Old and New in Old North

Following the amazing progress of Old North St. Louis has been inspiring. One of St. Louis's most historic neighborhoods, Old North seemed consigned to a fate of perpetual, yet slow decay (see today's Hyde Park). Yet the neighborhood's historic housing stock is rising along with the population; both are outmatched by the growing enthusiasm and excitement, however.

From Old North St. Louis

Caption: This shot of the now renovated N. 14th Street "Mall" would have been unthinkable ten years ago, when this lovely row of commercial buildings was rotting into a faded memory. Photo Credit: ONSL.org

As the reviving neighborhood continues to come into its own, it will certainly face issues with how to construct new buildings to fit in to the historic context. We have already seen some new historicist construction along North Market (below).

From Old North St. Louis

Photo Credit: ONSL.org

It's wonderful to see North Market's unfortunate gaps filled with new buildings that respect the scale and context of the neighborhood's history. I, however, am most interested in new takes on history--new construction that challenges the historic mold without necessarily breaking it. There are some exciting rehabilitation projects that incorporate creative new uses for a building (1303 N. Market), or add a contrasting addition (1318 Hebert). But what about cutting edge new construction that references the ONSL Federal/Greek Revival/Italianate red brick heritage?


Enter the container house. Yes, people are now shipping in containers (as in the ones that you see on the back of trucks on every interstate) and are stacking them into highly unconventional living spaces. These pre-fab units are cheap, but when done well they don't look cheap.


Check out this house just outside of San Francisco.

Under Construction:

From Old North St. Louis

And Completed:

From Old North St. Louis

Source: Inhabitat


You can easily see how these stackable, incredibly affordable housing units could be done up to fit the form of a classic ONSL home with its wraparound lintels (example). Instead of limestone, they could be metallic.


If you stacked up three tall by three wide, you could recreate this lost beauty, formerly located at 1404-14 Monroe. It would have the added benefit of bringing a higher level of density to ONSL.

From Old North St. Louis

While I'm not sure what the life span of the container house is, they're brilliant nods to industrial heritage and offer a lot of breathing room for design elements. What do you think?