This Brutalist-style office building was built for a condensed milk company

Tweet

Completed in 1969 as the world headquarters for Pet, Inc., the building was designed to reflect a fresh, assertive image for a company that had expanded far beyond its original product, evaporated milk. Theodore R. Gamble, president and later chairman of the highly diversified company, hired Memphis architect Alfred L. Aydelott for the demanding project. A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Aydelott tackled the challenging site overlooking a depressed freeway at the southern end of the Gateway Arch grounds by designing a sculpted concrete tower capped by a distinctive crowning executive and conference room level with a signature elevator tower prominently exposed on the west facade. Constructed during a period when many companies opted to relocate to the suburbs, Pet's corporate headquarters immediately earned benchmark status for its singularly forceful and successful solution to a demanding program. Architectural Record devoted an eight-page spread to Walter F. Wagner, Jr.'s coverage, "A Powerful Silhouette for a High-Speed Environment." Distinguished local critic George McCue called out the "forthright ruggedness of concrete with confident dignity and elegance . . . as painstakingly detailed as a hand-crafted object" in his tribute to a "patrician" new building. More recently, Dr. Osmund Overby (a former editor of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians who is currently completing the Society's volume on Missouri architecture) stated that no building in Missouri's limited examples of the style comes "close to matching the authority and nuance of the Pet Building."

Helvetia Milk Condensing Company was founded in 1885 in Highland, Illinois where it prospered under the directorship of company founder, Swiss-born Louis Latzer. When the firm relocated to St. Louis in 1924, it changed its name to Pet Milk Company after its top-selling product, a condensed cream called "Our Pet." During the 1920s from St. Louis, the company began a new era as it expanded and joined the national market. After successfully weathering the Depression and then increasing production during war years, Pet encountered problems as 1950 approached. With rising standards of living, more families were able to afford refrigerators allowing them to purchase fresh milk. The consumption of evaporated milk declined for the first time since the company's founding, prompting Pet to expand its product line. During the 1950s it introduced new products (instant milk, Pet-Ritz frozen pies and ice cream), opened new plant facilities and extended markets so that Pet and its subsidiaries distributed products in every state and also in Canada.

A nearly complete turnover in management during the 1950s brought about more changes. Headed by Theodore R. Gamble, a dynamic young executive (and grandson of company founder Louis Latzer) who had quickly worked his way through the Pet ranks, the new directors embarked on an aggressive program to expand and diversify the company. Gamble, who was elected president of the company in 1959, hired a consultant to analyze every phase of the business. Just six months into his presidency, Gamble reported that the company had made considerable progress toward carrying out a reorganization program to "improve efficiency, promote expansion and facilitate diversification." Under his leadership, Pet became one of the fastest-growing food processing, manufacturing, and distribution companies in the industry. Sales went from $60 million to a new record of $230 million in just five years and profits doubled. The former canned milk company grew from two to eight divisions.

But by 1966, milk products accounted for only 45 percent of total sales, a precipitous drop from 93 percent in 1960. Given that sharp decline, it seemed appropriate to change the name to reflect the firm's broadened scope. Although "Pet" was a familiar and therefore a valuable name in the marketplace, "milk" was deemed symbolic of an outdated product line. The board formally voted to become Pet, Inc. during the summer of 1966. Gamble was elected chairman and chief executive officer, a position from which he continued to direct the company with a drive and intensity that earned the company widespread attention.

The Arcade Building in downtown St. Louis had served as company headquarters since 1924 when Pet Milk moved from Highland, Illinois. As the company grew, it occupied more and more space and eventually flowed into the adjacent Paul Brown Building. In 1960, when Pet acquired an additional floor in the Arcade Building and made extensive alterations to modernize its existing space, Sidney Maestre, chairman of Downtown St. Louis, Inc., praised the company for staying downtown: "Pet Milk Co. is one of the world's leading firms in the food industry and has contributed greatly to the importance of St. Louis as a major center in this industry." A year later Chairman Gamble forcefully restated his commitment to downtown: "10 years ago, I didn't see much of a future for St. Louis, but I changed my mind. In the last 5 years this city has begun to show tremendous promise... Our downtown area is really starting with the riverfront and the stadium a certainty." Pet, Inc. would soon make an enormous contribution to this new riverfront development.

