On the Cover: Lou Bopp at the Vanity Fair after party with the Academy Award for “All the Empty Rooms,” which won Best Documentary Short Film at the 98th Academy Awards. The film, created with CBS News journalist Steve Hartman, follows Bopp over seven years as he traveled the U.S. to photograph the bedrooms of children killed in U.S. school shootings.
Cover photo by Conall Jones.
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Highlights from the May/June 2026 Issue
Cover Story: The Rooms That Speak
In a culture saturated with images —scrolling, disposable, instantly forgotten —there are still photographs that refuse to be glanced at. They demand stillness. They insist on presence. They linger.
And in the case of St. Louis-based photographer Lou Bopp, they ask something even more difficult: to confront what is no longer there.
That confrontation has now reached the highest stage in film. “All the Empty Rooms,” the documentary short built around Bopp’s quietly devastating photography, has won the Academy Award —an extraordinary moment for a project that was never meant to be loud; never meant to be celebrated in the traditional sense.
From the beginning, this work was about something else entirely.
“It’s never been about me,” Bopp says. “Even in this project, it was never about me. It’s about the families and it’s about the issue.
Text: Craig Kaminer
Photo: John Lore
Placed on a Plinth
The minute the homeowner set foot on the property, he knew it was his. Set on a major crossway of Ladue, the site had a house and then a second slice of land sandwiched in the middle of it, with a creek meandering through the back of the lot. He put a contract on it the same day.
“The whole idea is that this place is just going to fit in this forest,” he says.
Susan Bower, principal of Bower Leet Design, agrees. “It’s the vertical wall of green that you get looking west,” she says. “That’s amazing.”
Text: Christy Marshall
Photo: Carmen Troesser
Defenders of the Dispossessed
ArchCity Defenders has spent 15 years fighting for St. Louis' most vulnerable residents —and Blake Strode is making sure the mission keeps growing.
Text: Christy Marshall
Photo: John Lore
A New Brand of St. Louis Patronage
On a cold night at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy, the light is sharp and cinematic. Racers drop. Edges bite. Time fractures into hundredths.
And carried across the mountain, in the rhythm of the broadcast, a name repeats: Stifel.
For Ronald J. Kruszewski, that moment —quiet, global, unmistakable —is the point.
He runs a firm most people will never physically touch. Stifel Financial Corporation deals in trust, capital advice —intangible things. So he made a decision. If the business is invisible, the brand cannot be. That decision now lives everywhere.
On the jerseys of the St. Louis Blues and the St. Louis Cardinals. Above the marquee of the Stifel Theatre. And, perhaps most powerfully, on the global stage of the Stifel U.S. Ski Team.
But ask Kruszewski why, and he doesn’t start with marketing. He starts with place.“First of all, I love St. Louis,” he says.
“I’ve been here 28 years, and the thing I noticed —besides it being a great community —was how much it loves its sports.” That observation became insight. And that insight became strategy.”
Text: Craig Kaminer
Photo: Zach Dalin
The Return of Possibility
Ron Kitchens does not talk like a man easing into a new job.
He talks like a man already in motion.
“We’ve got to go at a pace that’s unsustainable,” he says, leaning forward with the urgency of someone who has seen what happens when cities hesitate. “We’ve got to get out there and sell the community in a way that most people aregoing to think is crazy.”
For St. Louis, that may be exactly what this moment requires.
Text: Craig Kaminer
Photo: John Lore
A Family Heirloom
In 1968, Richard Nixon won the election for U.S. President. The Cardinals won the National League pennant. The Gateway Arch was officially dedicated. And Al’s Restaurant began its ascent into the rarefied air of luxury dining from its origins as a welcoming tavern serving egg sandwiches.
Then, women arrived at 1200 North First Street at Biddle on the riverfront dressed to the nines and men wore dark wool suits, starched white shirts and neatly knotted ties. It was a time when fine dining meant exactly that —fine dining: formal, exacting service, curated menus and an atmosphere of quiet elegance.
Al’s has long checked every box.
In 2026, the world has changed. Al’s has not.
The décor remains. The ambiance endures. Most importantly, the food holds fast to its traditions.
Text: Grayling Holmes
Photo: Zach Dalin
Event Calendar, Presented by Spirit Jets
Happenings of note in May and June.
Share your celebrations with us, or let us know what events you want to see featured on our pages by emailing editorSTL@slmag.net.
Sophisticated Celebrations
Presented by
St. Louis Ballet Winter Gala
Dancing with the Stars
Art in Bloom
The St. Louis Public Library’s Stranger Than Fiction
Breakthrough T1D’S Dream Gala
The Sophi Awards
From the Publisher
For more than a decade, Christy Marshall has helped shape the voice, look and spirit of Sophisticated Living St. Louis. With the May/June issue, she closes an important chapter —her final issue as editor of this magazine —and a well-deserved step back from the demands of day-to-day editing after an extraordinary 50-year career in journalism.
Christy brought to Sophisticated Livingthe rare combination of editorial discipline, creative vision and deep connection to the St. Louis community that defines truly great editors. From the beginning, she understood that the magazine was not simply about beautiful homes, fine dining and compelling travel —though we celebrate all of those —but about the people whose passions and creativity make this city such an extraordinary place to live.
Text: Craig Kaminer
Get To Know Us
At Sophisticated Living, we are dedicated and passionate about all the finer things life has to offer. Whether your interests are close to home or in far-flung places, each issue shares highlights of the good life in St. Louis and beyond.
Craig Kaminer, Publisher
A native of New York City, Craig has spent the last 35 years developing award-winning marketing programs for some of the leading consumer/lifestyle brands in the US and St. Louis including The Ritz-Carlton, Tiffany & Co., Marriott, Italian Tourism, Simon Property Group, and Danon. His marketing experience includes senior management positions at Twist, Influence, Weber Shandwick and Fleishman-Hillard.
Craig is an accomplished sailor, art collector, jazz promoter, and frequent traveler to Italy. Craig received his bachelor’s degree in architecture and art history from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and graduate studies in business management at Columbia University. He is married to Debbie and has two sons, Philip and Barrett, who live in Austin and Nashville respectively.
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Christy Marshall, Editor-In-Chief
After earning her masters at the University of Missouri, Christy started her journalism career at Advertising Age, first in Chicago, then as the Southwest Bureau Chief based in Dallas, and finally in Ad Age’s New York office. She lived in Manhattan for the next decade. While there, she ended up working for Adweek and New York Newsday, while also freelancing for a variety of publications including the New York Times, USA Today, Forbes, and Cosmopolitan.
Christy moved back to her hometown of St. Louis to work on the brand-new daily the St. Louis Sun. When it was shuttered after seven months, she joined the U.S. Attorney’s office as the Public Information Officer. While there, she married her husband, Michael Gans, and they adopted their daughter, Katie, from China.
Always a reporter and writer at heart, Christy returned to journalism. First she was Executive Editor at St. Louis Homes & Lifestyles and then spent a decade at St. Louis Magazine as the founding editor of St. Louis At Home (now StL Design) and St. Louis Family. She joined Sophisticated Living in 2014, retired two years later, and then returned to resume her previous post in 2023.
Christy loves to read, cook, travel, play mah jongg with friends, spend time with her family including their Boxers, Buddy and Dot, and at her family’s farm in Grubville, Missouri.