Qualla: City Museum: The Wildest Building in America

City Museum: The Wildest Building in America: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Raymond M. Reskusich Uploaded by Kara11584 at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. There is a school bus hanging off the roof. Two fighter jet fuselages are suspended in midair above the entrance. A 24-foot metal praying mantis crouches atop a dome salvaged from the St. Louis Science Center. Inside, visitors crawl through tunnels made from old refrigerating coils, slide down ten-story spiral chutes that once moved shoes through a factory, and walk through the belly of a life-size bowhead whale sculpture. This is the City Museum in St. Louis, and it is not really a museum at all. It is the fever dream of sculptor Bob Cassilly, who bought a vacant International Shoe Company factory in 1993 and spent the rest of his life turning it into something no other city on earth possesses.

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Image: Raymond M. Reskusich Uploaded by Kara11584 at en.wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

City Museum: The Wildest Building in America: Bob Cassilly's Obsession

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Atomicdragon136, CC BY 3.0. Artist Bob Cassilly and his then-wife Gail purchased the mostly vacant International Shoe building in 1993. Construction began immediately and was shrouded in secrecy until New Year's Eve 1996, when visitors were first allowed inside to glimpse the work in progress. The museum op...

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Image: Atomicdragon136 | CC BY 3.0

City Museum: The Wildest Building in America: Ten Floors of Impossible

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Atomicdragon136, CC BY 3.0. The first floor sets the tone: a life-size bowhead whale you can walk through, tunnels running across the ceiling hidden behind aircraft Kevlar cut to resemble icicles, and a tree house that spans three stories. The floor itself is covered with what is described as the largest co...

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Image: Atomicdragon136 | CC BY 3.0

City Museum: The Wildest Building in America: Circus, Pencil, and Ferris Wheel

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Atomicdragon136, CC BY 3.0. The third floor hosts the Everyday Circus, a working circus school that performs daily. Nearby, the museum displays the world's largest pencil, more than 76 feet long, weighing 21,500 pounds with 4,000 pounds of graphite and a 250-pound rubber eraser, created by Ashrita Furman an...

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Image: Atomicdragon136 | CC BY 3.0

City Museum: The Wildest Building in America: MonstroCity and the Cabin Inn

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris857, CC BY-SA 3.0. The outdoor installation called MonstroCity greets visitors before they enter the building. Two Sabreliner 40 aircraft fuselages hang suspended high in the air alongside a fire engine, a castle turret, four-foot-wide Slinkies you can crawl through, and climbing structures that le...

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Image: Chris857 | CC BY-SA 3.0

City Museum: The Wildest Building in America: Legacy of the Oddball Mind

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Atomicdragon136, CC BY 3.0. The City Museum has been named one of the great public spaces by the Project for Public Spaces and was ranked among the best immersive art experiences in the country by USA Today readers in 2025. After Cassilly's death in 2011, ownership passed through David Jump of American Mill...

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Image: Atomicdragon136 | CC BY 3.0