On June 30, 2009, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay,
holding his cell phone aloft while standing at a podium on Ninth St. between Market and Chestnut, punched in seven digits. “Gentlemen,” he told the man who answered—
Paul McLeane of BSI Constructors—“start your fountains!
“And to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, tear down that fence!”
Seconds later, water leapt six feet into the air from 102 nozzles implanted in a paved plaza behind the Mayor; at the same time, workmen began dismantling a cyclone fence that for the previous 15 months had surrounded two square blocks on the Gateway Mall.
And with that, Citygarden was officially dedicated and opened to the public.
The people who conceived, planned and paid for Citygarden—the board and staff of Gateway Foundation—were worried about what might happen next. Would the public respond? Would people visit the two-block attraction that had consumed their lives the previous three years? Would the public appreciate the fact that the City of
St. Louis and Gateway Foundation had created a unique urban space in America—a completely open, accessible sculpture garden in the heart of a major city’s downtown? Or would the place stand largely empty—not understood or enjoyed by the broad public for which it was intended?
To increase the odds that someone would show up, the foundation hired an ice cream truck to park at the garden the next day.
Talk about needless worry. Within minutes of the time the fence started disappearing, people began to stream onto the grounds. And by July 1, the first full day of operation, the garden was jammed.
“Citygarden opens to rave reviews—and much splashing,” the St. Louis Beacon reported July 1. “Citygarden opens to an approving public,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch echoed the next day.
Since that time, the public’s embrace of Citygarden has, if anything, grown tighter. From 6 in the morning until late in the evening every day, the garden has drawn a crowd—and an intriguing one, at that. The diverse nature of the garden’s attractions has drawn a broad cross-section of the public, establishing the garden immediately as one of the best people-watching places in St. Louis. And the public reaction has been met by equally enthusiastic critical appraisals.
“By any measure, Gateway Foundation’s most prominent contribution to the
St. Louis region is a triumph,” the Beacon’s Robert Duffy wrote in a lengthy critique. “… Citygarden is a syncretism of earth, stone, water, art, architecture, urban context, intelligence, restraint and taste; it is a paradisiacal place which has significant historic roots.”
David Bonetti, the Post-Dispatch art critic, was equally flattering, writing: “Citygarden, the new sculpture park downtown on two formerly forlorn blocks of the Gateway Mall, should be a delight to lovers of modern and contemporary sculpture and those who just want to hang out in an urbane public park.” The headline on Bonetti’s piece: “New sculpture park downtown gets it right.”
The garden has also drawn national media attention. The New York Times gave it a full page in its Sunday, July 5 Arts and Leisure section, with 10 color photos and a color rendering. After describing some of the efforts under way to revive St. Louis’ downtown—the development of new lofts, a new bookstore and the new Schnucks grocery, Culinaria—The Times commented: “But perhaps the most original—and most onspicuous—step in the campaign is Citygarden, a 2.9 acre sculpture park that opened Wednesday on two blocks of the city’s central corridor, known as the Gateway Mall.”
The Times took note of the garden’s “cosmopolitan” sculpture and its broad appeal—“the park,” it said, “is intended to bring tourists and art fans to the mall and to draw office workers and loft dwellers outside with an array of amenities.“ It then went on to cite the garden’s potential catalytic effect on the development of downtown.
“There are several development opportunities right in the vicinity, and as the economy recovers, I think Citygarden will make those sites a lot more attractive,” the newspaper quoted Barbara Geisman, the City’s executive director of development, as saying. “This is probably one of the best things that’s happened downtown in the last couple of decades.”
Among other news services and national publications that have covered the garden are the Associated Press, WashingtonPost.com,
and USAToday.com. In addition, stories are currently in preparation at Metropolitan Homes, Interior Design, Architectural Record, American Style, Topos, Sculpture Magazine, Planning, Urban Land, Landscape Architecture, and Midwest Living, among other print and on-line publications.
In other words, Citygarden has not only given downtown St. Louis—not known for its active, public spaces—one of the most chic public spaces in any American city; it has also created a major new destination attraction for St. Louisans and visitors alike. In just a few short months, it has also brought flattering attention to St. Louis from publications all over the country and the world.
Not a bad opening act. |
