Miami Street
South St. Louis, MO

“One of these things is not like the others/Tell me can you guess which one?”

In 1996, a house was demolished in this South Side neighborhood west of Kingshighway.  A tad over 10 years later, someone bought the vacant lot and erected this striking, thoroughly-modern replacement.

In-fill housing in St. Louis City doesn’t happen as often as it should, and then when it does it is too often inappropriate for the area.  Technically, this house is stylistically inappropriate for the neighborhood.  Then again, this part of town has residential styles easily spanning a 60-year period, and this stretch of the street is the perfect example of that.  So, in essence, this new home is following the tradition of this North Hampton neighborhood.

The newest member of this block respects the scale and set-back of its neighbors and is designed in the 21st century casual manner I call “Dwell Magazine Modern.”  It is certainly different, but it’s not startling, and I think it’s a very handsome addition to the streetscape.

I love how they carried the materials and aesthetic to the alley; this garage is amazing! And it brings up a dozen questions, including: how do the neighbors feel about it? how hard was it to get a loan for such a different design in this neighborhood? who is the architect? how cool is the interior?

If anyone knows the story of this new house, please do share! And thank you to architect Geoff Crowley who discovered the house while driving around and let me know about it.