Monday, October 31, 2011

Busch Stadium and the Architectural Legacy of St.. Louis

I was going to do this post about two years ago, but then I completely forgot. I thought to commemorate the Cardinals' eleventh World Series victory, I would look at the third Busch Stadium and how it borrows and celebrates earlier architectural monuments in St. Louis.First, and perhaps the most obvious, is the Eads Bridge, one of the most important bridges in the world; as you can see, the main entrances to Busch feature giant arches reminiscent of the bridge.See more of historic bridges here, from some of my earlier posts.Likewise, the ornamental terrcotta panels clearly show the influence of the Merchants Laclede Building on Fourth Street, once nicknamed the Wall Street of the Midwest.Look at more of St. Louis and other cities' historic office buildings here.Finally and perhaps the most obvious, the nearby Cupples Warehouses influence the overall composition of the stadium.I was remarking this weekend about how important the Cardinals are to St. Louis; in a metropolitan area where it is a spectator sport to try and watch the city fail, no one dares lay a hand on the one of the most storied teams in baseball. They can take away 500,000 people, but they can't take away the Cardinals.

2 comments:

  1. Great post on the stadium. Yeah to the Cards on their victory!

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  2. Tom Maher - KirkwoodOctober 31, 2011 at 4:17 PM

    Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Chris!
    Just goes to show that the trained eye is so much more discerning than the clueless. Just another of those Homer "D'Uh" moments that seem to happen with worrying regularity...
    I shudda stuck to bicycles.

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A Blog detailing the beauty of St. Louis architecture and the buildup of residue-or character-that accumulates over the course of time.