Well before Pet acquired more office space in the Arcade Building, Gamble had commissioned a New York firm, Becker & Becker, to evaluate space requirements. Gamble initiated the study because it had been "apparent for some time that our Company needed new, centralized offices in St. Louis to operate in an environment that would stimulate maximum efficiency and productivity." The study confirmed that Pet, Inc. indeed required a new headquarters. Sequestered in the Arcade Building for decades, the company, despite its growth and economic contributions to the city, maintained an image of a canned milk company in the eyes of St. Louisans. Pet determined to construct a building that would reflect its new corporate image, forcing a higher profile and identity in St. Louis.

Highly successful St. Louis companies had multiple options where to build during the 1960s. Following the lead of a number of other downtown companies, Pet could have relocated to a new office tower in Clayton, St. Louis County. Or, it could have followed another trend and built a campus-style complex even farther west. Believing that the health of the metropolitan area depended on an active downtown and now confident of the city's future, Gamble convinced the rest of Pet's management to remain in the city. He then negotiated the purchase of a site overlooking the southern end of the riverfront development area.

Only a person with a great deal of vision and courage would see the potential in such a location. When Pet purchased the property, the most immediate landscape features were the depressed freeway to the east and spaghetti-style intersections of major freeways and ramps to the recently constructed Poplar Street Bridge. Excavation for the Arch was underway on an adjacent site scattered with work sheds and the remains of blighted buildings. Though not yet under construction, plans were in place for a new sports stadium directly to the northwest. Stouffer's Riverfront hotel was scheduled for construction just to the north. The area was truly in shambles but Gamble understood its tremendous potential.

Gamble was determined to make a major architectural contribution to the riverfront landscape. The architect he chose to carry out this vision was a friend, Memphis-based Alfred Lewis Aydelott. Raised in Arkansas, Aydelott studied architecture at the University of Illinois. He moved to Memphis in 1938 and worked with Lucian Minor Dent until called to service in WWII. After the war he returned to Memphis, established his own practice and earned a substantial reputation across the eastern United States and in Peru. He was appointed architect-engineer for the design and construction of the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Philippine Islands. Aydelott served as Architect-in-Residence at Yale University (teaching with Louis Kahn) and the Carnegie Institute of Technology. In addition to serving the Memphis American Institute of Architects (AIA) chapter as president, he was also active on a number of national AIA committees and juries. Progressive Architecture bestowed design awards to Aydelott in 1949, 1950, 1951, 1954 and 1957; Architectural Record selected one of his projects for its "Record Houses of 1956." Aydelott advanced to Fellow in the AIA in 1964 for Distinguished Design. Until the commission from Pet, Aydelott had designed only one building in St. Louis-a house in Ladue, an upscale suburb, for Theodore Gamble with whom he was already well-acquainted.

During the planning phases for the new Pet building, Aydelott offered considerable input and in fact encouraged the company to hire Becker & Becker to study the company's space requirements. So confident in Aydelott, Gamble and the Pet board of directors gave him free reign in the building's design. The architect acknowledged that the building posed significant architectural challenges: "It required a design to fulfill the needs of a dynamic growing company. At the same time, because of proximity to the Gateway Arch and surrounding national park, it had to be both distinctive and yet a harmonious part of the new riverfront." The Pet building, Aydelott determined, would represent "a dot at the end of a sentence-an important endpoint in a line of significant buildings centered on the Gateway Arch." Aydelott's vision for a linear progression of important works of contemporary architecture did not materialize. Only the jewel-box-like American Zinc, Lead and Smelting Company Building several blocks north at 20 South 4^th Street is a worthy counterpoint to its contemporary, Pet Plaza.

Upon completion of the architect's plans and model in June 1965, Gamble formally unveiled Pet's new corporate headquarters at a civic reception:

Gamble also reinforced his commitment to downtown St. Louis: "We are part of what is certain to be one of the outstanding park and civic center areas in the nation, with extremely fast and convenient accesses from every direction." Mayor A. J. Cervantes praised Pet's plans as evidence of "the new vitality and spirit of progress in St. Louis."

The model Aydelott prepared before the announcement illustrated a building quite unlike anything seen before or after in St. Louis. In preparation for a Landmarks Association of St. Louis annual meeting at the property in 1997, Michael Hogan (an architect with the Sverdrup firm then occupying the building) prepared a short history of the project including Aydelott's design philosophy:

To a large extent form indeed followed function. Vital operations that required little natural light (such as storage rooms, food lockers and computer equipment rooms) were situated in the base of the building which covered much more ground than the office tower. General offices occupied most of the tower. Aydelott designed a structural system of pre-cast, pre-stressed concrete tees that span 49 feet and rest on poured-in-place concrete beams. This system allowed for maximum flexibility so that, as the company's needs changed, the floor plan could easily be adjusted. The executive offices and boardrooms were placed in the crown. Horizontal divisions were linked on the exterior with an elevator shaft prominently positioned off-center on the west side.

