Projects Archive - Bush Construction

River Bend Food Bank

Posted on December 10, 2024

River Bend Food Bank was facing a good problem – they were running out of space for their daily operations!

Our team constructed a 10,000 square foot addition to the existing building to expand office space. We also added a small office within the warehouse to streamline the shipping process. Additionally, a new parking lot was built to accommodate volunteer and employee parking.

The project was carried out in multiple phases to ensure uninterrupted business operations. Firstly, we installed the new parking lot so the old one could be replaced to make room for the office space addition. After completing the addition, the office staff moved into the new space, allowing us to demolish the old office area and create more warehouse and volunteer space.

Notably, the water service for the project had to be adjusted to meet a city requirement for a fire hydrant located on the other side of the railroad tracks. While this modification initially posed a significant cost burden to the owner, our team found an alternative method to install the hydrant, resulting in substantial cost savings.

Kairos Academy High School

Posted on December 10, 2024

Kairos Academies is a high performing public charter school in St. Louis, serving grades 6 to 12. Founded in 2019, Kairos Academies has a unique teaching method involving a high degree of self-directed work that will enable students for the contemporary work environment they will face as adults. This educational method informs the design of the school’s teaching spaces, which include a higher mix of common and breakout spaces than conventional schools.

Kairos has operated in a leased warehouse space since its start. When it became clear that their ambitious model was delivering great results and they would need a permanent home, they reached out to Bush (formerly UIC in St. Louis) to assist in identifying and developing a new home. Having successfully completed the development of two high-performing charter schools in St. Louis previously, Bush had the experience to help Kairos realize their goals.

Bush’s engagement started with programming and sizing of the project, along with site identification and acquisition. In the spring of 2024, Kairos acquired a 4.5 acre site in the Bevo Mills neighborhood. Bush has created designs to rehabilitate the 100,000 sf existing building on the site into a school that will enable Kairos’ teaching method and allow them to continue to grow.

Bush’s development team is working with Kairos and has helped source New Market Tax Credits along with investments and financing for the projects and will start construction on the project in early 2025.

Green House Venture

Posted on December 10, 2024

The Green House Venture (GHV) is an educational and community resource that synergizes the interests of multiple institutions in South St. Louis city in their search for more robust STEM/STEAM education. The Venture brings Saint Louis University together with four elementary schools, each with its own distinctive mission and character –public, charter, parochial, Christian-in a single Urban Education Alliance District. It will offer hands-on learning opportunities for schools in a building that is itself a model for sustainability and urban agriculture. In conjunction with the SLU Salus Center, it will offer outreach and food distribution programs to benefit the community. In addition, the Venture will be a new, iconic building for the neighborhood, demonstrating that green architecture and urban agriculture are not simply trendy or ad-hoc solutions, but vibrant and lasting visions for the future of living in cities.

The 10,000sf facility includes indoor and outdoor classrooms, bio-lab space, a gallery, growing spaces, and office and support areas. The growing spaces include indoor and outdoor areas to demonstrate the potential for year-round food production, and encompass 5 distinct areas: SMOS Dragon’s Garden, a lesson in the remediation of urban land; the main greenhouse and aquaponics gallery for understanding growing in small ecosystems; the hydroponic roof garden, demonstrating the ease of adapting lightweight roof gardens for home use; the courtyard, a series of trellised fruit trees and growing towers; and the embankment garden, a 2-block reclaiming of unused land adjacent to the highway for urban agriculture and native plants.

Botanical Heights

Posted on December 10, 2024

Botanical Heights is a new name that replaced McRee Town, which at one point was one of the most dangerous urban neighborhoods in the nation. At the time we moved in, the eastern half of the neighborhood had recently been completely torn down and replaced with new housing by a large regional home builder. The western half was assumed to be slated for the same fate; we had a different idea!

Working with a not for profit redevelopment group, the Garden District Commission, which was formed by the nearby Missouri Botanical Garden, we forged a new plan that stabilized the existing building stock and move forward with an ambitious plan for historic rehabilitation and infill building that would re-create a walkable, sustainable, mixed use neighborhood.

To date, our team has developed, designed and built over 40 new homes, dozens of apartments, a facility for Missouri’s top performing charter school, several nationally recognized restaurants and various office and retail spaces. We have guided over $15 million in investments in the neighborhood thus far with another $10 million slated for the coming two years.

The neighborhood has received local and national praise for both the speed and quality of the redevelopment. By working within the context of this long neglected 100 year old neighborhood we have been able to foster a rebirth with the density, amenities, and charm that make city neighborhoods great places to live and work.

Olio and Elaia

Posted on December 10, 2024

Bush (formally UIC) served as design-builder and developer for this new venture by our good friend, chef Ben Poremba. Olio, described as a “grown-up wine bar and eatery,” is located in a former 1930s Standard Oil station that had been covered in plaster and stood abandoned for over a decade. Following a careful uncovering and analysis of the existing structure to determine the original form and brick pattern, we were able to lovingly complete a rehabilitation of this iconic structure. Olio, and its sister restaurant Elaia, are now an important anchor for our redevelopment of the Botanical Heights neighborhood.

Switch Office Renovation

Posted on December 10, 2024

Switch is a dynamic and multi-faceted St. Louis-based advertising agency that works as both an ideas and branding firm, as well as in event production and fabrication. When Switch approached Bush, they had half of their team in a downtown loft building and half in a defunct strip mall, two miles away, with a desire to bring everyone under one roof by expanding their space in the former shopping center, creating one 90,000 sf office and production hub for the firm.

