Location Smakkelaarskade

Halfway through the Smakkelaarskade, walking over the boulevard along Hoog Catharijne between Vredenburg and the railway,s you can see two old sandstone chimeras on the new, chic, black, smooth stone facade of the complex. Some people will recognize the statues as griffins or dragons. The statues once stood on top of the Art Nouveau building of the former life insurance company 'De Utrecht' from 1901 to 1974. Despite protests, that building was demolished in 1974 to make way for shopping complex Hoog Catharijne. The two chimeras have been preserved in the depot of the Centraal Museum Utrecht and have been restored. Now they are back in almost the same place, with a new task: guarding the new residents' entrance to Hoog Catharijne on Smakkelaarskade. A gold-engraved stone with an explanation of the statues and a banner at the facade wall next to the residents' entrance, refer to the special history of this place.

If you turn your back to the facade of Hoog Catharijne, you look out over the Smakkelaarsveld, or: field. The project SPARK, short for Smakkelaars Park, is being developed there. With three residential buildings and a park where the tram and bus lane dive under via a tunnel. And here too, a piece of water is being restored: the water of the Leidsche Rijn, that will eventually rejoin the canal at Vredenburg. Since the eighties, a combination of large ceramic sculptures has been on display here, spread over the Smakkelaarsveld. These statues together formed the environmental artwork with the name 'The Seascape' by artist David van de Kop. In the past 15 years, the statues have disappeared somewhat out of sight amongst the 8,000 bicycles that were parked here at one point, while hard work was being done around the corner on the largest bicycle-parking garage in the world. In the end, it turned out to be technically impossible to keep this environmental artwork in the new Smakkelaarspark.