The balcony-surrounded 13^th floor was one of Pet Plaza's most important and innovative spaces. In a typical company office building design, conference and meeting rooms were placed on each level and often sat unused for days. Consultants Becker & Becker determined, after collaboration with company officials and Aydelott, that boardroom space could be more efficiently utilized if centralized on one floor. Part of Gamble's motivation for constructing a new office building was to bring the company together; meeting space common to the entire staff would likely accomplish that goal. The meeting rooms of various sizes were placed on the north half of the 13^th floor. Many had the latest audiovisual equipment and were lined in warm rosewood paneling; all had high ceilings and offered spectacular views of the city. Pet's test kitchens, which could easily have been considered a type of laboratory appropriately placed in the base level, were instead showcased on the 13^th floor behind a glass wall. The test kitchens used products across the entire company's lines. Everyone who visited Pet for a meeting, whether a director from a distant Pet facility or someone from outside the company, could see the kitchens at work.

Before reaching the boardroom level, visitors passed through a covered courtyard to enter the building where they were greeted by a brightly colored abstract mural by Ivan Chermayeff, a friend of Aydelott's and an internationally known designer, painter and illustrator. A short flight of stairs on either side of the mural accessed an indoor plaza level where Pet displayed its products and sponsored modern art exhibits. (The Japan International Art Festival followed the initial exhibit, a photographic history of the redevelopment of the St. Louis riverfront and the construction of Pet Plaza.) These places and also the landscaped outdoor plaza by Harriet Bakewell were fully intended by Chairman Gamble for the enjoyment of his employees and visitors. When the building opened, he remarked, "We have a building we can and will share with St. Louis." The plaza level, indoor and out, was indeed a place for anyone to enjoy.

Fine details permeated the building inside and out. A rugged texture resulted from the wood forms into which the concrete was poured leaving a wood grain imprint in the concrete. This contrasted with the smoother-surfaced concrete that was a slightly lighter shade. Instead of patching the holes at the surface where steel reinforcing bars were trimmed from the poured-in-place concrete, Aydelott left the bars exposed and capped them with stainless steel disks. Their shiny finish shimmered when the sunlight hit the building. Aydelott detailed the well-proportioned windows with horizontal pre-cast sunscreens that were clearly functional but also added distinctive lines across the facades. The architect carefully chose an assortment of materials for the interior. Travertine marble and glass line much of the lobby and plaza levels; marble and rosewood paneling surround the walls in the upper stories. Aydelott designed unique ceiling and light fixtures for the boardrooms and furniture throughout. One of the fixtures consists of a honeycomb-like design with mushroom-shaped lights that is as artistic as it is functional.

Pet Plaza was ready for occupancy just after New Year's Day, 1969. Management originally planned an open house for the spring when the outdoor plaza would be bright with color. The company had received so many requests for tours, however, that dedication was held in February instead. Family members of the roughly 500 employees were the first to participate in the open house. The following day more than 1,000 business, civic and political leaders were treated to a grand tour and dedication. The dedication ceremony included activating a gold-plated switch that lighted the dramatic exterior for the first time. At the ceremony, Gamble remarked: "Pet Inc. is exceedingly proud to participate in the revitalization of downtown St. Louis by building, occupying and now dedicating its new worldwide headquarters."

As thrilled as Gamble was to be located downtown, he was even more proud of his new headquarters building. "We believe the new office building will afford a strong identification for the people of Pet everywhere. It will serve as a landmark for St. Louisans and for the millions of tourists who will pass by and will come to recognize it as the headquarters for a worldwide company dedicated to serving their needs."

The distinctive new Pet building immediately earned the media coverage Gamble hoped for. St. Louis Post-Dispatch art and urban design critic George McCue enthusiastically introduced the new building:

McCue added, "Even the casual passerby becomes aware of the refined detailing. This is evident in the carefully studied proportions of windows with bays, the horizontal lines of balconies and crown with the vertical service core, the pulling back from a tendency toward a 'brutalism' of projecting members in the concrete esthetic by maintaining a serene equilibrium of north and south portions." It "rises with an authoritative individuality"... distinctive in "the riverfront array of other new buildings of varied form and texture. ..."

