St. Louis Building Arts Foundation

St. Louis Building Arts Foundation
Motto Preserving The Future, Promoting Our Past
Formation 2002 (2002)[1]
Founder Larry Giles
Founded at St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Type Non-profit foundation
Headquarters Sauget, Illinois, United States
Coordinates Coordinates: 38°35′42″N 90°10′06″W / 38.594927°N 90.168276°W / 38.594927; -90.168276
Region
Midwest
Director
 Larry Giles[2]
Website www.nationalbuildingarts.org

The St. Louis Building Arts Foundation started as the personal collecting hobby of Larry Giles, a historic preservationist in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.[3]

The foundation saves architecturally significant pieces of historic buildings in the St. Louis region before they are demolished.[4] They also collect before major renovations are made to historic structures. Columns, beams, facades, and other architectural elements were stored in a number of warehouse spaces around St. Louis for a number of years. In 2007, the collection was consolidated and relocated to Sauget, Illinois in the former Sterling Steel Casting foundry property.[3] The foundation hopes to one day show their collection to the general public in a National Building Arts Center.

The St. Louis Building Arts Foundation collection is more than 300,000 items in 1,600 wooden crates, each crate at 30 cubic feet.[5][6]

The original site for the foundation in Sauget roughly cost $1 Millions USD to acquire and move 350 semi truck loads of artifacts from Larry Giles various storage locations, to the single location.[5]

In order to fundraise to complete the National Building Arts Center, Larry Giles is selling duplicates and doubles of artifacts, in addition to traditional fundraising.[5]

Salvaged Architecture

  • 8-foot-tall terra cotta frieze from the 18-story Ambassador Theater Building[5]
  • Missouri Pacific Building
  • St. Louis Terra Cotta company
  • Soulard Station Post Office
  • Gaslight Square[7]
  • State Bank of Wellston was saved after Larry Giles raised $19,000 to rent necessary equipment including a crane and flatbed trucks to salvage the rotating sign.[1]

National Building Arts Center

Larry Giles goal for the St. Louis Building Arts Foundation is to construct a National Building Arts Center.[5] In the original plans for the Gateway Arch, there was an idea to include an architecture museum on the Illinois side of the river.[8][5]

References

  1. 1 2 Naffziger dlin, Chris (4 June 2014). "Historic Bank Sign That Served as Weather Beacon Saved From Scrapyard". Riverfront Times. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  2. ↑ "National Building Arts Foundation Official". Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  3. 1 2 Greene, Lynnda. "A Conversation with Larry Giles". St. Louis Magazine. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  4. ↑ Holleman, Joe (20 August 2017). "Spotlight: National Building Arts Center in Sauget saves at least pieces of history". St. Louis Post Dispatch. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sisson, Patrick (9 May 2017). "A salvager's decades-long dream to build a museum of architectural artifacts". Curbed. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  6. ↑ Vespereny, Cynthia (22 August 2014). "St. Louis Character: Larry Giles". St. Louis Business Journal. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  7. ↑ Medlin, Jarrett (22 August 2014). "The Collector: Larry Giles". Curbed. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  8. ↑ "National Building Arts Foundation Website". National Building Arts Foundation Website. Retrieved 20 Nov 2018. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
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