Wanted: exemplary infill

It's no secret that St. Louis's typical infill projects involve some rehashing of the red brick, two story foursquare plan--perhaps mansarded.

There has been very little vision in the area of infill in our city.

I will begin to scour the net for ideas and examples of successful infill that the city should emulate--or, at the very least, capture the same bold spirit of.

I will start with a Seattle example, a mixed use structure on a "main street" of sorts.



Notice the not-unprecedented but still interesting scale--a bit taller than the neighbors but nearly the same height as the structure a couple doors down.

The color scheme is, in my opinion, a complete success, drawing attention without looking overly flashy and resisting the temptation to go strictly for a temporary novelty.

The building is at once modern (the materials combined with tall, slender windows) and traditional (presence of a [cantilevered] cornice, maintenance of street wall). It looks neither tried and tired nor overly trendy.

If there were infill of this sort along Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. or some of St. Louis's many other decimated Main Streets, I'd be in tears of joy.