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This park in the civic room of the Gateway Mall Project is undergoing a magnificent transformation. Several projects are currently underway or have recently been completed. Let’s go on a tour of the park’s surroundings:

Soldiers Memorial

Soldiers Memorial is to the immediate south of the park. The construction of the building, development of the memorial plaza, and improvements to the parks began on October 21, 1935 and the memorial and museum officially opened on Memorial Day, May 30, 1938. It has been recently renovated.

P.D. George Apartments

The P.D. George Apartments were recently completed in the former Ford Building directly west of the park. The building has 13 stories with apartments on top of the ground floor commercial space. This would be an excellent spot for a future restaurant.

Across the street from the P.D. George building, on the northwest corner of the park, the new Confluence Preparatory Academy recently opened its doors.

The St. Louis Central Library

Rendering of the atrium on the Locust Street side

Directly north sits the beautiful Public Library as designed by Cass Gilbert and funded by Andrew Carnegie. The library is currently undergoing a major $ 79 million renovation and will be reopening Summer 2012. Among the new features are a  250-seat auditorium, computer class rooms and an ADA accessible glass multi-story atrium on the Lucas Park (north) side.

Pacific Park Offices and Apartments

On the east side, the Park Pacific is displaying 24 stories of Grandeur. This is arguably one of the most elegant buildings downtown. It is currently being restored to its former splendor by the Lawrence Group. 230 new apartments, office space and a new upscale restaurant on the park side will soon be completed. The leasing office is open and some apartment are ready for occupation. See our earlier post.

City Hall

One block away, southeast of the park we find the familiar facade of St. Louis City Hall, with the beautiful former Municipal Courts building directly adjacent to the West.

The future 1300 Market Development

This building is currently being marketed as 1300 Market but so far the developers have not been able to secure  a tenant or financing. Next door to the Municipal Courts building we run into the pièce de résistance, one block to the southwest: The fantastic Peabody Opera House, which is also being completely renovated and will be opening later this year.

Peabody Opera House as seen from the park

A couple of blocks to the west we find Blu City Spaces, a recently redeveloped condo project and the soon to be renovated Plaza Square buildings, now renamed Cityview.

Blu City Spaces

The park is literally surrounded by ongoing and completed multi-million dollar projects that combined represent over a half billion dollars in new development. It has all the ingredients to become one of downtown St. Louis’ best and most urban parks. We haven’t been able to discern if the park has been named but for now we like the sound of “Library Park”.
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