Home & Lifestyles Tour

Sunday, May 16, 1 to 5 pm

Tour a variety of city homes.

Experience cooking demonstrations, gardening, beekeeping, rain barrels, backyard bocce, artist studios, and more

Tour starts at Southwest Garden Neighborhood office, 4950 Southwest Av.

$8 in advance, $10 at the door

(314) 772-6082

Southwest Garden Neighborhood Association (SWGNA) invites the public to join artists Agnieszka Gradzik and Wiktor Szostalo, creators of the TreeHugger Project, to an unveiling of “Critical Mass – Midnight Ramble”, on Friday, April 23, 6 pm, at the corner of Shaw and Vandeventer. This new installation will feature two TreeHugger figures with their bicycles by their side. The public is invited to walk or ride their bicycle to the unveiling and become part of the performance planned by the artists.

The TreeHugger Project is an ongoing work of Environmental Art designed to help us re-discover our relationship with nature at a very personal and intimate level. Made from twigs, branches, sticks, vines, and other natural materials, these playful sculptures remind us that we humans are still very much part of our natural surroundings.

Agnieszka Gradzik and Wiktor Szostalo are internationally-recognized artists with installations in several cities in the U.S. and abroad, including Austria, Poland and Denmark. They were commissioned for the 2008 and 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conferences, in Poznan, Poland, and Copenhagen, Denmark, where a 14-figure installation titled “Lonely Tree–Lonely People” is still on display at the historic City Hall in the center of Copenhagen.

We welcome the new arrivals to the neighborhood with open arms and look forward to joining them in a symbolic gesture of hugging a tree. As much as many of us will want these figures to stay longer, they are meant to follow the natural cycle of life and decay. Within 3 to 5 years they will disintegrate to become soil, in order for new life to flourish, again and again.

In addition, the artists and SWGNA staff, in partnership with Missouri Botanical Garden’s Earthways Center, and AmerenUE will present the TreeHugger Project to area schools and civic groups. By joining hands to share the TreeHugger project, we hope this effort will inspire us all to take individual responsibility for our physical world by choosing sustainable lifestyles.

This project was accomplished with support from the Regional Arts Commission.

More information and pictures available on this flyer (PDF).

The Southwest Garden Neighborhood Association’s Suggested Architectural Guidelines for Exterior Facades has been developed to define a set of elements that the Association feels are important in maintaining a cohesive architectural aesthetic throughout the Southwest Garden Neighborhood. With the existing architecture of the neighborhood as a model, the goal of these guidelines is to foster new development and existing building renovation that does not necessarily mimic the surrounding architecture, but compliments it. Using a graduated rating system of Preferred, Acceptable and Discouraged suggestions for architectural features, these guidelines hope to aid in the development of residential properties that are both aesthetically pleasing and economically viable. Please note, these are the Association’s suggested guidelines, and not required building standards.

Consultation for these guidelines was generously provided by:

Steven L. Patterson
Urban Planner
Steve@UrbanReviewSTL.com
www.UrbanReviewSTL.com

Planning & Urban Design Agency
Cultural Resources Office
1015 Locust Street
St. Louis, MO 63101