When it comes to finding an out-of-the-ordinary venue, Destination St. Louis (www.destinationstlouis.com), a local DMC, has no problem. That’s because St. Louis has a rich assortment of vintage buildings that have been artfully reinvented as event spaces.
Among the DMC’s favorites is the Mad Art Gallery, a circa-1930 police station that local artist Ron Buechele restored and transformed into a gallery, which is available for events. The largest space is the former squad car garage, which is now a 3,800-square-foot industrial gallery that accommodates up to 250 for a sit-down dinner or up to 500 for a reception.
“What’s great is that the original jail cells are still there, so you can set up a bar in one cell and have a character artist in another cell,” says Julie Krull, marketing manager for Destination St. Louis. “It lends itself to a lot of themes, and there are plenty of rooms for people to roam around in.”
Another versatile venue from the Art Deco era is Lumen, a former automobile showroom with 20-foot ceilings and dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows that once showcased cars. Accommodating up to 600 guests, Lumen offers such updated features as a customizable LED lighting system and built-in audiovisual capabilities that include a house sound system and flat-screen TVs.
“It showcases the city’s past and yet allows you to do really cool stuff with the lighting,” Krull says.
St. Louis’s City Museum, located in a former shoe warehouse, is yet another example of building reinvention.
“The belts where shoes once came down are now tunnels and slides that people can go down,” Krull says. The building even has caves where we can put fortune tellers during an event. City Museum is always a hit.”
Bowling and Baseball
Activities that are popular with groups also have a retro aspect these days, according to Krull, who says bowling nights are a huge hit, especially with younger attendees.
“We love to use a new downtown bowling alley called Flamingo Bowl, where you can use all or part of the venue,” she says. “Even if people say they don’t bowl, everyone is doing it by the end of the night. They put teams together and totally get into it.”
Events with a baseball theme are also popular, particularly at Busch Stadium, which offers a myriad of possibilities for groups when games are not in progress.
“You can have private dinners in different areas of the stadium, bring in former players to mingle with the group, have behind-the-scenes tours,” Krull says. “We can really customize things for each group, including putting the company logo up on the scoreboard.”
