urbanSTL

Hey I see Citygarden got a brief mention in NY Times Sunday Travel section.

There are actually two LED pieces, IIRC. I think they're great!

The only other Goldstick in St. Louis interned for Act3 and helped develop the audio tour functionality within Citygarden. She was invited to the grand opening this past weekend! Sadly, she has moved to Chicago after graduating from WashU.



From today's RFT: http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyr ... _opens.php

When asked about his favorite aspect of the park, Slay tells the Daily RFT, "That it's free and open to the public, the gates are open to the public."



The Gateway Foundation, the group that financed the park (estimates place its price tag at between $25 and $30 million), will pay for all costs of the park, except water and electricity bills. BSI Construction was the general contractor for the project. The city owns the land and the site improvements, plantings and trees, while the Gateway Foundation owns the sculptures.



And for downtown scaredy-cats, Paul Wagman, spokesman for the Foundation, adds that there will be designated security for the park.

It would be fantastic if money could be raised to continue the sculpture parks expansion east until finally it ended at the Arch grounds. Maybe every 5 years a new two-block set can be finished so that in 20 years or so we'll have 10 blocks of urban sculpture garden ending at the greatest sculpture of all - the Gateway Arch. What a great draw that would be for tourists and a great way to get visitors downtown from within the region.

^ +1

If nothing else the Twain sculpture block should be included. Adding a few more pieces and doing some good landscaping would be fantastic.



By the way, here are the first two comments on the STLToday website right now re: City Garden:

J said:

Another beautiful park for the bums to ruin. It doesn't seem possible to enjoy downtown without being constantly harrassed by the worthless...

Jul 01, 2009

Stubey Wurt said:

Great. More twisted scrap metal. As if there isn't enough of that downtown already.

Jul 01, 2009

^

STLToday posters are constantly advocating tearing down buildings for park space. Then, we get a beautiful sculpture garden and they complain about it.



The same people who originally wanted a softball field at Ballpark Village finally got their wish, and now they complain that BPV hasn't been built.

^ Some people just feel the need to complain and be general a**holes. It helps them make their miserable lives seem better.

Went down there on my lunch hour and, while I'd prefer buildings to be in the garden's place, it really is a wonderful space. Lots of people milling about, hopefully they'll stay after the newness wears off.



The buildings on either side of the garden frame the garden really well, and, if you look around, the garden has given photographers a million new ways to photograph the city.



I hope in the future some more "experimental" art is added, but for now what they have is great.



If and when the empty blocks downtown get developed (and not into more parking lots and garages), I can see this as being an oasis in the middle of a bustling CBD.



I'd say a job well done.

beware, the stltoday.com posters are now invading the BJ

http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... ily29.html



Ted and Garlic Garlic are a broker record when it comes to just about any downtown article.



I particularly enjoyed Ted's nonsense.

Moorlander wrote:beware, the stltoday.com posters are now invading the BJ

http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/ ... ily29.html



Ted and Garlic Garlic are a broker record when it comes to just about any downtown article.



I particularly enjoyed Ted's nonsense.

I think Ted might be insane. He's posted on other topics there.

Great points Jeff... The concrete oasis that is OPO plaza likely won't take off untill the cafe in the Roberts Tower opens up, whenever that will be.

Some pics from the Citygarden:

Actually......Ted's comment in the BJ--



--"This city is so easily impressed with itself over the smallest of things" --



couldn't be more honest. He is exactly right. We have so much green space downtown and we are all patting ourselves on the back for planting some trees and putting in some fountains. Bigger things should be happening in this city and I am not yet convinced this place will actually spur any development. That said, it is a nice park, it is just funny how everyone is so worked up about a park, next to another "park", next to more green space, next to underdeveloped lots, etc., etc..

^ Well what would make you happy, Ted? We want to please you.

What the heck, here's more citygarden from my adventure there this afternoon





















<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/b ... ><img></a>

Went here Wednesday eve/early dark... and this place is amazing - what a great vibe. Lots of families, pets, people (tourists and residents), This place has a great city vibe to it and it feels like STL's "Millennium Park".

Naysayers... too bad.

Amazing work, Olvidarte! I'll have to see what I can do with my digital SLR, some creativity, and a bit of post-processing.

Olvidarte - camera/lens?

Went to dubliner last night for dinner and walked over to Citygarden. It was packed with people at 9:30-10 while I was there, lots of cameras and kids still playing in the fountains. It is beautiful. Sorry TG, this is not just another park, and I for one am proud of this city's newest jewel. This "park" has excellent features and is full of great ART.



As someone said above, it has a very big city feel to it and it was nice to see so many people enjoying it last night.



Hopefully Ted can learn to enjoy some of the things in life and not be such a douche bag.

Grover wrote:Olvidarte - camera/lens?

I've got a Nikon D60 and the lens is Nikon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Nikkor Zoom Lens.



I wish I had a better zoom lens because I saw so many more pictures, but i couldn't capture them with the lens I have (I just got the camera)...so when I have a few hunderd more dollars lying around & a new lens I'll be back at Citygarden to get more pics.