildings.
“Frequently acquisition costs are low and developers are looking into their crystal balls and speculating where the direction a neighborhood, and its property values, are heading in the future,” Weil said.
He adds that, “Of course, there are also a lot of developers that either just prefer working with interesting old buildings, or that want to be part of revitalizing the city that they love, or some combination of the two.”
Whichever category Smith falls into, he acknowledges that restoring historic structures does not come without its challenges. It took five years to complete the hotel—and $65 million.
“The exterior of the building had pollution sink into it over the last 100 years, and it was difficult to get that restored,” Smith said. “Nothing is square, nothing lines up—we discovered that the columns on the twelfth floor are a lot smaller than the columns in the fourth floor, so that made buying and placing furniture complicated.”
The Angad Arts Hotel—and those asymmetrical features—is just one of many city redevelopment projects, such as the Arcade building, the old Armory building, the Hotel Saint Louis, and next spring’s The Last Hotel in the former International Shoe Co. building.
“It’s nice to see a resurgence in the urban core and see people realizing that these buildings have value and should be restored,” said Weil. “The Lawrence Group has taken on some very tough projects.”
Weil said that ultimately, builders and architects are up to the challenge of redeveloping historic buildings because of the economic opportunity, their interest in historic architecture or in sustainability, and some desire to be part of revitalizing downtrodden buildings and neighborhoods.
"When the alternative is developing endless suburban strip malls and converting farms into generic subdivisions,” Weil said. “It’s not hard to see why the unique challenges and opportunities presented by historic rehabilitation are attractive to many people.”
