Southside Early Childhood Center - Construction Progress Continues

November 26, 2013
It appears that most or all of the presently cast tilt wall panels have been put into position. Workman are systematically pealing away the form liner. This is material used to efficiently place the thin bricks and stone texture onto the wall. This thin plastic allows the bricks to be placed with high precision by carpenters in a fraction of the time require to lay out true masonry walls. The work so has concentrated on the the front or two story section of the building which will house staff and Southside Administrative personnel. Only a few of the one story panels have been tilted at the North end of the building. The weather here in the Midwest has turned off much colder which may have slowed things some. Still and all progress is progressing at a modest pace compared with other forms of building construction. This will truly be a robust and long lasting form of construction for this building type.

View From Alley

 

View of Admin. Wing from Ann



View of Admin. Wing  showing stair tower.

View of partial main building entry

View of main entry and stair tower from Russel

View from Russell Showing fire separation wall between admin and classroom wing

Design Moving Forward for New SouthSide Early Childhood Center

 

Oculus Inc. is finalizing the design for the new SouthSide Early Childhood Center to be located on South Jefferson in St. Louis Missouri. We are in the final stages of design working with our Construction Management Partner, Rhodey Construction, to create a high value facility to support SouthSide’s ongoing support of our community. The design of the new center remains true to the design presented to the St. Louis Development Corporation some time ago and replaces some dilapidated buildings and a former Taco restaurant that was being used as a bank. Right now, the design and facility planning team is working through the process of determining final systems configuration, making budgets adjustments and working out the last details require for construction. The new center will include licensable classroom space for up to 140 children, full service kitchen for preparing meals from scratch, interior play area and multi-purpose space, playgrounds for infants and toddlers as well as a natural playground for the preschool children.

A key element of the design was investing the new facility with historical attributes and infilling the empty space in the built fabric of the urban environment. To accomplish this task, the building is sited along the street where a series of residential and commercial buildings once stood. The scale, massing, and design of the new facility are designed to make the new facility a good urban neighbor while serving as a key visual anchor to the south city neighborhood.