ladue
Once $80-million-plus worth of renovations and an extensive addition have been completed at Ladue Horton Watkins High School, alumni just might not recognize the alma mater. Well, maybe from the back, according to project renderings (pictured at top). The central facade with familiar cupola that has faced Warson Road since the building was erected will remain, but much of the dated building’s remainder will be massively reconfigured to bring it into the 21st century. Construction, which began over the summer, is concentrating on updates to the academic core of the building, where classrooms have not been renovated significantly since they were built in the 1950s and ’60s. Funding comes from an $85.1 million bond referendum district voters passed last April. When completed, the high school will feature classrooms designed to accommodate today’s educational best practices, which require spaces conducive to collaboration across disciplines; small group work; the integrated use of science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM); and the opportunity for students to use their knowledge in real-world applications and group-based projects. The ambitious project being built by S. M. Wilson & Co. is anticipated to be complete, for the most part, by the beginning of the 2018-19 school year.
A cafe in downtown Maplewood is, we’re almost loath to say, the cat’s meow. Mauhaus is the given name of this kitty lover’s paradise, and it’s been open since November at 3101 Sutton Blvd., not a fur piece from almost anywhere in town. (Meouch! There’s no charge for puns, although there probably should be, considering they’ve probably heard the ones we’ve subjected you to several times this week already.) Inspiration came from successful ventures elsewhere in this country and abroad, where there are cat cafes with names such as Catmosphere, Caturday and KitTea. Reservations at Mauhaus are recommended: There’s a $10 per person fee that allows for an hour in the cat lounge and helps cover maintenance and kitty cat care. But that $10 may be applied to the cost of food and beverages. Mauhaus, which serves baked goods and other light fare, coffee and tea (and all the cat-cuddling you can handle), is in partnership with Tenth Life, a cat rescue organization in south St. Louis. Cafe owners say it’s all about the cats, which they hope are adopted as time goes on. There’s no shortage of homeless cats in the city, of course, so a steady replacement of felines is all but guaranteed. One important caveat … see, we didn’t say ‘catveat,’ at least at fur-st … don’t bring your own cat when you visit. They have plenty of their own. But you’ll probably bring your smartphone to capture any and all amusing cat behavior. Goodness knows, there could never be enough cat videos circulating the ‘interwebs’ for us to enjoy instead of cringing at political posts. Kitties are our friends.
st. louis
For anyone worried about the tenor of public discourse in this country at the moment, there was a ‘hug-in’ on South Grand Boulevard a couple of Saturdays ago. There was some prepress of the event, but much less following it. (KMOX Radio said ‘dozens’ of hugs were given out; organizers said it was hundreds!) Perhaps there’s just too much rotavirus going around. But people were offered hugs, absolutely free, at four locations: Jay International Foods, Rooster, the Carpenter Branch of St. Louis Public Library, and Aldi. Volunteers had ‘Free Hugs’ signs, and several merchants— among them Starbucks, Rooster, Qdoba and SweetArts—handed out treats. The nonprofit Gitana Productions co-sponsored the event in an effort to bridge the societal and cultural gaps that widened during the presidential campaign and election. Volunteers said most hug recipients responded positively, and some folks even got out of their cars to join in. Still, some people were just freaked out by the prospect of a stranger grabbing them, although most huggers asked permission first. Anyhow, can pleasant surprise be a bad thing? The regular embracers among us think not.
kirkwood
Green Ribbon Schools in this beautiful country, ecologically conscious as we hope it is, are selected by the U.S. Department of Education (isn’t that headed by ‘Betsie Davos’? Or is it ‘Web Debois’?*). The state education department nominated five schools for the federal program, four of which are in the metro, and among those is W.W. Keysor Elementary in the Kirkwood School District. (Applause!) This program recognizes those schools that are actively and creatively seeking ways to: reduce environmental impact and costs; improve the health and wellness of students and staff; and provide effective environmental and sustainability education. The other three metro-area schools and districts are: McKelvey Elementary, Parkway North (Parkway); Maplewood-Richmond Heights Middle School (Maplewood-Richmond Heights) … more applause! The fourth Missouri school is in Kirksville. (Take that, KC!) At Keysor, pupils as early as kindergarten learn what’s actually waste from their lunch, as well as what is compostable or recyclable, and put the right stuff in the right container(s). Plastic water bottles are practically verboten; families use sustainable, reusable tumblers that can be filled at water fountains, where the water is filtered. And school officials intend, as time goes on, to have as much produce from the garden as possible in the lunch line. So, it’s a big deal. U.S. education officials will verify that the nominated schools meet all applicable requirements, and 2017 honorees will be announced April 22: Earth Day, natch.
Marriott has a newer brand, TownePlace Suites, which is kind of like a rabbit—all of a sudden, it’s all over the place nationwide, with more to come in a hurry. Another will have hopped into Chesterfield by May 2018. Construction on the third one in the metro is set to start in May in the Blue Valley development. It will be a 112-suite hotel near St. Louis Premium Outlets, south of Interstate 64, just off Chesterfield Airport Road. The company says that this year, on average, a TownePlace Suites will open every six days! (That’s so amazing, maybe I should lie down. Or as they say, get a room.) Since 1997, 275 have opened as of this writing. And the process has picked up speed. Three years ago, the brand included 175 hotels. TownePlace Suites is projected to have 300 hotels by the end of this year and 500 hotels by 2020. In Chesterfield, as is the case most anywhere else, the hotel will have an indoor pool and large meeting room and serve as an extended-stay property designed for transplants to get settled in for a long work stay or before they’ve found permanent lodgings in the metro. The other two TownePlace Suites in the greater StL are in St. Charles and Fenton … so far. Speaking of growth, officials say the Blue Valley development will have expanded to nearly 600,000 square feet when this project is completed, with zoning for 1.4 million square feet altogether.
