The State of Missouri has offloaded one of the most—if not the most—historically significant works of architecture in all of St. Louis: Louis Sullivan’s famed proto-skyscraper, the Wainwright Building.
As reported by St. Louis Public Radio earlier this month, the Wainwright Building was sold for a winning bid of $8.25 million on a government auction site to Arch to Park Equity LLC, a real estate fund coordinated by non-profit economic development agency, Greater St. Louis, Inc.
1907 image of the Wainwright Building. Photo courtesy Missouri Historical Society, public domain
Rising 10 stories above Chestnut and N. Seventh Streets in downtown St. Louis, the steel-framed, brick and terra-cotta–clad office tower—designed by Sullivan during his 15-year partnership with Dankmar Adler—was simultaneously designated as a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1968. Four years later, it was named as a local landmark. Regarded as one of the 10 Buildings That Changed America, the Wainwright Building isn’t technically the first skyscraper to be built in the United States. It is, however, one of the most influential as the first “tall building that embraced its tallness,” explains the 2013 PBS documentary series. “The tall building was a new phenomenon—and before the Wainwright, architects were designing structures with disparate segments stacked one on top of the other, as on a tiered wedding cake.”
The decades haven’t always been kind to the Wainwright Building, which Sullivan mentee Frank Lloyd Wright famously described as “the very first human expression of a tall steel office-building as architecture.” Over the years, it has dodged demolition, suffered through stretches of neglect, and faced periods of uncertainty that extend to the present day. Fears regarding the survival of this quintessential St. Louis landmark were ignited earlier this summer when the state, which has owned the 234,600-square-foot building since the early 1970s, announced that it would sell it at auction; separately, the 1970s-era Mill Creek State Office Building on S. Jefferson Street was also put on the block. Approved unanimously by the Missouri Board of Public Buildings (Governor Mike Parson is among its voting members), the move is part of a larger scheme—one not without controversy— to relocate hundreds of state employees working at both buildings to a new governmental office campus planned for the western suburb of Chesterfield. Proceeds from the sale of both buildings will be used to fund the new campus, and the board has stressed the move was a financial one.
Photos by Warren LeMay, Flickr
Pending the closure of the sale, Greater St. Louis, Inc., which was formed in 2021 through the merger of five private-sector business groups, has offered little indication as to what the Wainwright Building’s next chapter might look like aside from ensuring that it will be “preserved for future redevelopment” as part of a larger effort to revitalize downtown St. Louis, which has struggled considerably to rebound from the impacts of the pandemic.
“We look forward to working with the City and Downtown partners on a plan to develop the Wainwright Building and to continuing our partnership to revitalize Downtown and make it the safe, vibrant, and beautiful neighborhood at the heart of our metro,” a statement shared by Greater St. Louis reads.
For now, local preservationists and admirers of this history-altering edifice will have to wait for more details regarding what such redevelopment might entail. Here’s hoping that the next chapter for the Wainwright Building, commissioned by St. Louis beer baron Ellis Wainwright, will be worth raising a glass to.
