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The St. Louis Arch and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
The St. Louis Arch, is a beloved national treasure, taking its place in a revered set of icons that include the Washington Monument, Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty. These icons are treasured symbols of who we are – a forward-looking people, adventurous and, above all, optimistic. The sheer magnitude of the Arch and its improbable form create a breathtaking spectacle that inspires all privileged to visit it. The Arch is a unique monument that provides a powerfully moving experience at any time of day and in every season of the year. Nevertheless, as with too many parks in American cities, the grounds surrounding the Arch and on the east side of the Mississippi River still have some way to go before they become a vibrant public space whose impact could rival that of the Arch. Moreover, since St. Louis changed so dramatically during and immediately after the period that the Arch was built, the Arch still needs to become more effectively a part of the fabric of downtown St. Louis and the area on both sides of the river. Our plan sets out to achieve these changes, and aggressively so, with completion of construction by October 28, 2015, the 50th anniversary of the topping off of the Arch.
The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (JNEM) landscape provides a rare example of an urban national park, and it is the goal of this project for it to become a place where the National Park Service’s mission to showcase and preserve the nation’s cultural and natural history is realized in the fabric of a major American city. Moreover, as part of the CityArchRiver 2015 project, the plan sets a strong agenda for improving the JNEM on the Illinois side as well, with a dramatic expansion of acreage to provide additional opportunities to commemorate and elucidate the history of national expansion.
City Arch River 2015 (CAR 2015)
Inspired by the 10 design goals set forth in The City+The Arch+The River 2015 Competition, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has described the CityArchRiver 2015 (CAR 2015) initiative as a “legacy project.” Implementation of the social, environmental and economic goals of the project is intended to serve as a model for generations to come and for other American cities who are struggling with similar issues of making cities more livable and more welcoming to visitors. Since winning the competition in September 2010, the design team led by Michael Van Valkenburgh and Associates (MVVA) has worked closely with the CAR 2015 Foundation, the NPS, the City of St. Louis, the Missouri and Illinois Departments of Transportation and several constituent groups on both sides of the river, to gain a fuller understanding of the scale of the challenges and opportunities. All parties involved shared an incredible determination to make this a project that brings increased vitality to the memorial, St. Louis, the Illinois riverbank area and the region.
The conceptual core of the MVVA Team CAR 2015 proposal is a multifaceted urban design strategy guided by the idea of an enthralling, magnetic place, one that attracts frequent use by nearby communities and repeat visits from national and international tourists. Our top priority is that all elements of the project are fundamentally integrated in fulfilling this goal as one seamless project. As the MVVA competition proposal has now been tested by a growing body of information and analysis, four subareas have emerged out in the synthetic unity: the West Gateway, the Arch Grounds, the Central Riverfront and the East Bank Park. Since the end of September 2010, MVVA Team members have spent two days a week in St. Louis meeting with scores of citizens, business owners and city, state and federal officials to make sure our proposal is in tune not only with their aspirations, but also with the goal of realizing this project by October 2015. These four subareas define the potential of forging a new paradigm for not only an urban national park, but also for the revitalization of American cities during the challenging beginning of the 21st century.
The proposal for the West Gateway aims to build on the genius of Citygarden, constructed in 2009. While our efforts are not attempting to make more of what is already a completed and wonderful place, we are inspired and guided by Citygarden’s vibrancy, sense of welcome and pedestrian friendliness. The West Gateway plan proposes a combination of landscape, programming, transportation and engineering strategies to reverse the effects of an infrastructure built only to serve traffic. We seek to catalyze new interactions between the monument and the city. Within the original Arch grounds, the proposal introduces new mission-appropriate programs and exciting experiences, while scrupulously preserving the features and design that earned the park a National Historic Landmark designation.
Along the Central Riverfront, the 2015 plan seeks an overall re-conceptualization to create a great public space that can hold its own against the vast and often overwhelming Mississippi River. Our plan identifies ideas that enable more meaningful experiential interaction with the river by improving ADA-compliant access from the Arch grounds and by identifying, reorganizing and simplifying circulation along the historic levee.
