In 1999, a nonprofit group called Downtown Now sponsored the development of a master plan for downtown St. Louis. The plan, which was approved by the Board of Aldermen, called for a sculpture garden on the two blocks of the Gateway Mall between Eighth and Tenth Streets.

Over the next several years, downtown St. Louis experienced a dramatic revival. Lofts and apartments were created in old warehouses and industrial buildings, dozens of new businesses opened, and the population roughly doubled. By 2006, the City saw a need to develop public, recreational space for the growing constituency. Fortunately the space existed – on the Gateway Mall. The City decided to get busy.

At the request of the City, the Gateway Foundation funded the development of a new Mall Master Plan. Gateway Foundation funded the development of a plan encompassing the entire Mall, from Broadway to 21st Street. Excited by the plan, the City asked the Gateway Foundation to fund the design and construction of the sculpture garden.

An agreement was reached in September 2006, and in June 2007, the Gateway Foundation made a proposal to the Board of Aldermen to develop those two blocks into a public sculpture garden, in a partnership with the City. An ordinance approving the proposal won passage, and later, the St. Louis Preservation Board and the Board of Public Service also gave their approvals.

Since the 2007 agreement with the Board of Aldermen, Citygarden has become a reality. The City of St. Louis believes that Citygarden will help to create a new standard for the development of the rest of the Gateway Mall. It also believes that Citygarden will not only fulfill its purpose of providing open, recreational space for downtown office workers and residents, but also catalyze the development of more commercial and residential space along the perimeter of the Gateway Mall and elsewhere downtown.

JULY 2009
Welcome to Citygarden. This downtown jewel, a generous gift from the Gateway Foundation, is one of the most remarkable gifts ever given in the history of this city.

When we broke ground on the garden in 2008, I called it “a home run for the city a few blocks from the ballpark.” Now that this vision has been realized, Citygarden will undoubtedly take its place among the great cultural attractions of St. Louis.

It is also unlike anything else in the United States. The combination of world-class public art with magnificent landscaping in a completely open, accessible downtown setting is simply unique among cultural attractions throughout the country.

Gorgeous plantings, magnificent fountains, beautiful lighting, a glorious café with outdoor seating, and of course, world-class sculpture by internationally-renowned artists all combine to make Citygarden a real civic treasure.

What makes this truly special is that Citygarden is for everybody.

Downtown office workers and our growing downtown residential population now have an inviting public space just around the corner. Cardinals fans have a delightful place to stroll before and after games. Families now have an ideal spot for an afternoon picnic downtown.

Visitors to the Arch and the Old Courthouse have a reason to venture further into downtown, and people from all over the St. Louis metropolitan area have yet another motivation to drive into the Gateway City. And of course, art enthusiasts and other tourists from all over the world have something special to come here to see.
We cannot thank the Gateway Foundation enough for this gift. We asked them to consider developing these two blocks. What they’ve come up with has exceeded our wildest dreams.

As you may know, we also have plans for the rest of the Gateway Mall. We believe these two blocks are going to be the cornerstone for that Mall. And we think this garden is going to set a standard for the Mall’s future development that will serve us all very well.

So we’ve got a lot to look forward to. I think it’s fair to say that if we ever needed more evidence that this City is moving forward, we’ve got it right here.

Thank you for visiting Citygarden. I hope you have a wonderful experience!

Sincerely,
Francis G. Slay, Mayor
City of St. Louis

BY WARREN T. BYRD JR., ClA, FAALA PRINCIPAL, NELSON BYRD WOLTZ LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA

For any landscape architect, the invitation to design a major sculpture garden is a rare opportunity. Citygarden presented an even more remarkable circumstance – the chance to design an urban oasis that is a hybrid between a sculpture garden, a botanic garden and a city park.

From the outset we wanted to make Citygarden’s design unique to St. Louis and its wider regional context. To accomplish this, our design inspiration draws from the great riverine landscapes of the area, and in particular acknowledges this three acre urban site’s location just a few blocks west of the Mississippi River.

Our charge from the Gateway Foundation was clear from the beginning: help us make an inviting and inspiring public place for a variety of remarkable contemporary sculptures; create a diversity of spaces and experiences; make it a beautiful and engaging place year-round and, please, provide plenty of shade and water.

So our responsibility was to envision a design framework that could accommodate all of these elements and desires. The limestone bluffs and river meanders were abstracted into the two framing devices for Citygarden – the taller arc wall and the lower meander wall. And a closer analysis of the actual two block canvas revealed clues that allowed us to recall the sites’ early twentieth century history. The parallel boundaries of the horticultural gardens along Market Street were inspired by actual property lines denoted on a 1916 Sanborn map. The bluestone walk that defines the central east-west path across Citygarden literally traces long lost alleyways – including an idiosyncratic jog at the eastern end. The birch-clad mound on the northwest corner of the site evokes an even more distant cultural history of Native American ceremonial mound – building that prevailed in St. Louis before its modern development.

Another regionally expressive component of Citygarden is its flora. Seventeen of the 18 tree species we selected are native to Missouri, as are most (but certainly not all) of the shrubs, perennials, groundcovers, grasses and wildflowers. Missouri Botanic Garden consulted with the design team on the choice of plants and will continue to advise on the maintenance of the garden.

Citygarden is perhaps unparalleled in its openness and accessibility. This gave the design team the freedom to innovate and create a distinctive environment that people of all ages and from all walks of life can enjoy for years to come. We are grateful to have been a part of this extraordinary project, and we hope you will experience Citygarden in all of its various guises as it continues to celebrate the intersection of art, natural process and community life.

If it performs as envisioned, the solidity of its design, the magic of its sculpture and the majesty of its plants will not be seen as individual achievements, but rather as the elements that seamlessly merge to create a memorable and lasting place in the evolving civic life of downtown St. Louis.

To learn more about the design and the landscape architecture of Citygarden, download The Design and/or The Landscape Architecture from the online press kit.

BY WARREN T. BYRD JR., ClA, FAALA PRINCIPAL, NELSON BYRD WOLTZ LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA

Water is one of the most expressive elements at Citygarden. Three fountains are interspersed throughout the park, combining with sculpture and lush plant life to create a unique visitor experience.

The first fountain is 34 feet in diameter. The subtly tilted granite disk with a water scrim sheets gently from the base of the massive Igor Mitoraj sculpture, Eros Bendato, which welcomes visitors to the garden at 8th Street and Market Street. The tilted disk was conceived as a platform for the sculpture, and water was introduced as a reference to the disk’s round, earth-shaped form. It also presents an inviting and cooling element at one of the garden’s main entry points.

The second fountain is the split basin, which is 190 feet long, 20 feet wide and 16 inches deep. A waterfall, approximately 40 feet wide, “breaks” the basin where the arc wall crosses the pool and the upper basin seeps and cascades from the upland café terrace down to the floodplain six feet below.

This waterfall, constructed of native limestone, references the natural history of St. Louis and its environs by representing the seeps and falls along the nearby Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The upper basin provides a calm, reflective pool for the Aristide Maillol sculpture, La Riviere, near the café.

The last fountain is the playful spray plaza, which punctuates Citygarden’s middle tier. The spray plaza includes a paved field of 102 vertical jets that project water up to eight feet in height. The plaza invites children and adults alike to meander through its programmed patterns, and delight in the evening shows of light and water. Eroding out a small section of the field of jets, an 18-foot-diameter pool of 16-inch deep water provides a calm, oxbow-like foil to the dancing jets, and contains the small, contemplative sculpture by Jean-Michel Folon, Voyage.