Our challenge was to find a way to expand what Switch had already begun, while also make a new creative office space in a banal 30,000 sf former office supply store, that would inspire a group accustomed to their cozy loft offices. To do this, we embraced the bigness of the space, creating a dynamic open work area with carefully placed break-out spaces, a game room, a bar, and all of it centered around a winding two-story ramp and amphitheater. This ramp and amphitheater can accommodate a customized tour of Switch’s work for prospective clients, or a whole company meeting, creating a hub that fits their unique culture and style. Our first clue that the team would like the space was the razor scooter races that broke out on the ramp before we could finish construction.

Kairos Academy 9th Grade

Posted on December 10, 2024

Kairos Academies is a successful charter school in South City in St. Louis, with a unique approach to high school and middle school education facilities. Their philosophy includes providing students with several opportunities for self-directed and collaborative learning.

The 18,000SF renovation that we completed over the summer of that school year included construction of several new classrooms, a large collaboration zone, a cafeteria renovation, and new gender-neutral bathrooms. The space added to the school was the entire 9th grade. Building year by year is and operational construct for the feasibility of the school. The schedule required that design and permitting work be completed so that construction could start when school ended and complete at start of school year – approximately 10 week construction period.

The grades for 5th-8th grade were already located within Concordia Publishing House, a large underutilized office and warehouse building. Kairos Academies is a tenant of the building and occupies several thousand square feet of multiple floors. High ceilings and lots of natural daylight are a perk of such a building and were incorporated into the design of the 9th grade. A historic wood block floor that was originally set to soak up ink from old printing presses was refurbished and is the flooring for most of the 9th grade wing. It is both unique and very durable.

Much like modern open offices, the classrooms have large windows to the outside, as well as walls of windows to the hallways and collaborative spaces. Students are able to move freely between the classroom and meeting spaces, with visual connections to enhance creative opportunities and for teachers to have visual oversight.

Lafayette Preparatory Academy

Posted on December 10, 2024

Phase 1 – Renovation of Classroom Buildings of Historic Lafayette Church

23,000SF

Lafayette Preparatory Academy is a top-ranked St. Louis City charter school and its reputation continues to grow. Their facility is in the prominent and beautiful neighborhood of Lafayette Square, near downtown. They came to us when they found a building in the area that they were trying to serve – the historic Lafayette Church at the northeast corner of Lafayette Square Park. The building had a lot of potential – though not a lot of land – and that worked for the school from a location and financial perspective. We were able to help with the development of the building, including acquisition, financing, deployment of incentives, and planning.

In order to meet the schedule the school needed to begin holding classes in the building, we divided the project into two phases. The first phase was the 23,000sf renovation of two of the old Sunday School classroom buildings. Both of historic significance, one was built in the 1940s and the other in the 1960s, and both were in terrible shape having been vacant for several years. The design team worked with the school leadership and staff to re-purpose the space into light-filled and spacious classrooms, a library, offices, and cafeteria / multi-purpose room. Once complete, the school began using the facility and we began to prepare for Phase 2. Interestingly, the 1940s building had been designed to have two more stories added to it, but the plan was never carried out. With such little space on the site to build, the challenge for Phase 2 was to fit several more middle school classrooms and a gym on the site.

Phase 2 – Middle School Addition and Gym Addition

16,500SF

After completing Phase 1 – renovation of the classroom buildings – we began planning for Phase 2, which was decidedly more complicated. The design team was able to squeeze a two-story classroom building between the historic church and the 1960s building, and connect the floors. We also designed and engineered the addition of a full-sized gym on top of the existing 1940s building. The original plans for the building called for a vertical addition of two more floors of classrooms. Ultimately we were able to add the gym and successfully navigate the code changes that were made.

Being in a historic district, the new construction portions of the project faced regulatory challenges and approvals required by City guidelines. We were able to work with the neighborhood and the Preservation Board to design a beautiful addition to the neighborhood and a functional facility for the school.

Marian Middle School Phase 2

Posted on December 10, 2024

After successfully completing the Phase 1 Stem Center, Library and Cafeteria, Marian Middle School began the process of a major renovation to their campus including the historic classroom building and their recreational building, a mid-century structure with a gym, locker rooms, classrooms, kitchen, and chapel. It had been decades since significant work had been done to either building and they were in need of core, shell and systems modernization, and code compliance work, as well as a cosmetic refresh – flooring, casework, lighting, plumbing, painting, lab and classroom space. Our development team led them through the process of financing, fund-raising and deploying incentives, such as historic tax credits.

Renovations were completed on a tight schedule primarily over the summer so the students could be back in the buildings for the fall semester.

Marian Middle School Phase 1

Posted on December 10, 2024

We were introduced to Marian Middle School when they needed help renovating their lower level into a STEM Center and Library, and renovating their existing cafeteria. The existing lower level was semi-open, already housing their small cafeteria and kitchen, but there were also two classrooms that were underutilized and needed updating. The vision of the principal was to create a modern and flexible space that was bright, colorful, and collaborative… And not so basement-y.

We worked with the staff and the students to program the space and developed a detailed plan to add a science lab, a maker space, and a library that would open up to the cafeteria. We installed and operable glass wall between the library and cafeteria, adding flexibility to both spaces and bringing more light into the cafeteria space. The finishes are colorful and cheerful and the furniture varies from standard tables and chairs to lounges and beanbags, providing an atmosphere that feels somewhere between a cool “start-up” and a school.