Animals Always by Albert Paley opens to the public Friday
Animals Always, which began as a sketch more than two years ago, has now progressed from a cardboard model to a giant 100-ton Cor-ten sculpture with an endangered species theme.
Measuring 130 feet in length, 36 feet in height, and 8 feet deep, tomorrow it will become one of the largest sculptures in the city of St. Louis, shadowing all others expect for the instantly recognizable St. Louis Arch.
Animals Always by Albert Paley opens to the public Friday, May 26, free and open to the public. It is located in Steven F. Schankman Family Plazam at the corner of Hampton Ave. & Wells Drive, as part of the Saint Louis Zoo.
Animals Always features more than 1,300 elements that include various aquatic, avian, and land wildlife. As many as 60 sculpted animals, mainly endangered species, will peek out from behind the sculpted trees and other plant life.
The new art work will not only change the landscape of the Saint Louis Zoo, which is currently ranked as the country’s No. 1 zoo by Zagat survey and is one of the few free zoos in the United States. The piece will also change the face of Forest Park as it will sit at the highly visible intersection of Hampton and Wells.
Animals Always made its way to St. Louis from New York via 15 flatbed trucks. The first batch, seven flatbeds, were led into the city by a convoy on May 8, with a standing 2-ton rhinoceros leading the way. It was an incredibly visual sight as the trucks rolled across the Poplar Street Bridge, over the Mississippi River, past the St. Louis Arch, and down Highway 40 to the Zoo.
Albert Paley’s sculpture not only breaks a record in size as the largest sculpture in the history of any public zoo in the world, but it also marks the first representational work ever created by the sculptor during his extensive professional career, which spans more than 30 years and includes pieces found in the permanent collections of major museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Paley is the first metal sculptor to receive the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Architects, the AIA’s highest award to a non-architect. Based in Rochester, New York, he has completed over 50 major corporate and civic commissions since 1974 and has been active and widely celebrated as a master sculptor for more than 30 years.
Animals Always is the result of two generous gifts from St. Louisans Thelma Zalk and the Steven F. Schankman family. Zalk donated $1 million for the fabrication of the sculpture and the Schankman family donated $1 million to build a beautiful new plaza, which will serve both as a home to the sculpture and as a welcoming entrance to Forest Park.
