Grouphug St. Louis celebrated the first round of some lovin’ for StL with a party to view all the submissions of fine folks hugging the things they love about our city. I was honored and jazzed to have the photo above make the Top 20, twenty photos we voted on to find the top 3 winners. And here’s all the photos!
The City of St. Louis is rightly and widely known for its massive collection of still-standing brick buildings from the mid-1800s onward. What gets overlooked in all the architectural appreciation is how many fine mid-20th century buildings we have, as well. The Gateway Arch gets all the attention (rightly so), but check out the Buder Building:
I chose this building for the Grouphug because it’s the perfect building for me. Early 1960s blonde brick and metal, graceful and stately because it was designed to be the Buder Branch of the St. Louis Public Library. Then it became a used record store. Mid-century modernism, books and records… that’s all I need to maintain a consistent level of satisfaction and the Buder has all 3. After this hug photo was snapped, I also gave it a big sloppy kiss. And that ain’t the first time I’ve done so!
RELATED
An MCM Light Bulb Moment
As of Monday, the building is up for sale. The sign says “moving to a larger location.” Hopefully the building will find a new tenant who will honor this beautiful building. If they go to tear it down for a gas station or fast food joint, I’ll chain myself to it. Who’s with me?
Amazing! This post brought a smile to my face!
That is such cool info! Thanks for sharing it!
Ah, good memory, good catch.
Note To Developers: wanna make a building everyone is guaranteed to love? Use “buder” in the name.
So grateful they have kept it basically intact. BUT there is some unaddressed water damage happening to the diagonal brick wall on the parking lot that leads up to the terrace.
I watch it spread and worry it will be replaced with an ugly gray concrete paver wall. Wish they’d just address the problem now while it’s still relatively inexpensive to solve.
This is a pretty fan-f***ing-tastic building. I think it’s one of the most distinctive in the City: can’t mistake it for anything else. Those brackets? fins? buttresses? are gangbusters, baby! I hope that whomever owns it is maintaining it properly. (No signs otherwise, just, you know…)
THE Buder Bldg was downtown on Pine. Great loss!
The artist who created the large mobile in the vestibule of this building was named Fred Dreher. I live in (what was) his house now. He seems to have created a lot of neat mod work, but I haven’t seen much in person — just the mobile and a lucite owl lamp that went up for auction last year at Ivey-Selkirk. I was outbid 🙁