There is a new apartment building being built at the corner of West Pine and Kingshighway. There will be construction until approximately November 2019. The alley behind our building will be closed during this time.

(from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

One of the region’s most anticipated developments is officially underway, one that will change the Central West End skyline with a modern apartment tower designed by one of the biggest names in contemporary architecture.

The One Hundred apartment tower at 100 North Kingshighway will rise 385 feet, 75 feet taller than the neighborhood’s Art Deco landmark a block to the north, the Chase Park Tower.

Studio Gang, led by acclaimed architect and MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang, is the architect for the project being developed by Mac Properties of New Jersey. Clayco, based in Chicago with a large presence here, is the general contractor.

“The complexity of the project will allow Clayco’s team to be strategic and innovative throughout the phases of construction,” Mac Properties said in a statement.

Mac Properties plans to open the $130 million, 316-unit project overlooking Forest Park by the summer of 2020. Gang’s firm is known for its modern designs, such as the Aqua skyscraper in Chicago.

'Stacked Cups'? 'Magazine Rack'? St. Louis reacts to striking design of the One Hundred building

At a groundbreaking Tuesday, Alderman Joe Roddy, who represents the area, said Gang is probably the most notable architect to design a building here since the Philip Johnson-designed General American Life building downtown. It should become an “instant landmark,” he said.

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson told a crowd of about 50 who gathered for the groundbreaking that the notable building planned for the conspicuously undeveloped parking lot showed that something isn’t always better than nothing. She credited area leaders who waited “to get the right project on this site.”

Mac Properties had owned the site for several years. Its plans to develop the building were finally announced in late 2016. Since then, St. Louis officials approved development incentives that include a decade of 95 percent property tax abatement and five years at 50 percent as well as a break on sales tax for construction materials.

“There is nothing else like it in the city of St. Louis, and frankly, I think we’re ready for something new in the city,” Krewson said.

Mac Properties founder Eli Ungar said when he shows investors St. Louis, they’re “stunned by the architectural diversity” and he believes One Hundred will contribute to it. His firm has worked with Studio Gang on several other projects. This one, he said, “will be our most beautiful building yet.”