FRAMING A MODERN MASTERPIECE | The City + The Arch + The River was an international design competition organized by national park supporters, the design community and leadership from both Missouri and Illinois. The National Park Service provided the framework for change through its Fall 2009 General Management Plan and the competition was supported by federal, state and local government officials, including Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. The Competition Manager – one of the nation’s most experienced design competition managers – was engaged because of his previous work in guiding similar efforts and affecting real, buildable environments.
The 10-month competition – from December 2009 until September 2010 – presented the opportunity of a lifetime for architects, landscape architects and designers. The winner was announced on September 21, 2010, and engaged in a 90 day effort to evaluate the team’s design concept, review the competition area for opportunities… solidify a plan, create a budget and timeline for completion and fundraising plan. All with a completion date of October 28, 2015.
The challenge was great – to take one of America’s first urban park sites and weave it into the fabric of the St. Louis region – as well as connect it with both sides of the Mississippi River.
Integral to the competition was the achievement of a balance between new ideas and the retention of the character-defining features of the site, the core of which is a National Historic Landmark. The Arch and the grounds immediately surrounding it would be honored. But the larger area surrounding the Arch, the downtown St. Louis entry ways and both the Missouri and Illinois riverfronts were open to the inspiration of designers and architects.
The goals of the competition were to:
- Create an iconic place for the international icon, the Gateway Arch.
- Catalyze increased vitality in the St. Louis region.
- Honor the character defining elements of the National Historic Landmark.
- Weave connections and transitions from the City and the Arch grounds to the River.
- Mitigate the impact of transportation systems.
- Embrace the Mississippi River and the east bank in Illinois as an integral part of National Park.
- Reinvigorate the mission to tell the story of St. Louis as the gateway to national expansion.
- Create attractors to promote extended visitation to the Arch, the City and the River.
- Develop a sustainable future.
- Enhance the visitor experience and create a welcoming and accessible environment.
Background:
This story begins in September 1947, when a national design competition was held to produce a memorial to Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase and the era of American Westward Expansion. The jury chose the most audacious entry – a gleaming 630-foot stainless steel arch, the first of several masterpieces by the gifted but short-lived Eero Saarinen. Completed in 1965, the Gateway Arch instantly became an international destination and won immediate recognition as one of the world’s premier works of public art.
Time has been kind to the Arch, which still astonishes with its boldness and beauty. The grounds immediately surrounding it, designed by the late Dan Kiley, are also widely regarded as a masterpiece. But the site has become a kind of island – severed and isolated from the rest of the city – on its west, north, and south – and from the Mississippi River and points east.
Now, in the spirit of Saarinen, new inspiration is being sought. A call was issued in accordance with a new General Management Plan by the National Park Service to better “frame” this American masterpiece. As in 1947, this competition aimed to invite and extract “the best from the best” to create a model for integrating open space into a city’s urban fabric.
