Happy Birthday Citygarden!

Nikon 66 via the RFT Flickr Pool

"Eros Bendato" by Igor Mitorag at the Citygarden

​You, oh elegant downtown sculpture park, were opened to the public one year ago today. You haven't grown much since then (frankly, you were already pretty big to start with) but still, we've been through a lot together.

While the rest of the city was letting their kids splash around in your fountains and posing for wedding photos, we dined at your Terrace View restaurant and said you were "second only to Brendan Ryan's mustache as the funkiest thing to appear in St. Louis this year."

We lauded you as the "Best Public Works Project" of 2009 and wrote that you're "an urban jewel that at least quadruples the value of St. Louis' public patrimony."

We beamed with paternal pride (really it's more of a Dutch uncle relationship; the non-profit Gateway Foundation ponied up the dough that made you possible) as none other than the New York Times praised the way your "arcing wall of local limestone...echoes the bends of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers."

Yup, you definitely rock Citygarden -- no sculpture pun intended.

P.S. Your official, flamingo-themed birthday bash is scheduled for Saturday, July 10 from 2-4 p.m. Details here.