MVVA TEAM

Framing A Modern Masterpiece

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

Steven Holl Architects
Greenberg Consultants
Uhlir Consulting
HR&A Advisors
Guy Nordenson and Associates
Arup
LimnoTech
Pine and Swallow Environmental
Applied Ecological Services
Ann Hamilton Studio
James Carpenter Design Associates
Cooper Robertson & Partners
Elizabeth K. Meyer
Project Projects
Vector Communications
ABNA Engineering
Framing A Modern Masterpiece
The United States National Park Service
The City of St. Louis

STAGE 3
Framing a Modern Masterpiece
The City + The Arch + The River

12 August 2010

MVVA TEAM

MICHAEL VAN VALKENBURGH ASSOCIATES, INC.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS, PC
16 Court Street, 11th Floor
Brooklyn, New York 11241
t. 718.243.2044
f. 718.243.1293
www.mvvainc.com
 CONTENTS

1. The MVVA Team Proposal 7 7. North Gateway 159

Technical Notes 171

2. New Frontiers 19
8. South Gateway 183
Technical Notes 195
3. Planning Framework 31

9. JNEM East Wetland 207

4. Historic Landscape & Waterfront 45 Reserve 223
Technical Notes 75 Technical Notes

5. Museum Expansion 87 10. Beyond 2015 233

Technical Notes 113 Technical Notes 249

6. West Gateway 125

Technical Notes 145
1. The MVVA Team

COMPETITION TEAM
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE & URBANISM HYDROLOGY & ECOLOGY
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates LimnoTech
Applied Ecological Services
ARCHITECTURE
James Carpenter Design Associates FINANCE & STRATEGIES
Steven Holl Architects FOR REALIZATION
Uhlir Consulting
MUSEUM PLANNING HR&A Advisors
Cooper, Robertson & Partners
ARTISTS
PLANNING & URBAN DESIGN
Ann Hamilton Studio
Greenberg Consultants
LANDSCAPE HISTORIAN
ENGINEERING
Elizabeth K. Meyer
Guy Nordenson and Associates
Arup INTERPRETATION
Pine and Swallow Environmental Project Projects
ABNA Engineering Vector Communications

The MVVA Team 7

 EET
CIAL STR ER
N. C O M M
EET
TREET
LUCAS S

EET

N. 1 S T R
LACLEDE’S

ET

N. 2 S T R

ST
E
LANDING

RD S T R

ND
M

N. 3
T
M P “THE CAPTAIN’S
19 RETURN”

T 16
AVENUE NORTH
WASHINGTON OVERLOOK
M
18
17
ADDITIONAL MOORING
LOCATION FOR FLOATING
S T. C H A R L E S S T R E E T POOL
T

12

11

LOCUST STREET

N. B R O A D W A Y
N. 7 T H S T R E E T

N. 6 T H S T R E E T

N. 4 T H S T R E E T
10

DRIVE
OLIVE STREET

I - 70
NORTH
POND

N. M E M O R I A L
GATEWAY
HELICOPTER
TOURS

PINE STREET

13

WAINWRIGHT
BUILDING 9 15
4

CHESTNUT STREET
1
T

KIENER OLD LUTHER ELY JEFFERSON NATIONAL GRAND

3 5 14
BOSQUE COURTHOUSE SMITH SQUARE EXPANSION MEMORIAL STAIRCASE

T
2

P
MARKET STREET

S. M E M O R I A L D R I V E
4

S. B R O A D W A Y
S. 7 T H S T R E E T

S. 4 T H S T R E E T
8

CATHEDRAL 13
BASILICA OF
ST. LOUIS
T

WALNUT STREET CATHEDRAL

SQUARE

T
7

BALLPARK VILLAGE

THE MVVA TEAM PROPOSAL

I - 70
6 P
SOUTH
10

Successful city connections give people two inseparable

POND

things: ways to traverse urban obstacles and reasons to

want to. Our landscape-based approach to the Jefferson T 11

National Expansion Memorial provides both, establishing

physical and programmatic continuity between downtown BUSCH STADIUM
SPRUCE STREET 12

