Documented artwork / monumental gateway sculpture
Animals Always
Credit as documented: Albert Paley
Animals Always forms the entrance gateway to the Saint Louis Zoo in Forest Park, Missouri. Albert Paley developed the work over five years, including its design, fabrication and installation. The 2006 sculpture translates more than fifty animals from the zoo into forged and fabricated weathering steel. Paley describes shaping the metal to suggest fur, feathers, water and movement, extending his normally abstract vocabulary into recognizable animal forms. Its broad composition spans 130 feet while rising 36 feet, making the entrance itself part of the experience of the work.
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At a glance
- Year / version
- 2006
- Materials
- forged, formed and fabricated weathering steel
- Documented setting
- outdoor
- Dimensions
- 36 ft high × 130 ft wide × 8 ft deep; artist reports more than 107 tons.
- Dimensions apply to
- Source measurements for the documented work only; component scopes, unlabeled axes and disagreements remain explicit. Not a relocation or engineering specification.
- Availability
- Unconfirmed
Places & versions
Installation history
Historical presentations. A past installation does not establish the current location or suitability for a new site.
2006
Saint Louis Zoo entrance, Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri
- Site
- St. Louis Zoo entrance, Forest Park
- City
- St. Louis
- State / region
- MO
- Country
- United States (inferred; not independently confirmed)
- Setting
- outdoor
Installation details checked 2026-10-17.
Materials and construction
The artist reports a weight exceeding 107 tons and an eight-foot depth. These are the existing gateway's object measurements, not dimensions of an individual animal.
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Sources
- www.albertpaley.com ↗ · Checked 2026-10-16
- www.albertpaley.com ↗ · Checked 2026-10-17