Adjacent to downtown St. Louis,
Grand Center lies at the confluence of residential, commercial,
educational and cultural centers. Recognizing the need to provide
quality housing for new arrivals in Grand Center, specifically
millenials and empty-nesters, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio has been
entrusted to develop the Olive West Masterplan, a housing development
along Olive St. that responds to the need for community and shared
space to connect a diverse set of private living conditions.
Situated in close proximity to
both the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and the Pulitzer Arts
Foundation, the Olive West Masterplan will respond to the cultural
character of the community by creating its own center of production
and meeting within the historic Wolfner Building as well as spaces of
communal leisure and play between the housing units. The units
themselves will be designed by a set of internationally-recognized
architects who will tackle the issues of housing and community with
their own approaches, catalysing housing diversity within the
collective.
Varying degrees of privacy, from
the intimate home to the public park that are weaved together by a
series of vibrant communal spaces, generate circumstances under which
people feel comfortable to participate in community. In this spirit,
a hierarchy of spaces from completely private to completely public
was organized. In-between spaces, such as each unit’s private
outdoor space or the residential amenities located between units,
allow for nuanced communal meeting places. A mix of town houses (two
adjoining or stacked units) and garden houses (single units) provide
the base elements from which the masterplan is determined.
