St. Louis’s first transit-oriented multifamily development opens in historic Skinker DeBaliviere neighborhood

The $71 million Expo at Forest Park project includes a network of pathways to accommodate many modes of transportation including ride share, the region’s Metro Transit system, a trolley line, pedestrian traffic, automobiles, and bike traffic.

By Peter Fabris, Contributing Editor | February 2, 2023

St. Louis’s first major transit-oriented, multi-family development recently opened with 287 apartments available for rent. The $71 million Expo at Forest Park project includes a network of pathways to accommodate many modes of transportation including ride share, the region’s Metro Transit system, a trolley line, pedestrian traffic, automobiles, and bike traffic on the 7-mile St. Vincent Greenway Trail. It also provides parking, extensive amenities, and 30,000 sf of retail space.

Located in the historic Skinker DeBaliviere neighborhood, the development is composed of two buildings. The north building, which will soon feature a ground-level, full-service grocery store, began welcoming residents in August 2022. The seven-story south building followed with an opening in December. The Expo’s entrance was designed to keep streets private, and created walk-up style townhome units. The stepping of the massing helps the development better nestle into the single-family homes surrounding it.

The top-floor south building units are each two stories and include green roofs planted with prairie grasses. An amenity deck features extensive vegetation, bocce court, a pool, fitness center, lounges, and a pet wash.

“Since even before the 1904 World’s Fair, the Skinker-DeBaliviere Neighborhood developed as a dense, diverse residential community along the former Wabash rail line,” said Trivers principal Joel Fuoss, AIA, LEED AP. “This new transit-oriented development, designed to accommodate nearly every mode of modern transportation, will help create an active node of energy at the convergence of these transport pathways.”

Trivers engaged in conversations with Bi-State Development (operator of Metro Transit) and the area’s residents throughout the planning process to ensure the development would be a welcomed addition to the community, according to a Trivers news release. With groundbreaking occurring in 2020 during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire project team overcame health and safety issues as well as supply chain snarls and material shortages to complete the Expo project, the release says.

On the project team:
Owner and/or developer: Tegethoff Development
Design architect: Trivers
Architect of record: Trivers
Associate Architect: HOK
Interior Designer: RD Jones
MEP engineer: G&W Engineering
Structural engineer: Bob D. Campbell and Company
General contractor/construction manager: Brinkmann Constructors

One of the hardest decisions multifamily developers and their design teams have to make is what mix of amenities they’re going to put into each project. A lot of squiggly factors go into that decision: the type of community, the geographic market, local recreation preferences, climate/weather conditions, physical parameters, and of course the budget. The permutations are mind-boggling.

A post-pandemic ‘new normal’ for apartments, Grimm + Parker, Building Design+Construction 2021 Exercise area

Multifamily Housing | Jun 30, 2021

A post-pandemic ‘new normal’ for apartment buildings

Grimm + Parker’s vision foresees buildings with rentable offices and refrigerated package storage.

Resiliency | Jun 24, 2021

Oceanographer John Englander talks resiliency and buildings [new on HorizonTV]

New on HorizonTV, oceanographer John Englander discusses his latest book, which warns that, regardless of resilience efforts, sea levels will rise by meters in the coming decades. Adaptation, he says, is the key to future building design and construction.