Officials from the St Louis County Library announced today the opening of the district’s new 125,000 sq. ft. “René-Auguste Chouteau Jr. Administration Building”, four years to the day the Lynn Beckwith, Jr. Administration building in Frontenac opened.
Officials said the old Frontenac facility would be converted into an $82 million “Chadwick P. Spoede III Children’s Virtual Reality Learning Center” and not torn down as originally proposed by library officials last year after public outcry.
“We listened to the proletariat and we responded,” said SLCL spokesperson MacKenzie Brackman. “The Frontenac structure has served us well these last four years but it just became outdated and not suitable for the needs of our administrative staff and executives. Converting it into a leading-edge virtual reality learning center for kids was the right move, absolutely.”
Still, some taxpayer groups have questioned the need for a new Administrative Building, which is not open to the public, in Huntleigh, St Louis’ wealthiest suburb when the existing Administrative Building in Frontenac, another wealthy suburb, was just four years old. The Frontenac structure was built to replace the old SLCL Administration Building in Ladue, also a wealthy suburb.
“We love the St. Louis County Library, don’t get us wrong,” said Lance Mallinckrodt III, executive director of “Taxpayers Naysayers”, a taxpayer watchdog group. “But we did question some aspects of the new building and its location. The Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool, for example. I mean, there’s a ‘Y’ right down the road.
“And Huntleigh? I mean, would Ballwin or Maryland Heights have been such a terrible alternative?”
At publishing time, SLCL officials were drawing up plans for a new $35 million “Gustav Busch VI Administration Annex” on the grounds of the St. Louis Country Club to be built four years from now.
