ST. LOUIS • Citygarden downtown and a rebuilding of South Grand Boulevard south of Arsenal Street have been honored with national awards by the American Society of Landscape Architects.
The society honored Citygarden as one of its eight Honor Awards in design for 2011, and cited the South Grand project with one of its nine awards for analysis and planning. The society noted that 567 projects were entered just for the Honor Awards program.
Citygarden was opened in July 2009 on two blocks of the Gateway Mall. It includes fountains, sculptures, a restaurant and many child-friendly features. The Gateway Foundation, headed by M. Peter Fischer, spent about $30 million building Citygarden and pays part of the upkeep.
"This place really works and provides evidence that design matters," the society said of Citygarden in announcing its awards today.
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The South Grand project is still under construction. The plan reduced the number of lanes on Grand, roughly from Tower Grove Park south through the restaurant and entertainment district, and provides new sidewalks and curbs.
The East-West Council of Governments sponsored the $5 million effort, with money from the federal and city governments.
The American Society of Landscape Architect's top award went to the Portland Mall in Portland, Ore. Lead designer for Citygarden was Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects of Charlottesville, Va. Workshop Inc. of Denver is lead designer for South Grand.