St. Louis’ City Museum: One of the World’s Great Spaces
St. Louis’ City Museum was named one of the World’s “great spaces” in the Project for Public Space’s August 2005 newsletter:
The City Museum is like an amusement park in the middle of downtown St. Louis. It occupies an old shoe factory–a Depression-era relic that sculptor Bob Cassilly and his partners have brought back to life with a fantastically imaginative collection of play spaces, exhibits, and sculptures. Many attractions, like the multi-story slides (which visitors use as downward escalators), awe-inspiring underground cave system, and the interactive sculpture called MonstroCity (above), take advantage of the building’s unique spaces and industrial character. The museum invites its visitors to create and interact with exhibits. A tavern on the first floor called the Cabin Inn occupies a transplanted 19th century log cabin and is a popular venue for local musicians.
City Museum is just one of many great emerging spaces in downtown St. Louis. Kudos to Bob Cassilly for his vision and determination. The introduction to the piece read:
Ten lively locations–from a dazzling museum in St. Louis to an exciting market plaza in Brazil–are now being inducted to PPS’s authoritative Great Public Spaces website.
Nine additional places were added to the growing list. Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC; Jardin Juarez and Market Hall, Juchitan, Mexico; Museum of Modern Art Interior and Sculpture Garden, New York, NY; Kungsportsavenyn, Göteborg, Sweden; Devon Street, Chicago, IL; Largo Glênio Peres, Porto Alegre, Brazil; Wisconsin State Capitol, Madison, WI; Dapper Market, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and Trg Bana Jelacica, Zagreb, Croatia
For more information on PPS see their website.
Not bad company we are keeping these days.
– Steve
STL is catching.
RB
They got that one right. I’m not sure who enjoys City Museum more, me or my kids. We can spend hours upon hours in that place.
I had the great fortune to experience the City Museum while in St. Louis for the National Conference for Media Reform. There was a fund raiser for a local independent media organization held at the space. It was outstanding. Great music venues through out and lots of fun. I couldn’t help myself from taking a ride on several of the slides and I climbed all over the place in the outside maze. And good beer too! This Washingtonian was truly impressed.
i do love the city museum, although i haven’t been back once since i learned how much of the architectural pieces there were bought from known thieves, and how much was stolen outright by the sculptor. i have many fond memories of the place but now i find there’s a bad taste in my mouth when i think about going there.
i still think it’s a wonderful place and its existence is good for the city, but when we have so few resources besides the quality of our outstanding local vernacular architecture, it’s irresponsible and selfish to pick that apart for one’s own profit. there are enough legitimate ways to get architectural pieces in saint louis without stealing them to make this absolutely inexcusable. i love the museum, but shame on bob cassilly.
Paying $7 to get in to me doesn’t make it a public space. It is a great space indeed, and it is a public amenity, but that’s not what I’d term a public space. Forest park, now there’s a great public space.
I want to see public spaces where public entities have decided to put in money for a cool spatial experience without the direct expectation of a monetary return on that experience.
Metro’s Forsyth Station may qualify. We’ll see after it’s done.