NBAC is pleased on announce its first-ever curated exhibition of collections at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis. The exhibit opened September 8, 2023 and rand through February 4, 2024. NBAC Executive Director Michael R. Allen curated Urban Archaeology in collaboration with Stephanie Weissberg and Molly Moog of the Pulitzer.
Drawn from the rich collection of the National Building Arts Center (NBAC), Urban Archaeology brought together salvaged architectural elements from landmark buildings, residential homes, and neighborhood institutions built in St. Louis between 1840 and 1950. The artifacts on display represented important histories of material innovation, labor, and the everyday lives of the people who inhabit the city. The exhibition shed light on the city’s history, revealing complicated legacies of power, wealth, and neglect that shape our experience of the built environment and daily life. By studying St. Louis’s architectural past, Urban Archeology encourages us to imagine new ways of building, keeping, knowing, and inhabiting places.
Located in Sauget, Illinois, the National Building Arts Center emerged in response to the rapid economic decline and widespread demolition the city experienced beginning in the 1950s. NBAC has worked over four decades to salvage and preserve significant parts of condemned buildings that would otherwise be completely lost, amassing the largest and most diversified collection of building artifacts in the United States. Urban Archaeology has been the most extensive public presentation of NBAC’s collection to date.
Other NBAC Exhibitions
Flight City: St. Louis Takes to the Air
Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
June 3, 2007 to September 28, 2008
Art of the Sign
Ars Populi Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri
Beginning April 13, 2012
Lost Buildings of St. Louis
Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
March 21, 2015 to July 19, 2015
A Walk in 1875 St. Louis
Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
May 30, 2015 to February 14, 2016
Panoramas of the City
Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
September 2, 2017 to August 12, 2018
NBAC Installations
T-REX Incubator
St. Louis, Missouri
Installation of cast iron spandrel panels from the Century Building (1896)
2014
Gateway Arch National Park
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, St. Louis, Missouri
Installation of a cast iron storefront in the reconstructed Museum of Westward Expansion.
2018
Exhibitions and Installations Before the NBAC
Before there was an NBAC, our collections still provided major support to permanent installations and temporary exhibitions. In 2004, our founder Larry Giles co-curated and were the primary lender to the exhibition Brick by Brick: Building St. Louis and the Nation at the St. Louis University Art Museum, which has been the most comprehensive exhibit on St. Louis brick to date. In 2000, Giles provided the artifacts for The Winkle Terra Cotta Company: Architectural Art from the Ambassador and Comet Theaters at the Sheldon Art Galleries.
Exhibitions
The Architectural Heritage of St. Louis, 1803 – 1891: From the Louisiana Purchase to the Wainwright Building
Washington University Gallery of Art; Steinberg Hall, St. Louis, Missouri
January 20 to March 14, 1982
The City Surfaces: Architectural Ornament in St. Louis
The First Street Forum; St. Louis, Missouri
April 22 to June 12, 1983
Saint Louis Architectural Terra Cotta: An Installation of Historic Architectural Artifacts
Ridgeway Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri
March 9 to April 7, 1985
Earth Angel: Clay Feet of Architectural Ornament
Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri, Columbia
December 1985
The Spirit of H.H. Richardson on the Midland Prairies [The St. Louis Connection]
Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
May 14 to September 4, 1989
From Ragtime to Rock ‘n’ Roll
Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
February 4, 1990 to February 4, 1998
Washington: Symbol and City
National Building Museum; Pension Building, Washington, D. C.
June 1991 to January 1, 2013
Saint Louis in the Gilded Age
Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
October 3, 1993 to July 2000
Lost St. Louis
Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
February 17, 1994 to December 31, 1995
Fire and Fusion
Artists Blacksmith’s Association of North America (ABANA) Conference
Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
July 1994
Abandoned Skyscraper
Sculpture Center, New York, New York
May 9 to June 6, 1995
Saint Louis Antiques Show (Benefit for the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis)
Historic St. Louis Garden Furniture
Washington University Athletic Complex, St. Louis, Missouri
May 26 to 28, 1995
Abandoned Skyscraper
Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis, Missouri
March 22 to May 18, 1996
The Architectural Ornament of Louis Sullivan
The Sheldon Art Galleries, St. Louis, Missouri
Fall 1998
Seeking St. Louis
Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
Cast iron storefront; pediment from L’Ouverture School; roofing tile
March 2000 (ongoing)
The Winkle Terra Cotta Company: Architectural Art from the Ambassador and Comet Theaters
The Sheldon Art Galleries; St. Louis, Missouri
February 22 to August 27, 2000
Brick by Brick: Building St. Louis and the Nation
St. Louis University Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
April 15 through July 31, 2004
The 1904 World’s Fair: Looking Back at Looking Forward
Missouri History Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
May 2004 (ongoing)
Terra Cotta Victory Figure from the Title Guaranty Building
Centene Center for Arts and Education, St. Louis, Missouri
2005 (ongoing)
Permanent Installations
Lovejoy Library, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville
Edwardsville, Illinois
Terra cotta Winged Victory figure from the Title Guaranty Building
1985
St. Louis Union Station
St. Louis, Missouri
Installation of 19th century cast iron storefront
1986
Shoenberg Temperate House, Missouri Botanical Garden
St. Louis, Missouri
Installation of portico recovered from St Leo’s School
1988
The Wolfsonian Museum of Decorative and Propaganda Arts
Miami Beach, Florida
Installation of artifacts from noted St Louis buildings
1992
A.G. Edwards & Sons Global Headquarters (Now Wells Fargo Advisors)
St. Louis, Missouri
A.G. Edwards and Early Modernist Architecture in St. Louis
An installation of artifacts associated with the history of A. G. Edwards
Locations: Lobbies of Investment Banking Department and Sculpture Garden
1998
Doorways Memorial Garden
Doorways Interfaith AIDS Housing and Services, 4385 Maryland Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri
Sculpture installation from Sacred Heart Church
1998
The Sheldon Art Galleries
St. Louis, Missouri
Installation of Terra Cotta from Title Guaranty and Buder Buildings and Henry Shaw Fountain
Locations: Louis Spiering Room, Entrance Lobby and Sculpture Garden
1999
Charles K. Knight Educational Center at Washington University in St Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
Artifacts of Industry in St. Louis
St. Louis made brick & terra cotta
2002