1 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
2 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
3 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
4 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
5 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
6 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
7 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
8 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
9 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
10 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
11 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
12 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
13 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
14 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
15 of 15
Courtesy of LaunchCode
St. Louisans used to walk into the Nathaniel J. "Nat" Rivers Office of the Division of Workforce Development in search of answers about unemployment benefits. That was before LaunchCode, a nonprofit organization that trains workers in tech fields and places them in apprenticeships, bought the building at 4811 Delmar and turned it into its mentor center. But now a new transformation is taking place: LaunchCode is remodeling the center to expand and accommodate more students. It has just wrapped up a $5 million fundraiser and expects to start construction in the next couple of months, with a projected opening of fall 2021. LaunchCode founder Jim McKelvey puts it simply: “It was a big, ugly building, and now it’ll be a big beautiful building.”
Since its inception in 2013, LaunchCode has been providing its students with free tech education and job-readiness training, and connecting them with employers who are in need of talent. Over four out of five LaunchCoders who complete the education and training go on to full-time jobs as front-end and back-end developers, software developers, mobile developers, data scientists, IT project managers, and more.
McKelvey, also the cofounder of the payment technology company Square, started the organization after he found he couldn’t attract enough qualified St. Louisans to work at the Square offices here. Since then, he says, “We’ve trained and placed thousands of people who probably would not have had programming jobs. It’s a big improvement. The real question [now] is: How open are the pathways? LaunchCode, though extremely effective, still turns away over half the people [who apply]. We just don’t have the capacity.” In 2019, LaunchCode enrolled 1,036 students in St. Louis’ training programs—and turned away 3,700 applicants. The expansion is meant to scale up, cautiously, and will grow class cohort sizes by 33 percent, from 600 to 800 students per year at the facility. “We can do more,” McKelvey says, “and we’re trying to.”
For the redesign, LaunchCode is turning to architectural firm JEMA and its managing partner John Mueller. “What we really wanted to do with this building was radically transform it,” Mueller says. “So that when you come into this space, there isn't this feeling that, Oh, it's the old state unemployment office.”
Plans for the new mentor center, which will be picking up an additional 4,000 square feet, include a “coderscape,” with enough space to host collaborations of as many as 200 and as few as two. LaunchCode’s secret sauce is that as much as the students learn from the staff, they also help teach each other. These breakout rooms, then, are essential. Mueller is also designing some of the walls into writable surfaces—if someone has a question, a student will be able to grab a marker and problem-solve on the wall. The building will feature a café where students can work or those wanting to learn more about the program can come for an introduction. Fixtures and finishes that are more residential than corporate will keep the mood cool yet welcoming.
The building’s location is on the north side of Delmar, and for their design, the architects took cues from the history of the area, often called the Delmar Divide because the street separates the city along racial and socioeconomic lines. “There's a lot of racial, social, and economic history and symbolism that comes with being on Delmar,” Mueller says. The firm took this idea of symbology and created for the building’s entrance a series of perforated metal panels cut to look like abstractions or code that will be backlit. A roof terrace will mimic this design.
Attractive to Mueller was that this project wasn’t a typical renovation. “[LaunchCode] looked at this as a very sort of—permanent is a strong word, but I'll use it—permanent home and a permanent institution in St. Louis,” he says. “At some point, Jim said, ‘You know, when a visitor comes to St. Louis, they're going to go to the Arch, they're going to go to Anheuser-Busch.’ He said, ‘I want them to come here, and I want them to understand that LaunchCode is as important of a place.’”
