This fall the Pulitzer Arts Foundation gleans insights into pressing issues of the built environment by way of building artifacts, the architectural salvage left in the wake of urban renewal and accelerated material change in St. Louis. Urban Archaeology: Lost Buildings of St. Louis presents more than 25 objects—from a theater façade to a hand-pressed clay brick—drawn from the National Building Arts Center (NBAC), the nation’s largest collection of architectural, structural, and industrial artifacts, located in a former steel foundry 10 minutes from St. Louis’s downtown.
On view from September 8, 2023 through February 4, 2024, Urban Archaeology: Lost Buildings of St. Louis is organized by Michael Allen, director of the National Building Arts Center, Sauget, Illinois, with Stephanie Weissberg, Curator, Pulitzer Arts Foundation and Molly Moog, Curatorial Assistant, Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
“Urban Archaeology is intended to spark discussions about St. Louis’s past and future,” says Pulitzer Executive Director Cara Starke. “The museum has explored the way we inhabit the urban landscape in prior exhibitions, and we continue to examine the topic from different perspectives to expand our understanding of history so that we might better envision the future of our city. We are especially gratified by this collaboration as NBAC’s vast collection is a unique repository that offers fascinating new vantage points from which to view urban change and transformation.”
