World’s First Bamboo Tower Could Rise 11 Storeys Over St Louis Riverfront

Luke Schüette has told Wood Central construction starts in the third quarter of 2027 on St Louis's North Landing

LoüTeq's LouTower, 200 feet of structural engineered bamboo and stainless steel, in the company's daylight render with the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge behind. Render, not a photograph. (Image Credit: LoüTeq, supplied by Luke Schüette)

The world’s first observation tower made from structurally engineered bamboo (SEB) could rise 11 storeys over the St Louis riverfront, with the 200-foot LouTower now the centrepiece of a 100-acre park and innovation district pitched to the city. That is according to Luke Schüette, founder and chief executive of LoüTeq, who confirmed the North Landing site and the start date to Wood Central on Friday.

“Height: 200 Feet (61 meters),” LoüTeq’s February announcement of the preliminary design states, up from the 111 feet and seven floors of the Bowing Tower Wood Central reported in May 2025, with observation decks for drone testing, an electric vehicle drivers’ lounge, an architectural materials library, event space, and a cafe across the 11 floors. Sebastian Bildau of Atelier Bildau in Munich, who detailed the vertical pedestrian access and the combination of exposed stainless steel and bamboo on the curving primary structure, calls the collaboration “an inspiring journey of innovation and craftsmanship”.

The LouTower from Luke Schüette’s notebook to the rendered frame, with the curving primary members that follow the inverted catenary of the Gateway Arch. Sketches, models, and renders, not photographs. (Image Credit: LoüTeq, supplied)

LoüTeq had earlier listed the tower at Gateway South, the 80-acre Chouteau’s Landing project south of the Arch grounds that the St. Louis Port Authority agreed to study in August 2022. The tower now sits on the north bank, between the Arch grounds and the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge that carries Interstate 70, on ground Great Rivers Greenway and the city have planned as parks and private development, with 12 seven-unit apartment buildings, seven elevated vacation rentals, and a 15,000-seat riverbank theatre drawn around it.

The 100-acre LouPark plan from Luke Schüette’s July proposal, with the LouTower mid-site, LoüTeq’s manufacturing building at the far end, and a bike and pedestrian path in yellow from the Arch grounds to the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge. Plan graphic, not a survey. (Image Credit: LoüTeq, supplied)

“LoüTeq will install over $22MM in Manufacturing Equipment and will be fully up and running by Q3 of 2027,” the proposal states of the brick warehouse at the district’s far end, with more than 150 jobs promised within three years and an innovation laboratory upstairs shared with Ranken Technical College, Boeing, and World Wide Technology.

Schüette wrote this week that he had converted an old cross-laminated timber press to prove the process and is now installing “a completely new process, new press, new product,” ArchLam, the company’s radial laminated bamboo, on an automated line from Stiles Machinery of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Denmark’s Kallesoe Machinery. Stiles is the exclusive US seller of Kallesoe presses and has belonged to Germany’s HOMAG Group since 2014.

Luke Schüette, founder and chief executive of LoüTeq, who confirmed the North Landing site and the 2027 start to Wood Central. (Photo Credit: LoüTeq, supplied)

“There are other companies that import low strength MOSO bamboo planks and plastic bamboo composites from China, yet claim to be USA manufacturers,” Schüette wrote, calling LoüTeq the only US maker of structural engineered bamboo, with Guadua sourced exclusively from Latin America. The strength margin he now claims is more than twice Chinese Moso, down from the three times the company claimed when Wood Central reported the tower in May 2025.

It comes as St Louis argues over a sum the same size as the ask, with civic leaders wanting $15 million of the $55 million in Rams settlement money set aside for downtown spent on riverfront infrastructure and attractions, and North St Louis activists arguing the money should go further north, while the proposal itself names no funding source.

Source: https://woodcentral.com.au/st-louis-bamboo-tower-2027/