It's no secret that the Built St. Louis section on
Washington Avenue is
woefully out of date, almost to the point of being more of a historical document than a current one. The photos date from around 2001, which is practically a different
century as far as the condition of the street's buildings. The photos show one empty, boarded up, underutilized building after another... when the reality today is quite different.
The reality today is one of renovated buildings, restaurants and clubs and shops, lofts galore, a renovated streetscape, and neon signs galore. It's a spectacular change, and the signage in particular has breathed new life into the district.
More of the avenue's neon signs can be seen
here.
2 comments:
Glad to see the buildings being revitalized. Unfortunately, I haven't been to Washington Ave.
http://www.stlouislofts.com/downtownloftmap.html has a list of lofts downtown, more than half on Washington Avenue in a while. It comes in handy that I can visit that site and match the addresses from builtstlouis tour to get an idea of the improvement. It really comes in handy. A lot of St. Louis buildings are being restored. Detoit, unfortunately, isn't quite so lucky. http://www.buildingsofdetroit.com/places
Some are being renovated, and a brand new $150 million project is going up, but it looks nothing like the buildings that surround it. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080106/BUSINESS04/801060626&imw=Y
Anyway, thanks for your site builtstlouis. It's very informative, and somewhat inspiring that amid all the destruction some of the buildings downtown are seeing new life.
Hope you get to visit Washington Ave. again soon.
I read this article, it is really informative one. Your way of writing and making things clear is very impressive. Thanking you for such an informative article. Neon Lights Sydney
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