St. Louis, the Arch grounds, the levee, and the Illinois
bank. By reorienting itself, physically and culturally, 20

toward the life of the city, and by pioneering constructed

T
23
21

SOUTH

urban ecologies, the Memorial serves as a 21st-century P

T
OVERLOOK

22

paradigm for urban National Parks—and that, in turn, I - 64

35

makes it a foundation for sustained social and economic UNDERPASS

PARK
35

POPLAR STREET BRIDGE

vitality on both sides of the Mississippi. P

25
FUTURE
GREENWAY
CONNECTION

T
T
CHOUTEAU’S

S. 1 ST S T R E E
TREE
1 OF 8
LANDING

S. 2 ND S

8 MVVA TEAM
 Framing a Modern Masterpiece
M
35
IDGE
EADS BR

The MVVA Team Proposal

Successful city connections give people two inseparable things:
ways to traverse urban obstacles and reasons to want to. Our
landscape-based approach to the Jefferson National Expansion
Memorial provides both, establishing physical and programmatic
continuity between downtown St. Louis, the Arch grounds, the
levee, and the Illinois bank. By reorienting itself, physically and
culturally, toward the life of the city, and by pioneering constructed
urban ecologies, the Memorial serves as a 21st-century paradigm
for urban National Parks—and that, in turn, makes it a foundation
for sustained social and economic vitality on both sides of the
Mississippi.

CARGILL
SILOS

GATEWAY GEYSER

T MALCOLM W. MARTIN
MEMORIAL PARK
26

STREET
ESL STORMWATER
INFRASTRUCTURE
P CONNECTION

FRONT
ENU E
D LEY AV
W. T R E N 29

28

30

3
OUTE
LEVEE JNEM EAST

O
ED R
WETLAND RESERVE

ICAG
POS

TO CH
PRO
24
27

AK
AMTR
Legend
1 Information Kiosk
2 Public Restrooms
32
3 Overpass Deck 27
4 Noise Mitigation Hood
5 Museum Entrance
6 Bus Drop-Off 23
7 Market Pavilion + Restaurant 31
8 JNEM Offices + Museum Rooftop Terrace
9 JNEM Service Extension
10 Paved Path
31
11 Mown Path 33
12 Bald Cypress Circle
13 Museum Exit
14 Cobblestone Levee
15 River Gauges
16 Eads Commons
17 Gateway Playscape
18 Overlook Lawn
19 Overlook Pavilion + Gateway Urban Ecology Center
20 Beer Garden + Ice Rink
21 Seasonal Pavilion
22 Overlook Pavilion + Bicycle Rental
23 Water-Taxi Terminals
24 Floating Pool
RIVER
25 NPS Maintenance Facility + Yard
TRAIL
26 Earthen Amphitheater 35
27 Elevated Canopy Trail
28 Trailhead Access Tower
29 Sedimentation Forebay
30 Perched Upper Wetland Pond TERMINAL RAILROAD
31 Oxbow Slough Wetlands WIGGINS FERRY COMPANY
32 Avian Research Center
33 Designated Researcher Parking
34 Wetland Hydrology Research Center
35 Bicycle Loop + Connector

P Vehicle Parking 34

T Remote Ticketing Facility

M Metro Station
Benches

Site Plan — 1” = 100’ N

31
0 100’ 200’ 400’
35

I - 55, 64, 70

2 OF 8

The MVVA Team 9

 HISTORIC LANDSCAPE
A new diversified planting regime remembers Dan Kiley’s vision by
creating a coherent frame of informal landscape that complements
the processional allées. Supported by a network of accessible paved
and mown paths, the revitalized grounds accommodate a variety of
passive recreational activities. A reorganized approach to the site’s
hydrology and an organic maintenance regime prevent erosion and
algal bloom, and turn the landscape into a living laboratory of urban
ecology and sustainable practices.

HISTORIC LANDSCAPE
15.25

A new diversified planting regime remembers Dan Kiley’s

I -

I -

I -
P L A Z A P L A Z A P L A Z A
C O N V E N T I O N C O N V E N T I O N C O N V E N T I O N

7 0

7 0

7 0
D G E
S B R I
E A D

A V E N U E A V E N U E A V E N U E

4.25
L U C A S L U C A S L U C A S

vision by creating a coherent frame of informal landscape

E
O N S T R E E T O N S T R E E T O N S T R E E T
W A S H I N G T W A S H I N G T W A S H I N G T

Water

that complements the processional allées. Supported by a L O C U S T

O L I V E
S T R E E T

S T R E E T
L O C U S T

O L I V E
S T R E E T

S T R E E T
L O C U S T

O L I V E
S T R E E T

S T R E E T
Cargill
Silos Gateway
(Millions of Gallons)

15.25

network of accessible paved and mown paths, the revitalized

Geyser
P I N E S T R E E T P I N E S T R E E T P I N E S T R E E T 7
Trailhead
C H E S T N U T S T R E E T C H E S T N U T S T R E E T C H E S T N U T S T R E E T Overlook Access
2
4.25

