Continental Life Building

This place is a total disaster in every aspect of the word. It has seen so many different management companies and each of them gave a shit less and less. The most recent company completely disregards your issues to the point where you really have to laugh to keep from losing it altogether. For a building with 20+ floors, there is only ONE maintenance man. yes, this should be illegal– especially for a building as old as this one. The thieves realize how much of a joke this place is and raid it with reckless abandonment. Bikes and cars routinely steal without consequence. the response from the management company is «do you have renters insurance?» and yes they charge you to park in this lot! There is a very narrow window of time where you dont have floods, fire alarms, vomit in the elevator, something stolen, water shut off without warning, or elevator outages. Do yourself a serious favor and WALK AWAY! you shouldn’t be paying rent for this kind of stress, stay at your parents house where you can get stressed for free.

Continental Life has it all the amenities!:
Free gym — called the stairs because you’ll be taking them during the frequent elevator outages
Free pool — in your apartment because the water pipes burst again!
Free parking — at a nearby chop shop because your car has been stolen right out of the un-​monitored and unsecured garage
Free beer — every Sunday morning on the floor of the lobby and elevators. Bonus: collect all the cans and bottles for the $ 0.05 deposit and it you can pay ¹⁄₈₀^th your rent!
In case you don’t get it stay away. Just check the police reports if you have doubts.

I lived here for several months in 2010 and am finally Unilocaling it since I am no longer there.
The good
The Continental Life is truly a gorgeous historic building. The art deco feel inside is unsurpassed. It’s located in the arts district, museums, restaurants, the FOX!, art center, symphony, cafes, etc all within 1 – 4 blocks. Yes, it is within limits of seeming sketchy areas but that’s to be expected & it does has a secure garage parking garage. When I lived there, there was a responsive Manager (thank you, Derek).
There is a very cool basement gym with the basics and nobody is there typically so it’s pretty much all yours. The nautilus machines work. Bring your own sanitizer, fyi.
There’s a rooftop pool with amazing tranquility when kids aren’t playing marco polo (that game is annoying). Sunsets are incredible, & it’s a perfect place to have friends over for a pool party. Plenty of cocktails were had here. :)
I got spoiled there so I will say, I don’t know about most units but the CL building offers positively awesome penthouses (4 of 5 I believe), arguably the best in St. Louis. There’s in-​unit washer/​dryer, great sized bedrooms and generous closets, spacious kitchen and killer views (see pics). Also, your own mini storage where you can store your bike next to the garbage shoots.
Best of all, the building was steps from both my office and my clients. Convenient 0.1 mile commute. I was loving it.
The bad–
When there’s a show at the Fox (next door), the parking is a madhouse. You’ve been warned.
The ugly–
Some ghetto fools used to think it was OK to linger outside the 2^nd floor entrance of the garage, sneak in when someone swiped their entry card & then would shamelessly use the couches outside the Management office as if it’s their own living room. If they look like they don’t belong there, they probably don’t. Nudge security and DO NOT PUSH YOUR OWN FLOOR IF THEY FOLLOW YOU INTO THE ELEVATOR!!! Throw them off and get off at a random floor and take the stairs if you have to. You never know.
Rent here isn’t cheap for St Louis, expect $ 2k for a penthouse. If you’re from San Francisco and you’re sharing it, it seems to be a steal. A similar 2100 square foot penthouse with views like that in SF would set you back about double that price.
Lots of students on the 4^th and 5^th floors. If you’s an adult, I would ask to be in any unit above the 12^th so that you don’t feel like you’re part of the dorm.
That’s all folks.
Back in CA but loved living at the Continental Life Building and would recommend it.