St. Louis’ latest high-rise building, the 36-story 100 Above The Park, brings a new flavor of architecture to the Gateway City (Figure 1). Eight tiers of stacked and undercut floor plans, each four stories high and shaped like the leaves of a tree, create a form at once organic yet modern. Magnusson Klemencic Associates (MKA) teamed with Studio Gang Architects (SGA) to make this unconventional form a reality by using novel framing solutions following this leaf-like building form. The result embraces Forest Park immediately to the west and provides a direct line-of-sight to the Gateway Arch to the east.

Securing Historic Artwork through Structural Ingenuity

Pan American Unity is the largest contiguous mural created by Diego Rivera and his last work in the United States. Timothy Pflueger invited Rivera to paint the mural for the Golden Gate International Exposition, which took place on Treasure Island, San Francisco, in 1940. He participated in a special exhibit called Art in Action, where the spectators could experience the artistic process firsthand as muralists, painters, sculptors, and other artists performed their work live.

Part 5: Wrap-Up

A four-part series of articles in late 2021 (Part 1, STRUCTURE, September, Part 2 – October, Part 3 – November, Part 4 – December) discussed the adaptive reuse of the Witherspoon Building in Philadelphia, PA. This article wraps up the discussion with information obtained from the Presbyterian Historical Society, including the original 1895 specifications.