ST. LOUIS MUSEUM CAPTURES THE MAGIC OF BEING 12

ST. LOUIS -- City Museum is a maze of tunnels and caves -- 4,000 feet of them -- and conveyor belts and an Enchanted Forest with hidden animal faces and gurgling streams of water where real fish live.

The museum also is a recycling fantasy starring industrial equipment put to artistic uses and mosaics and frescoes gleaned from some of St. Louis's most interesting razed buildings. One bathroom's walls are made of 2,800 salvaged mouse cages. If you have enough of something, co-founder Bob Cassilly has said, it becomes a brick.

Once inside City Museum, you know you're in an environment unlike any you've ever seen, but the sense of wonder it provokes is very familiar.

In the vision of founders and sculptors Bob and Gail Cassilly, the museum is a place where adults and children alike can experience the magic of being 12 years old.

Thousands of strips of fabric used to repair airplane wings hang from the first-floor ceiling, deepening the effect of walking into a dreamscape. The strips also dampen the noise in the brick and concrete building. You can walk through the lobby and into the mouth of a 55-foot Bowhead whale sculpture. One tile mosaic floor now covers four thousand square feet.

The museum is housed in the bottom three floors of the former International Shoe Company factory at 701 N. 15th St. in downtown St. Louis. Bob Cassilly contributed the gigantic formed concrete serpent sculptures that adorn the parking lot. Outside the building stand an 1864 cupola from the Missouri State Hospital and an 1805 log cabin.

The museum, which opened in 1997, has exhibits but they are not the traditional kind. The real work of art in progress here is the museum itself.

"We take great pride in the fact that it's not finished and never will be," Steck said.

City Museum originally was going to be just an aquarium, then a children's museum. "It has evolved very organically," says Jean Steck, the museum's deputy director.

At City Museum, the names of the exhibits are organic as well. After children started calling a wheeled antique water tank the "Puking Pig" because it disgorges 100 gallons of water every 90 seconds, the museum added bolts for eyes to complete the resemblance.

Children also are responsible for naming a heat exchanger from the Anheuser Busch Brewery "The Giant Slinky of Death."

The City Museum has played on the history of the building. A shoelace factory operates on one floor. A popular exhibit of shoe art ends Labor Day weekend. Two hundred artists sent entries of shoes made of everything from bubblegum to screws.

A beatnik hangout in the museum offers old-fashioned pinball machines and root beer floats. In Art City, visitors can paint and decorate shoes salvaged from the Brown Shoe Company and take them home. The museum gets 3,000 shoes every month and runs out every month. Art demonstrations are always going on in Art City.

The third floor houses the carnivals games and entertainment of the everydaycircus, where parents can book a birthday party.

The Saint Louis Bread Company restaurant has food for those who want to spend the day at the museum. Steck advises allowing at least two hours. Dressing comfortably also is a good idea, especially if you plan on crawling around in any of the many tunnels. "We now sell knee pads," Steck said.

The tunnels are meant for both children and adults, although the new tunnel beneath the whale is only 18 inches wide.

People have been known to get stuck but, Steck says, "We get them all out."

One huge room is dedicated to architectural ornamentation salvaged from old buildings.

"Afterward people will say, I walked downtown and looked up all the time," Steck said. "... We have what only the birds saw before."

Bob Cassilly is well known for his concrete sculptures. His 67-foot giraffe stands in front of the Dallas Zoo and he has made animal sculptures for Sea World and "Sesame Street." His stamp is all over the museum, but Steck said the entire staff is composed of very creative people.

"We believe everyone is inherently creative. The museum is about trying to discover the creative part of yourself, feeling like an artist," she said.

She is a weaver who raises her own sheep. In one of her favorite festivals at the museum, some sheep and members of the staff and dogs were dyed with Kool-Aid then sheared. The wool and hair then was spun into cloth.

In October, the museum will host a juried national exhibition of birdhouses. In November there will an exhibition of 2,000 door knobs.

The museum has started a wave of interest in turning the old buildings nearby into cafes and club and artists' lofts.

"We're like the poster child for downtown redevelopment," Steck said.

City Museum has been profiled by PBS and written about by national and foreign media. Steck often is asked by people in other cities to work as a consultant but always declines, suggesting they should create their own museum instead of mimicking St. Louis.

The Midwest sometimes is criticized for being out of the creative loop, but City Museum is one of a kind.

"It's nice to feel proud of something for being here," Steck said.

If you go

Address: 701 N. 15th St., St. Louis

Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Admission: $6; children under 1 free

Information: (314) 231-2489 or www.citymuseum.org