These St. Louis aerials may surprise some of you...

[JivecitySTL]

Contrary to popular belief, urban St. Louis is comprised of much more than just downtown. There are clusters of highrise districts throughout the city, focused mainly in the city's central corridor. From downtown through Midtown, the Central West End and into Clayton in the suburbs, STL is pretty damn big, and relatively dense as well.

In 1950, the 61 square miles of St. Louis City were home to almost 900,000 people. Today the number has dwindled to just over 350,000, but the infrastructure is largely still intact. The greater metropolitan area is home to some 2.7 million people, so this great urban center is in no danger of falling off the map.

I now present to you, the beauty and majesty of Saint Louis City's splendid Central Corridor...

Some views of the suburban Clayton skyline over the beautiful expanse of Forest Park, with the Skinker Blvd highrises (in STL City) to the left:

 

[Wannaplan?]

Contrary to popular belief, urban St. Louis is comprised of much more than just downtown.

Yeah, I was having this very same conversation with a co-worker last week and he said that St. Louis is just more than a downtown, and I replied, "Really?" I mean, it's not really a city, right? It is in the midwest.

 

[JivecitySTL]

LOL, there are just so many people (especially from the coasts) who think the entire Midwest is devoid of any real urbanity.

 

[Super Amputee Cat]

Nice pics!

I was in St. Louis in 1996, hoping to stay in this really great Art Deco Motor Court out of Route 66. But alas they tore it down a couple of years before that for some yuppie condos.

Do you consider St. Louis to be your hometown or just your present locaion? Look for me to add some old pictures of St. Louis on my postcard website.

 

[Andy Dobson]

That's nice, but where's Pruit Igoe?

 

[JivecitySTL]

Super Amputee--

St. Louis is my hometown as well as where I currently live. I love this city.

 

[tsc]

Holy flat sprawl.....it's endless....

 

[JivecitySTL]

I wouldn't really call that sprawl. Those are dense urban blocks. And St. Louis isn't pancake-flat like Chicago. There are gentle rolling hills throughout the city, and many suburbs are very hilly and filled with bluffs, particularly in the southwest suburbs.

 

[Super Amputee Cat]

I wouldn't really call that sprawl. Those are dense urban blocks. And St. Louis isn't pancake-flat like Chicago. There are gentle rolling hills throughout the city, and many suburbs are very hilly and filled with bluffs, particularly in the southwest suburbs.

Yeah, I would have to agree for the most part on this one, although I did notice a lot of "creeping crud" architecture popping up along old U. S. 66. Besides the aforementioned motor court (I wish I could remember the name) other 1940s and 1950s Vintage buildings had been plowed over for places like Target and Best Buy.

Once you got past a certain point though, it was all high density -like a city should be. Even some nice new townhouses were being built. I would love to go back there again with the kids. They love old buildings!

 

[Super Amputee Cat]

Here are some population figures for St. Louis:

• 
  1900 575,200
  1910 687,000
  1920 772,900
  1930 822,000
  1940 816,000
  1950 856,800
  1960 750,000
  1970 622,200
  1980 452,800
  1990 396,700
  2000 348,200
  

 

[JivecitySTL]

The Coral Court Motel was actually outside the St. Louis city limits. The "creeping crud" architecture was most likely outside the city limits. The City of St. Louis is pretty much all urban and overwhelmingly brick.

 

[jordanb]

Holy flat sprawl.....it's endless....

How the hell is that sprawl?

 

[mike gurnee]

I drive through STL frequently. Would love to stay a week with a guided tour. Hate the sprawl in the metro area, but no different from others.

 

[BGT]

Awesome pics! How much did the ride cost?

 

[JivecitySTL]

I didn't take the pics, they were taken by an aerial photographer doing survey work for developers who are building a 23-story condo tower on what is now a surface parking lot in the Central West End.

 

[Xing500]

Some great pics of St. Louis JIVE. You don't often get to see things from that angle. St. Louis is coming back, the population is going up, the crime is going down, and young and old people alike are coming back downtown. So much is going on, and planned for both sides of the river.