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demmiblue

(36,751 posts)
Tue Jun 2, 2015, 04:59 PM Jun 2015

City Museum: A 10-Story Former Shoe Factory Transformed into the Ultimate Urban Playground

Source: Colossal

Housed in the former home of the 10-story International Shoe Company, the sprawling 600,000 square-foot City Museum in St. Louis is quite possibly the ultimate urban playground ever constructed. The museum is the brainchild of artist and sculptor Bob Cassilly who opened the space in 1997 after years of renovation and construction. Although Cassilly passed away in 2011, the museum is perpetually under construction as new features are added or improved thanks to a ragtag group of 20 artists known affectionately as the Cassilly Crew.

So what can you find at the City Museum? How about a sky-high jungle gym making use of two repurposed airplanes, two towering 10-story slides and numerous multi-floor slides, a rooftop Ferris wheel and a cantilevered school bus that juts out from the roof, subterranean caves, a pipe organ, hundreds of feet of tunnels that traverse from floor to floor, an aquarium, ball pits, a shoe lace factory, a circus arts facility, restaurants, and even a bar… because why not? All the materials used to build the museum including salvaged bridges, old chimneys, construction cranes, and miles of tile are sourced locally, making the entire endeavor a massive recycling project.

If you have kids (or are a kid at heart) and live in the midwestern United States or have any other means to get to St. Louis, if you aren’t immediately planning a trip to City Museum, you’re missing out on life. On my first visit last year our family hardly left the museum for two days. It is the complete antithesis to commercialized theme parks like Disneyland. You can see more photos at Gallery Hip.









More: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/06/city-museum/

Seriously, how cool is this?

7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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City Museum: A 10-Story Former Shoe Factory Transformed into the Ultimate Urban Playground (Original Post) demmiblue Jun 2015 OP
Way cool think Jun 2015 #1
Not as cool as having a good job when they grow up Warpy Jun 2015 #2
The City Museum is awesome! City Lights Jun 2015 #3
I wish this type of re-purposing would happen in every major city. demmiblue Jun 2015 #6
That is just too cool! My 5yo grandson would freak out over it. nt Mnemosyne Jun 2015 #4
Cool! SoapBox Jun 2015 #5
"St. Louis: First in shoes, first in booze, and last in the American League." KamaAina Jun 2015 #7

Warpy

(110,913 posts)
2. Not as cool as having a good job when they grow up
Tue Jun 2, 2015, 05:14 PM
Jun 2015

but really cool while they're kids.

Anyway, those old factories would be hell to retool with modern, efficient equipment, the rewiring alone is idiotically expensive. In some ways, it's cheaper to build a new plant from the ground up.

So this is a win-win for the kids. Let's hope we get rid of the conservatives and rig tax laws so that the plutocrats have to invest in onshore industry to avoid being completely skint.

demmiblue

(36,751 posts)
6. I wish this type of re-purposing would happen in every major city.
Thu Jun 4, 2015, 04:51 PM
Jun 2015

A place to wonder and dream, no matter what your age!

Is it economically feasible for low-income families to go there?

 

KamaAina

(78,249 posts)
7. "St. Louis: First in shoes, first in booze, and last in the American League."
Thu Jun 4, 2015, 04:55 PM
Jun 2015

Obviously, a very old saw.

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