Continental-Life Building
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The Continental Life Building, also known as the Continental Building, is an
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...
in
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...
, United States, which was completed in 1930. The building is located in
Grand Center The Grand Center Arts District is located in St. Louis, Missouri, north of the Saint Louis University campus. Referred to colloquially as Grand Center, the neighborhood's formal name is Covenant Blu Grand Center. The neighborhood's is a member ...
near St. Louis' Midtown neighborhood, and is visible from vantage points around the city.


History

Commissioned by Edmund Monroe "Ed" Mays to be the home of his two businesses, Continental-Life Insurance and the Grand National Bank, the building was designed by
William B. Ittner William Butts Ittner (September 4, 1864 – 1936) was an American architect in St. Louis, Missouri. He designed over 430 school buildings in Missouri and other areas, was president of the St. Louis Chapter of the American Institute of Architects ...
, a prominent St. Louis architect. On September 22, 1955, the building was purchased for $2 million by then 27-year-old developers Robert A. Futterman and Jerry Tenney. When Futterman died suddenly in 1961, choking on a sandwich at a dinner party at age 33, his death propelled the building into near insolvency. In his 2003 book ''The Queen of Lace, The Story of the Continental Life Building'', developer and author Stephen Trampe called it "the sandwich that started the decline." The tower housed businesses through the mid-1960s when its co-owners included St. Louis mayor Alfonso J. Cervantes, prominent St. Louis defense attorney
Morris Shenker Morris A. Shenker (January 10, 1907 – August 8, 1989) was an American lawyer best known for his connections to labor leader Jimmy Hoffa and Teamster funding of Las Vegas in the 1960s. Shenker was a Russian Jewish immigrant who arrived in St. Lo ...
, and
Harold Koplar Harold Koplar (February 27, 1915 – May 3, 1985) was an American hotelier and businessman in St. Louis, Missouri. Biography Early life and education Harold Koplar was born February 27, 1915. His grandfather, Berl Koplar an iron dealer, came fr ...
of
KPLR-TV KPLR-TV (channel 11) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate KTVI (channel 2). The t ...
. At some point in the 1970s the building fell into disrepair. After a few false starts in the late 1990s, St. Louis developers Stephen Trampe and Mike Barry took on the project, renovating the building into apartments. It reopened in 2001. Trampe later wrote a book about the building's history and rebirth. The building has a connected three-story
parking garage A multistorey car park (Commonwealth English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistorey, parking building, parking structure, parkade (Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck, or indoor parking, is a building designed fo ...
, which is used by both residents and patrons of the nearby Fox Theatre. The top of the parking garage holds an outdoor pool for residents' use. A notable number of St. Louis landmarks are visible from the building because of its location and height. Some of these include the
Gateway Arch The Gateway Arch is a monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary Catenary arch, arch, it is the world's tallest arch and List of tallest buildings in Missouri, Missouri's ...
,
One Metropolitan Square One Metropolitan Square, also known as Met Square, is an office skyscraper completed in 1989, located in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. At , it is the tallest building in the city and second tallest building in Missouri. Major tenants include ...
(St. Louis' tallest building), the
Edward Jones Dome The Dome at America's Center is a multi-purpose stadium used for concerts, major conventions, and sporting events in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Previously known as the Trans World Dome from 1995 to 2001 and the Edward Jones Dom ...
, the
City Museum City Museum is a museum whose exhibits consist largely of Repurposing, repurposed architectural and industrial objects, housed in the former International Shoe building in the Washington Avenue Loft District of St. Louis, Missouri, United Stat ...
, the
Civil Courts Building The Civil Courts Building is a landmark court building used by the Missouri Circuit Courts, 22nd Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri in St. Louis, Missouri. The building with its pyramid shaped roof is prominently featured in the center of photos ...
, the Anheuser Busch brewery, portions of the
Missouri Botanical Garden The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropy, philanthropist Henry Shaw (philanthropist), Henry Shaw. I ...
including the ''
Climatron The Climatron is a greenhouse enclosed in a geodesic dome that is part of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Initiated by then Garden director Frits W. Went, the dome is the world's first completely air-conditioned greenhouse and the ...
''
geodesic dome A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The rigid triangular elements of the dome distribute stress throughout the structure, making geodesic domes able to withstand very heavy ...
, the St. Louis State Hospital, the Compton Hill water tower, the campus of St. Louis University and the
St. Louis Science Center The Saint Louis Science Center, founded as a planetarium in 1963, is a collection of buildings including a science museum and planetarium in St. Louis, Missouri, on the southeastern corner of Forest Park. With over 750 exhibits in a complex of o ...
. Architectural elements from the building were collected over time by the
National Building Arts Center The National Building Arts Center (NBAC) is a large collection of architectural, structural, and industrial items on a site in Sauget, Illinois. The collection, thought to be the largest amount of architectural artifacts in the United States, is ...
and returned to the building in the Stephen Trampe renovation. Other elements still reside at the foundation's storage site in
Sauget, Illinois Sauget ( ) is a village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. It is part of Greater St. Louis. The population was 141 at the 2020 census, down from 159 in 2010. Geography Sauget is located at (38.587013, -90.166690). According to the ...
. According to the ''
Ghostbusters ''Ghostbusters'' is a 1984 American supernatural comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler, three eccentric ...
'' DVD commentary, Dana's apartment building is modeled after the top of the Continental Life Building in St. Louis, MO. Dana's apartment building actually exists at 55 Central Park West in New York City. The building is only 20 stories high. For the film, matte paintings and models were used to make the building look bigger with more floors and modeling the top of the Continental Life Building.


References


External links


The building's Web site
*

{{St. Louis, Missouri Art Deco architecture in Missouri Residential skyscrapers in St. Louis Art Deco skyscrapers Apartment buildings in Missouri William B. Ittner buildings Midtown St. Louis Buildings and structures in St. Louis 1930 establishments in Missouri