Kirkwood Gadfly often, almost exclusively, focuses on hypotheticals and things that should happen rather than things that actually are happening. That’s for a variety of reasons I guess but mostly its because I don’t know anything more than you do. I’m really not sure how other people that are good at this, buildingstlnews.com and nextstl.com, for example, know what they know (it must be nice to not just have to make shit up like I do) but in this post I’m going to try and do my best impression of ’em. The following is the first in a series of recaps of a few of the most notable projects that grew up across Kirkwood this Summer and the works that have started to wind down as the dog days grow near.
The Madison
The Madison, 201 S. Kirkwood Road (a technicality based on some ostensible connection with the adjacent two story physical therapy building that actually fronts Kirkwood Rd) is a three and a half story, twelve unit
condominium building located just across the street from City Hall and and the police department. All twelve units were sold pre-completion by the developer and based on rumblings found on UrbanSTL, may be occupied by a total of twelve people. While this unfortunate lack of added density combined with a lack of any commercial space at the ground level is very disappointing, I find the building itself to be a pleasant one. Its is contemporary design utilizing quality materials (mostly grey brick) that also offers small nods to its surrounding reference points. Its eave line for example, rising above the otherwise flat roof and comprised of white paneling and a black roof, mirrors that of the residence located next door built in 1870.
The masonry framing around the middle third of the building, alternatively, nods to the neo-classical, columned facade of City Hall, itself constructed in 1941. I also enjoy the break of the facade at each of the four corners where the substantial balconies are located both causing the building to appear smaller in scale, more dynamic in the sense that it allows sight line through the corners of the structure for passers-by and more well planned as well as more integral to the dynamic of the building than a structure with protruding balconies slapped on. Additionally, substantial balconies such as these, deep enough to provide their own shade and with ceiling fans built in, balconies that people can actually live some part of their life on, unlike, say those of Station Plaza that range from shallow to laughable, seem like they could add to the perceivable street life of Madison even if the building does lack the mixed-use street-level ability to do the same.