The East Bank Park, as re-imagined in the proposal, increases the NPS acreage on the east side, greatly fortifying the east side as part of the JNEM Memorial. Two key elements in this proposal are core to integrating this Illinois land area into the federal parks system – a convenient and exciting link to the other side of the Mississippi River in the form of an aerial tram system and a transformation of the Gateway Geyser into a 100,000-square-foot pavilion built at the edges of the pool providing shade, concessions and a platform for programmatic development to anchor visitors’ experience.
The centerpiece of our work is a subtle reworking of the core of the historic memorial grounds, while more significantly reshaping the north and south ends to forge better urban connections and places to be. The proposal significantly reinvigorates the landscape of the two reflecting ponds and makes these areas fully ADA-compliant, now more welcoming to people with disabilities and the older population for whom navigating steps and steep paths is impossible. Compliance with these ADA guidelines and more ecologically sustainable building practices are the engines of the proposals for these areas and the hallmarks of how this proposal defines itself in alignment with the challenges of the 21st century.
One Project
Each of the four areas presents fundamentally different challenges relative to existing conditions, the management of jurisdictional ties, technical performance criteria and program ambitions. Nevertheless, the goal for each is the same: to build resilient connections between the monumental elements of the City, the Arch and the River that will allow these elements to enrich and improve the daily lives of the contiguous communities.
Physical Bridges
The JNEM site and the East Bank site are now all distinct islands, set apart from their respective urban contexts and divided by the Mississippi and by the transportation infrastructure that has been growing in use and physical presence for 50 years. For reasons of safety and function, the entries to all parts of the memorial are limited to just a few locations around the perimeter. The soon-to-be-realized new Mississippi River Bridge is anticipated to alleviate the current congestion in this infrastructure. Complementing this effort, the CAR 2015 plan proposes improved management of vehicular flow and introduces several welcoming pedestrian connections to the park sites. A cornerstone of our proposal is the closing of a segment of Memorial Drive next to Luther Ely Smith Square by 2015 to create a pedestrian-safe passage to the new museum entry. We are working very closely with traffic experts not only to replace the effectiveness of Memorial Drive in the daily life of St. Louis, but also to improve traffic flow even with Memorial Drive closed.
Metaphorical Bridges
New landscape transitions from the city to the memorial grounds park that foster fresh experiences and create a strong sense of place will form a central way to connect the City, the Arch and the River. Vibrant urban landscapes have a tremendous ability to engage the senses in memorable ways so that a visit to this national icon will be a highly personal experience. The choreography of these moments can blend to form a nuanced mental map of the park continuous in its relation to the surrounding communities.
Activity Bridges
People who want to come to the Arch and are poised at the urban perimeter are unable to see what kinds of programs or unorganized activities might be occurring within. In many instances, the effect is unwelcoming; in fact, some approaches can feel unsafe simply because who or what is up ahead cannot be seen. These are easy things to fix. Moreover, the CAR 2015 proposal establishes new vistas that link the inside and outside of the park using the stepping stones of visible programming and activity to catalyze increased use. We know from other urban parks worldwide that a vibrant social atmosphere at inner edges of a park can be a powerful lure to passersby. The message that results is simple: Come inside, enjoy your visit and come again soon!
21st Century Designing the Parks Initiative
In May and December 2008, the NPS joined five other partners to sponsor Designing the Parks, a conference that examined the past, present and future of park planning and design, with an emphasis on understanding the specific roles and responsibilities of the national parks. Unprecedented challenges that confront traditional approaches to park planning, design, management and restoration include shifting demographics, climate change, new communications technologies and transportation modes and economic constraints. System-wide, the NPS needs to achieve broader inclusion and engagement of diverse communities and demographic groups that have not been traditional park users, and many conference-goers noted that there was an urgent need for more outreach in urban areas. Given its history, mission and location and the breadth of issues being considered as part of the CAR 2015 effort, the memorial presents an ideal laboratory to begin to understand how the ambitions of this conference might be put into action.
