The Koken Apartments

Project Details

Winco’s Historic Windows are a Cut Above

Americans envy St. Louis for its beer and baseball team, but lesser known is that St. Louis is also birthplace of the barber chair. In 1874, a German immigrant Ernest Koken, saw a need for comfortable barber chairs in the fast-growing river city.  He invented the now famous Koken barber chair, which featured innovations like hydraulic lifts, swivels and reclining chairs- all unheard-of luxuries at the time. The elegant chairs can still be found in barber shops across the country and are considered collector’s items throughout the world.

The company is still in business today, yet some of Koken’s original massive factory buildings now stand empty and deteriorating. St. Louis developers Blackline Design and Construction saw the potential in one of the buildings and brought it back to life with a transformation into upscale multi-family living apartments, aptly called “The Koken.”   

The original factory featured huge windows that, today, usher abundant sunshine into apartments. Winco’s signature 3250 historic steel replica windows were used in every apartment and the effect is a “cut above. “  The windows are nearly floor to ceiling and offer a crisp, clean façade to the historic building.