S T R E E T

S T R E E T

S T R E E T
Tower Tower

grounds accommodate a variety of passive recreational

Views to Gateway
M A R K E T S T R E E T M A R K E T S T R E E T M A R K E T
Arch
S T R E E T

S E V E N T H

S E V E N T H

S E V E N T H
Pesticides

D R I V E

D R I V E

D R I V E
Avian
(Hundreds of Pounds)

S T R E E T

S T R E E T

S T R E E T
S T R E E T

S T R E E T

S T R E E T
Research
W A L N U T S T R E E T W A L N U T S T R E E T W A L N U T S T R E E T

activities. A reorganized approach to the site’s hydrology

Center

B R O A D W A Y

B R O A D W A Y

B R O A D W A Y
M E M O R I A L

M E M O R I A L

M E M O R I A L
F O U R T H

F O U R T H

F O U R T H
E I G H T H

E I G H T H

E I G H T H
C L C L C L
A R A R A R
K S T R E E T K S T R E E T K S T R E E T

and an organic maintenance regime prevent erosion and S P R U C E S T R E E T S P R U C E S T R E E T S P R U C E S T R E E T

Wetland
Hydrology
Research
Center
7

2
7

algal bloom, and turn the landscape into a living laboratory

1 - 6 4 1 - 6 4
E 1 - 6 4

P O P L A R S T R E E T B R I D G E

Views to
Fertilizer
Cahokia
Power Plant
(Hundreds of Pounds)

of urban ecology and sustainable practices. Restored Tulip Poplar Allée Landscape
Maintenance
Lawn Paved Walkway Meadow (Infiltration) 7
Meadow Mown Path Wet Meadow (Infiltration)
Metrics (Annual)
Shrub Woodland Bicycle Water Detention 2
Boat Pond Standard Regime
Automobile Overland Flow
E Elevator Subgrade Pipe Connection
Outfall to Mississippi Organic Regime

Informalized Ground Plane Circulation Water System

MVVA TEAM FRAMING A MODERN MASTERPIECE: THE CITY + THE ARCH + THE RIVER 3 OF 8

10 MVVA TEAM
 WEST GATEWAY
A new Memorial Drive entrance to the Museum of Westward Expansion
addresses the Old Courthouse, continuing the urban energy created along the
Saarinen vista by Citygarden and giving Luther Ely Smith Square new importance
as a central civic plaza. A one-block-wide deck over Interstate 70 establishes
pedestrian sovereignty, breaks sightlines into the highway trench, and mitigates
traffic noise, while remote ticketing facilities liberate visitors to enjoy the city
and Memorial grounds while they wait to ride to the top of the Arch.

WEST GATEWAY View to Old Courthouse

Incorporate Arch Tram Ride

A new Memorial Drive entrance to the Museum of

Special Exhibit into Interpretive Program

Queuing / Theater
Function Space
Bookstore

Westward Expansion addresses the Old Courthouse, Linear Exhibit

Seating Area

General Store

continuing the urban energy created along the Saarinen Theater

vista by Citygarden and giving Luther Ely Smith Square Focus Galleries

Identify Gateway Districts Reestablish Connectivity Between Gateway

new importance as a central civic plaza. A one-block-wide Districts, the Memorial, and the River

Museum of Westward Expansion

deck over Interstate 70 establishes pedestrian sovereignty,

623 Parking Space
s

aces 5 MIN
ng Sp
arki
0P
00
11,
paces
ing S
ark

breaks sightlines into the highway trench, and mitigates

0P
70
5 MIN
4,

Morning Light

traffic noise, while remote ticketing facilities liberate

10 MIN Afternoon Light

visitors to enjoy the city and Memorial grounds while they

5 MIN Glass Entry Canopy
De

el
op
v

me
n t Pa
rking
View to
Old Courthouse
Skylight
Maximize Use of Existing Create a Network of Destinations

wait to ride to the top of the Arch.

Parking Supply and Connections

Planning Framework Double Height

Atrium

Museum of Westward Expansion, Memorial Drive Entrance View to the Old Courthouse from the Memorial Drive Entrance

MVVA TEAM FRAMING A MODERN MASTERPIECE: THE CITY + THE ARCH + THE RIVER 4 OF 8

The MVVA Team 11

 NORTH GATEWAY
By removing the existing Memorial garage and the
terminus of Washington Avenue, which is used almost
EADS BRIDGE exclusively by garage patrons, our proposal allows the
openings in the Eads Bridge to serve as portals between
Laclede’s Landing and a dynamic civic landscape.
Accessible pathways stitch together a mix of neighborhood
programs and event space, including a large playground,
comfortable shaded seating, an earthen amphitheater, and
the Gateway Urban Ecology Center, which offers afterschool
programs and summer camps for St. Louis and East St.
WATER
PLAY
Louis students.