Pet continued at this location until 1995 when it moved to St. Louis County. The next owner was Sverdrup (a design and engineering firm responsible for constructing nearby Busch Stadium) absorbed by Jacobs a few years later. The building has been vacant since late 2002; ownership reverted to the mortgage holder which plans to sell the property for residential adaptive reuse.

Building Description

Pet Plaza, completed in 1969, is a thirteen-story concrete tower on a broad two-story base. Located at 400 South 4^th Street in downtown St. Louis, the building is situated overlooking the southern end of the Gateway Arch grounds near the intersection of a network of interstate highways 44, 55, 64 and 70. The corporate office tower sits at the western end of a broad base leaving an outdoor plaza level designed for riverfront viewing over a depressed section of highway 70 near onramps at the southern edge of the site. The New Brutalist-style building's most distinguishing characteristics are its overhanging crown with tapered corners and a monumental elevator shaft on its west side. Closer inspection reveals fine details. Two textures of concrete appear throughout. The rougher concrete was poured in place and retains the imprint of its wooden form; the smoother, pre-formed concrete panels offering a slightly contrasting color are used as wall surfaces and for intricate sunscreens on the east and west facades. The exterior indicates the hierarchy of spaces within. At the entrance level, a covered exterior court with a high ceiling greets visitors as they approach the spacious lobby and exhibition area in the base of the building. The locations of the general offices are obvious from the exterior where rows of windows provide views of the city from every angle. Near the top of the tower, a balcony marks an especially important floor of boardrooms and Pet's test kitchens. Executive offices occupy the crown. The exterior of the building retains nearly perfect integrity. The interior suffers from a disappointing removal of artwork and furniture that the architect incorporated into the original design. Otherwise, the interior has undergone only few alterations to some spaces.

The exterior of the Pet building is distinguished by its textured concrete, strong lines, stark western tower and a distinctive crown. The elevator tower and much of the exterior surfaces are poured-in-place concrete. The wood forms used in the construction left a textured surface that shows the imprint of the wood grain. The architect, Alfred Aydelott, featured other details in the concrete. The steel reinforcing rods used in strengthening the walls were cut off on the exterior and capped with stainless steel disks. Other surfaces of pre-stressed concrete panels with exposed aggregate are smoother and a slightly lighter color. The building has three main sections: a large two-story base, twelve general office floors, and a third, crown section of boardrooms and executive office space. Because the exterior is indicative of the function within, it is appropriate to discuss the interior and exterior of each of the three sections together.

Aydelott took advantage of a sloping site to create a broad base that is nearly two-stories high on its east facade and measures approximately 215' by 250'. The ground-floor level is nearly invisible from the exterior except for a truck delivery entrance discreetly tucked below a retaining wall on the south facade. This level holds, as one might expect, important utilitarian spaces that require little or no natural light. The loading dock, mailroom, supply and storage rooms and a print shop were all located in this level. The original corridors and rooms appear to be intact.

The next level of the base is prominently visible on three sides (north, east and south) where the concrete surface is punctured by pairs or groups of narrow windows, each surrounded by thin concrete frames that are a lighter color than the wall surface. On the interior this level contains substantial exhibition space for Pet to display its products as well as a cafeteria and kitchen. The office tower is positioned on the western end of this base leaving a broad outdoor plaza designed as a place for visitors and employees to view the riverfront. Also on this level is the lobby accessed from a covered court that opens from 4^th Street. From the entrance court, a visitor originally could either enter the building or walk through the court and ascend a spiral stair to the outdoor plaza. Although the entrance court has been glassed-in on its east side preventing access to the spiral stair, the sense of openness remains intact.

The lobby once had a reception desk behind which stood an abstract, brightly colored mural by Ivan Chermayeff. Short flights of stairs to a public exhibition area originally flanked the mural but the mural and stairs have been removed and replaced with a paneled wall. Original travertine marble lines the remaining lobby walls.

Upon entering the lobby one is immediately faced with a replacement reception desk; directly to the right is the elevator tower. From the exterior, this tower is one of the building's most distinguishing features-a strong vertical mass placed off-center that breaks horizontal lines near the top. The tower is poured-in-place concrete that bears the wood-form imprint. A pair of small windows is recessed behind concrete awnings on the west side of levels three through fifteen. The narrow, single windows on these levels of the north and south facades are positioned in a continuous trough that extends the full height of the elevator tower. This vertical line divides the elevator tower into two parts visible at the top where the two sections meet forming a wide obtuse angle. A grill with narrow slits caps the top of the west side.

