Council Plaza (PT. I)

In this episode, we will introduce you to Richard Henmi, an architect whose design projects can be found in nearly every corner of the St. Louis region. Many of his buildings––and there are very many in St. Louis!––are greatly beloved, while others remain controversial.  Henmi’s long career included the design––or redesign––of many high-profile hotels and public buildings, as well as affordable housing, downtown corporate and retail complexes, department stores, and even a house in the suburbs that he built, board by board, for his family. In this, the first of a two-part episode, we’ll focus on a project that resulted in one of St. Louis’s hallmark buildings––but also exacerbated the city’s deep racial tensions in the 1960s: Council Plaza, a multi-phase housing and commercial development project in midtown St. Louis, built between 1964 and 1968.

[Aerial view of Council Plaza. Image courtesy of This is Our St. Louis by Harry M. Hagen.]