List of Tallest Buildings in St. Louis

List Of Tallest Buildings In St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri is the 58th largest city in the United States and has the 89th most impressive skyline in the world, according to rankings by Emporis. The tallest accessible structure in St. Louis is the 630-foot (190 m) high Gateway Arch, which was completed on October 28, 1965. It also stands as the tallest monument in a National Park, rising 75 feet (23 m) higher than the Washington Monument (and still shorter than the San Jacinto Monument, 567 feet, Houston Ship Channel in Texas), and is the tallest accessible structure in Missouri. The tallest habitable building in the city is the 42-story One Metropolitan Square, at a height of 593 feet (181 m), which was completed in 1989. It was designed by architecture firm Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (HOK), which is also headquartered in the building. It is the second-highest building in Missouri and the tallest habitable building. HOK has also designed several other skyscrapers in St. Louis, including One AT&T Center and the Thomas F. Eagleton United States Courthouse. As a result, the only three habitable buildings in St. Louis over 500 feet (150 m) tall have been designed by HOK. However, no buildings in Missouri are over 700 feet (210 m) and are therefore not among the tallest buildings in the United States.

The history of skyscrapers in St. Louis began with the 1850s construction of Barnum's City Hotel, a six-story building designed by architect George I. Barnett. Until the 1890s, no building in St. Louis rose over eight stories, but construction in the city rose during that decade, due to the development of elevators and the use of steel frames. The first building to use a steel frame in St. Louis was the Wainwright Building, a 10-story office building and one of the first modern skyscrapers. The building, which was designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, illustrates Sullivan's principle of "form follows function". From 1864–1894, the tallest building in St. Louis was the Old Courthouse, at a height of 192 feet (59 m). Throughout the 1890s and into the 1900s, St. Louis saw construction move westward, especially that of office buildings. In 1914, the Railway Exchange Building was completed, which became the city's tallest building for many years. The city then underwent a moderate building boom in the 1920s, leading to the planning of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in 1935.

Recent development of new St. Louis high-rises has not seen much progress. The planned McGowan Walsh Tower (MW Tower) was put on hold in 2007 as a result of the economic situation at the time. If completed, the building would be the tallest building in both St. Louis and Missouri, at a height of over 1,000 feet (300 m) and 90 stories. The Renaissance on Euclid, a planned 30-floor, $115 million condominium project was later canceled. The 26-story Lindell Condominiums were also canceled as a result of a court ruling that the construction of high-rise buildings would not be permitted in the Central West End Historic District, where the complex was planned. The condos had already been approved when two residents filed suit to stop the plan. In addition, the proposed Bottle District Residential Towers project were canceled as well. Architect Daniel Libeskind designed the three towers of the $290 million proposal, which would have boasted St. Louis's tallest building if it had been completed. Construction for the $70 million, 25-story, 300 feet (91 m) Roberts Tower began in 2009. As a result of economic issues, work on the tower stalled in January 2010, although it soon restarted.