Epstein's Top 100 Projects: #82: Executive Office Building

Today, the Epstein Top 100 Project countdown covers the 20-story executive office building located at 515-517 Olive Street in St. Louis, Missouri.

This Epstein-designed building, which was completed in 1963, was the first major office building completed in downtown St. Louis in more than 30 years, and also the first building to feature an "international style" glass curtainwall. In fact, Epstein’s design proceeded after St. Louis leaders changed the city’s building code to allow exterior walls made of materials other than masonry.

The executive office building, developed by the New York-based Collins, Tuttle & Company, featured a modernist design and was constructed of structural steel piers and columns, along with fully-tinted glass curtainwall. The columns were clad in polished black marble and anodized metal panels and the window bases featured the same marble with aluminum sills.

The interior public spaces of the building featured area for two retail outlets, a first floor lobby, an elevator hall with a terrazzo floor, marble walls, and ornamental metal elevator doors and framing.

Today, the executive office building still stands and was even nominated for the National Register of Historic Places in September 2012. With that said, there have been some significant changes since 1963, most notably that the building is now known as the Millennium Center. It’s also no longer strictly an office building, as the building’s top 9 floors were converted to residences in 2014.