Erected in 1924 as the St. Louis YMCA, the twelve-storey Romanesque Revival tower on Locust Street carries its origins with unusual candor — the words Swim For Life still set into the pool floor in mosaic tile, the original amber and ochre tilework lining walls that predate the city's mid-century exodus by decades. 21c Museum Hotel St. Louis, which took over the building in 2017, made the right call in leaving that pool exactly as found: it remains one of the more quietly moving rooms in American hospitality, a preserved social institution repurposed without sentimentality. The conversion, designed with interiors by Deborah Berke Partners — the architecture practice behind the entire 21c chain — layers contemporary art programming over the building's civic bones with a calibrated irreverence. Guestrooms pair channeled upholstered headboards and herringbone-patterned carpets in warm taupe with mid-century-inflected brass-and-black pendant fixtures and bright accent chairs in burnt orange, while larger suites introduce moss-green velvet sectionals and sculptural art objects — a oversized red penguin, the brand's recurring mascot, stationed with deadpan confidence beside the bed. The bar and restaurant space is the boldest gesture: double-height arched windows fitted with dramatically curved wooden reveals frame a marble-topped oval bar clad in deep burgundy tile, large-scale figurative paintings covering the remaining wall plane. The exterior's limestone base and corbelled brick cornice, dramatically illuminated at dusk, make clear that the building was always worth saving.

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