Southwest High School (1937)

A large red brick school complex in the stripped-classical manner of 1930s public works, expanded by later wings that fold its original front into an interior courtyard. The oldest block rises three and four stories in flat brick planes, its ranks of multi-pane steel windows divided by shallow piers beneath a plain coped parapet. Along Kingshighway a long 1960s addition presents nearly blank walls enlivened with recessed panels of patterned brickwork — basketweave, sawtooth, and diaper courses. A group of five carved figures representing "Youthful Leadership" stands on a plinth against the brick.

The building opened in 1936–1937 as Southwest High School, a Works Progress Administration project designed by George W. Sanger. The sculptor Fred Morie carved five figures titled "Youthful Leadership" for the original school. A large addition along Kingshighway, designed by Kenneth E. Wischmeyer, was completed in 1964 on the site of the school's original football field; successive additions eventually enclosed Sanger's entrance front within an interior courtyard. After Southwest High School closed, the building became the new home of Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in 2004 — a St. Louis magnet school formed in 1984 from the merger of Central High School with the district's Visual and Performing Arts program. The Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, a magnet high school established in 2013, later shared the complex.