The Ultimate in Building Materials Reuse, or . . . Now I've Seen Everything
By
Ted Reiff
Early this month I traveled to St. Louis to meet with several folks at that city's Sustainable Buildings Co-op. During the meeting, someone suggested that I pay a visit to the City Museum to see some of the most ingenious examples of building-materials reuse on the planet.
The explicit directions provided by my hosts told me to look up and to the left as I eased into my final right turn. High above, perched atop the nine-story City Museum was an eight-foot praying mantis. Nearby, the skeleton of an airplane supported by a steel sculpture rose from the parking lot and a school bus careened out of control off a rooftop.
Ok, ok, the plane and the school bus are not building materials, but just about everything else in the museum is, and while words can't do justice to this awe-inspiring place, I'll give it a shot.
Deep in the heart of the museum are the "Enchanted Caves," built inside the spiral conveyor-tunnel system of an historic shoe factory. The second floor houses a 13,500 square foot "World Aquarium," with 10,000 creatures, giant sea shells and castles and tunnels throughout. There's a "Skateless Park" made of old skate ramps and half pipes where kids can swing, jump, crawl and slide. Visitors can climb five stories through an elaborate labyrinth of oversized "Slinkies." Many of the slides, stairs and ladders are made out of salvaged rebar.
Architectural relics are everywhere. I'm a pretty big guy, and I was dwarfed by some of the eerily-lit gargoyles peering from cabinets and impaled on poles. Bank vault doors eight feet in diameter allowed me to pass through a drain pipe from one room to another. Shafts of steel 10 feet in diameter shoot up six floors with circular steel staircases surrounding them so that their height can be “conquered” by youngsters. The way down is through a tubular slide—wow!
The oldest building in St. Louis, a two-story early 19th century log cabin known affectionately as "The Cabin Inn the City" sits inside the museum and features a beer and wine bar and live musical entertainment on the weekends. And then there's "MonstroCity, the most monumental, monolithic, monstrous montage of monkey bars in the world." That quote is from the museum's web-site www.citymuseum.org Take the photo tour.
Creative Director Bob Cassilly is the museum's mastermind. He must have numerous welders, ironworkers and painters working for him fulltime, not to mention the usual docents and maintenance crews. Bob collects artifacts and materials from all over the Midwest and stores them offsite. As he gets ideas, ones that would wake me up screaming, he starts putting the pieces together. I think it's random, but since most everything is connected to something else in the building, it can't be too random.
The top four floors are being developed into loft condominiums. Now I ask you, who wouldn't want to live atop this "museum" playground?
By the way, I want to take my hat off to the citizens of St. Louis. I have NEVER been in a cleaner looking city. Remember, this is an old industrial river town, yet I did not see a candy wrapper or plastic bag on the streets or sidewalks during my entire stay there. Congratulations! |
