St. Louis Building Arts Foundation

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 moved to Sauget, Illinois, in the former Sterling Steel Casting foundry property.[3] The collection is more than 300,000 items in 1,600 wooden crates of 30 cubic feet.[5][6] It cost about $1 million to acquire the Sauget site and move the artifacts there in 350 semi-truck loads.[5]

The foundation hopes to one day show their collection to the general public in a National Building Arts Center. In the original plans for the Gateway Arch, there was an idea to include an architecture museum on the Illinois side of the river.[7] To raise money for the shelter, Giles is selling duplicates and doubles of artifacts, in addition to traditional fundraising.[5]

Items in the collection include:

• 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[8]
• State Bank of Wellston was saved after Giles raised $19,000 to rent necessary equipment including a crane and flatbed trucks to salvage the rotating sign.[1]