The city’s Preservation Board will again weigh allowing a developer to demolish City Museum founder and St. Louis sculptor Bob Cassilly’s workshop.
This isn’t the first time a demolition permit has been requested for the workshop at 2645 Lafayette Avenue in the city’s Gate District.
In 2023 the board denied a previous request for such a permit from SphereAxis Development Group Inc., which owns the property. The developer also owns the neighboring Avyan Hotel.
On February 26, the Preservation Board will hear SphereAxis’ appeal on a second denial of a demolition permit for the workshop.
Cassilly died in 2011 in what police concluded was a bulldozer accident at his unfinished project Cementland (his widow has questioned that conclusion). Before moving into a residence above City Museum, Cassilly was a longtime resident of Lafayette Square, which is just a few blocks east from the studio of Lafayette, and his sculptures can be seen in Lafayette Park and the Barr library branch down the street, as well as parks throughout St. Louis and in the City Museum.
The city condemned the studio building in 2019, four years after Cassilly sold it.
Community members are concerned about what will happen to the beautiful terracotta building.
Jackie Dana, writer of the Unseen St. Louis Substack, is one of these concerned individuals and is urging the community to attend the hearing and contact the board to save the building.
“If you believe the building has historic or artistic merit and should be saved — or at the bare minimum, the fence, sculpture, and concrete dragon facade should be recovered and preserved — we need your help!” Dana wrote.
The Preservation Board meets at 4 p.m. on February 26.
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