Office Levels Three-Twelve

The general office levels of the long, narrow office tower are articulated with groups of windows. On the west facade, the window bays (two on the north side of the elevator tower and one to the south) project beyond the wall. Narrow pre-formed concrete panels divide each window vertically and a wider band divides the bays between the levels. Concrete panels form the sides of each bay. Incorporated near the top of the windows is a two-layer concrete sunshield. This detail is absent at the 12^th floor where the balcony over the top protects the window from the sun. A pre-formed concrete pilaster divides the projecting window bays from a pair of aluminum-framed windows on each level. Pairs of aluminum-framed windows are situated between poured-in-place concrete pilasters near the outer edges of the west facade.

Beyond these paired windows are projecting bays of aluminum-framed windows that form the corners of the tower. Both the north and south facades are made up of these two window bays; one holds a group of five windows, the other has four. The bays flank a concrete crevice with small windows that light the stairwell.

The east facade is a symmetrical arrangement of windows. Its outermost corners are the projecting corner window bays that intersect the east facade with the north and south facades. A concrete pilaster divides the projecting bays of the north and south facades from a pair of aluminum-framed windows on each level. Most of the east facade is comprised of a nine-bay bank of windows that projects beyond the flanking corner sections. Narrow vertical panels of pre-formed concrete separate the bays that alternate between a pair of windows and a group of five. Concrete sunshields identical to those on the west facade trim the top of each window. Their continuous line across each level adds intricate detail to this facade.

The third and twelfth floors of the office tower vary slightly from the other floors. The third floor does not have the projecting bays; instead, the windows are recessed under projecting bays. The concrete pilasters extending the height of the tower and the narrow concrete panels dividing the bays on the east facade all continue to the base of the facade. The third story windows recessed between varying widths of concrete create an appearance of a stilt-like base. The twelfth floor also varies slightly from the rest of the general office level. Four balconies on the east facade are centered in this facade.

The interiors of the office levels were originally broad, uninterrupted spaces. The architect's structural system of exterior pre-cast columns and concrete tees allowed for maximum flexibility in these spaces. When Pet occupied the building, offices were created on a 4' x 8' modular design allowing the floor plan to be easily altered. Although the modular offices are gone, these floors remain open except for the addition of walls forming corner offices on some levels.

Board Room/Executive Level

Balconies across each side of the facade mark a division between Pet's general office levels and the executive level. The balcony on the east extends almost the full-width of the facade. The narrow concrete panels that rise from the tower below divide the upper stories of the east facade into an asymmetrical pattern of cubbyholes. Some are more visually pronounced by additional balconies at the fifteenth floor.

The interior of the balcony level (floor 13) was divided into two sections flanking a reception area. Board and conference rooms of varying sizes occupied the north section; test kitchens, benefiting from ample natural light, were located on the south section of the floor. A glass wall divided the reception area from the kitchens. Although the kitchens were replaced with office space under a later owner, the boardrooms are remarkably intact. Windows line the east side of the largest boardroom. Its walls are rosewood paneling that open to expose audiovisual equipment. Acoustic panels suspended from the ceiling were incorporated in the original design and remain intact. A smaller boardroom in the northeast corner has an unusual patterned light fixture with mushroom-shaped pieces holding the light bulbs. The next two floors were executive offices connected with a central stair accented by a skylight.

The top executive floor, located in the building's crown, was designed with more permanent offices and a boardroom. This level has been remodeled with drywall partitions. Narrow windows, concrete buttresses, and bold, tapered corners highlight the exterior of this crowning section of the building.

Although Pet Plaza occupies a prestigious and highly visible site overlooking the southern edge of the Arch grounds, only the entrance at the west elevation is readily accessible to pedestrians. No sidewalk exists along the eastern (3^rd Street) elevation where vehicular traffic merges to and from various approaches to the Interstate system; a sidewalk along the north (Spruce Street) elevation does not extend the entire distance downhill from 4^th Street. One hearty stand of pine trees is positioned along the narrow (otherwise barren) 3^rd Street frontage; an assortment of deciduous trees (some original) dots the large grassy area to the south of the service entry beyond which lies yet another highway ramp. Designed in a more welcoming period of corporate history, the building was sited to maximize the wide, inviting view through the entry court to the interior court and viewing promenade.

Looking southeast (2003)

Looking northeast (2003)

Looking southeast (2003)

Looking southwest (2003)

Looking northwest (2003)

Looking northeast (2003)

Looking north (2003)

Looking southeast (2003)

Looking northeast (2003)