A vacant LRA-owned lot that has sat empty since 1981 will soon be brought back to life with the construction of the first container home in St. Louis City.
The new house at 14th and Wright in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood is being built by Travis Sheridan, the head of cortex-based Venture Cafe Global Institute (VCGI) and his wife Gina, a librarian. The Sheridan’s are working with Zack Smithey, who recently built his own container home in St. Charles, on the design.
Smithey’s container home project was met with so much controversy that future containerized structures in St. Charles are now required to have a pitched roof, a conditional use hearing approving the design, and no exposed container corrugation is allowed. No such regulations exist in St. Louis city. The Sheridans, who currently live directly across the street from the proposed development, have contacted the neighborhood association and the alderman to request support for the project.
The home will be constructed on-site from nine 8’x40′ high cube shipping containers. The use of high cube containers, which are one foot taller than standard height shipping containers, allow for 9ft 6in ceiling heights. The 2,880 square foot home will have 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a 25’x13′ second story deck, covered parking, and a small gallery space.
According to Sheridan the use of shipping containers will bring the cost of the custom home down to under $100/sqft. The existing wood container floors will be retained and encapsulated with epoxy. Exterior walls will be framed from the inside and insulated with closed-cell spray foam. The architect on the project is Steve Hollander and Joe Strain is the engineer. Matt LaMora and Joe Bandalos will be the general contractors.
The lot is currently owned by LRA with a hearing scheduled for January 30th where LRA is excepted to accept the offer on the lot. Construction will likely begin within a month of LRA approving the sale and completion is expected to be in June.
Note: A previous version of this story stated that the neighborhood association and alderman were in support of the project. The article has been updated to reflect that their support has been requested but not yet obtained.
