Cementland: Bob Cassilly’s Unfinished Masterpiece

From the years 2000 thru 2011 Bob Cassilly, famed sculptor and creator of the fantastical City Museum in St. Louis, Missouri, worked on creating a new theme park called Cementland. Located at the abandoned 54-acre site of the Portland Cement factory in north St. Louis, it was meant to be an unique amusement park with the largest mound in North America, navigable waterways, ramps, bridges, and tunnels, where adults could “play like children.” Unfortunately, Cassilly died in 2011 in a tragic bulldozer accident while working on Cementland. After a decade of neglect and decay, the property was sold by the Cassilly estate to a developer who is now dismantling the site. In the month prior to its destruction, I was able to covertly enter the property and photograph it. This portfolio is my tribute to an eccentric, artistic genius and his final work, which is now lost to the world.