Cementland is an incomplete public art exhibit on the 54-acre site of a former

cement factory A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

just north of

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. The brainchild of sculptor

Bob Cassilly Robert James Cassilly Jr. (November 9, 1949 – September 26, 2011) was an American sculptor, entrepreneur, and creative director based in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1997, Cassilly founded the idiosyncratic City Museum, which draws over 70 ...

, who also created St. Louis' City Museum, it contains giant concrete sculptures and obsolete machinery, and was planned to have navigable waterways, among many other features. Much of the landscaping is built on dirt dumped by local construction companies, who used the land as a dump before Cassilly purchased it and who paid him for the privilege. Cassily was funding the construction of Cementland himself; the free material and income from the dumping helps underwrite what he said would "otherwise be an unaffordable project." The site, outside the city boundaries in the village of Riverview, provides a view of the Gateway Arch. “In the afternoon, when the sun shines on the city, you get this nice reflection. You don’t see all the trash and stuff. It’s the best view of the city,” Cassilly said.Sparks, Matthew Summers
"One Part Cement, One Part Whimsy, One Odd Park"
''New York Times'', 25 August 2007. On September 26, 2011, Cassilly was killed at the Cementland site, and it initially was reported that he died when the

bulldozer A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous track ...

he was driving flipped down a hill. However, in October 2016, medical expert Dr. Arthur Combs concluded that Cassilly had been beaten to death, and the bulldozer accident staged. The Cassilly family said that they had hopes to continue construction on the project, but in 2022 they sold the site at auction for $785,000. St. Louis photographer Richard Sprengeler has extensively photographed the site as part of a 2022 series.

References

External links

Official site: Cementland

Article and photos of the project

{{authority control Museums in St. Louis

Art museums and galleries in Missouri Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, A ...

Sculpture gardens, trails and parks in the United States Proposed museums in the United States