My favorite residential street in St. Louis isn’t a tree-lined Central West End boulevard of stately European mansions. No. It’s the quirky, edgy, ancient/future mashup called Lafayette Avenue running east-west through the Gate District. Along these ten blocks between Grand and Jefferson rises some of the best modern infill in the St. Louis region, all of it wedged between stunning relics old St. Louis — some renovated, some still shabby around the edges.

“How does the modern fit into the historic?” asks Mark Keoshkorian, who is just completing the first two units of a 12-unit project at Lafayette and California. It’s a question not always allowed in a city filled with historic districts, many requiring replica infill based on a historic model example. In Chicago or New York or in Keoshkorian’s native Toronto, the old and the new sit side by side. “When you compare and contrast those two next to each other, each one really enhances the other.” There’s an energy, a tension, a dialogue that happens in an architecturally diverse environment. “We do a disservice when we try to replicate the historic,” Keoshkorian adds. “It only works when you have a truly massive budget.”

Though banished from some districts, quality modern design has found a home in a few city neighborhoods — in Forest Park Southeast (The Grove) and in Boulevard Heights (the remains of old McRee Town) along Tower Grove Avenue. But the most interesting juxtapositions are rising in the Gate District.

Keoshkorian’s Metamorphi Development has completed at least a dozen houses between Compton and Jefferson. At 2831 Lafayette, a historic renovation gained a modern addition. Next door, a couple who sold their house in the neighborhood bought a vacant lot. Though not a Metamorphi project, the couple is building their modern dream home. Second Empire Victorians continue to see renovation along these blocks, as do brick and cast iron storefronts. Keoshkorian dreams of one day renovating the turreted Garavaglia Quality Foods building at the corner of Nebraska. For now, the Garavaglia family still keeps an eye on the place.