EADS COMMONS

WATER
PLAY

SAND PLAY

URBAN
ECOLOGY
CENTER

OVERLOOK
PAVILION

NORTH
OVERLOOK

NORTH GATEWAY ~11,000 ~11,000

By removing the existing Memorial garage and the terminus

I -
P L A Z A
C O N V E N T I O N

7 0
~11,000 ~11,000 ~11,000 ~11,000
L U C A S A V E N U E

1,500 ~4,700

of Washington Avenue, which is used almost exclusively

O N S T R E E T
W A S H I N G T
380

1,224
1,050

by garage patrons, our proposal allows the openings in the

1,500 1,500 ~4,700 ~4,700
L O C U S T S T R E E T

11,000 Spaces Within a

10 Minute Walk (½ Mile) 5 Minute Walk
O L I V E S T R E E T

5 Minute Walk
1,224 1,224
1,050 1,050

Eads Bridge to serve as portals between Laclede’s Landing

P I N E S T R E E T

4,700 Spaces Within a

5 Minute Walk (¼ Mile)
Existing
C H E S T N U T S T R E E T
Museum
S T R E E T

Entry
280

Proposed
Existing Dedicated Garage Proposed Dedicated Garages

and a dynamic civic landscape. Accessible pathways stitch

M A R K E T S T R E E T
Museum Overflow Levee Parking Downtown Parking (5 Minute Walk)
S E V E N T H

Entry
Underutilized Adjacent Downtown Parking Downtown Parking (10 Minute Walk)
D R I V E

~11,000 ~11,000
S T R E E T
S T R E E T

W A L N U T S T R E E T
B R O A D W A Y

M E M O R I A L

together a mix of neighborhood programs and event space, Parking Capacity

F O U R T H
E I G H T H

10 Minute Walk

C L
A R
K S T R E E T

1,500 ~4,700

including a large playground, comfortable shaded seating,

S P R U C E S T R E E T

387
1,224 Existing overflow Shift overflow
1 - 6 4
1,050
parking at the levee parking from the

an earthen amphitheater, and the Gateway Urban Ecology

Utilization of Available Parking
(when available) levee to downtown
P O P L A R S T R E E T B R I D G E

Center, which offers afterschool programs and summer Existing Dedicated Garage

camps for St. Louis and East St. Louis students. Existing Overflow Levee Parking
Proposed Dedicated Garages
Downtown Parking (5 Minute Walk)
Downtown Parking (10 Minute Walk)
Add West Add South Add North
Existing Garage Gateway Garage Gateway Garage Remove Ex. Garage Gateway Garage
(1,224 Spaces) (1,500 Spaces) (1,890 Spaces) (667 Spaces) (1,050 Spaces)

Time

Parking Strategy Phased Parking Implementation View from Elevated Platform at

Arch – Laclede’s Metrolink Station

MVVA TEAM FRAMING A MODERN MASTERPIECE: THE CITY + THE ARCH + THE RIVER 5 OF 8

12 MVVA TEAM
 I -

I -
P L A Z A P L A Z A
C O N V E N T I O N C O N V E N T I O N

7 0

7 0
L U C A S A V E N U E L U C A S A V E N U E

O N S T R E E T O N S T R E E T
W A S H I N G T W A S H I N G T

L O C U S T S T R E E T L O C U S T S T R E E T

O L I V E S T R E E T O L I V E S T R E E T

P I N E S T R E E T P I N E S T R E E T

C H E S T N U T S T R E E T C H E S T N U T S T R E E T

S T R E E T

S T R E E T
SOUTH GATEWAY
M A R K E T S T R E E T M A R K E T S T R E E T
Immediately south of the Arch grounds, an underpass park creates a

S E V E N T H

S E V E N T H
mixing chamber of proposed and future connections between the city and
the Memorial, and appropriates the Poplar Street Bridge as a part of the
threshold landscape. Atop a new 387-space parking facility, a medium-

D R I V E

D R I V E
S T R E E T

S T R E E T
S T R E E T

S T R E E T
scale venue—a beer garden in summer, a skating Wrink in winter—echoes
A L N U T S T R E E T W A L N U T S T R E E T
St. Louis history and serves as a focal point for the emerging Chouteau’s
Landing neighborhood.

B R O A D W A Y

B R O A D W A Y
M E M O R I A L

M E M O R I A L
F O U R T H

F O U R T H
E I G H T H

E I G H T H
C L C L
A R A R

SOUTH GATEWAY
K S T R E E T K S T R E E T

Immediately south of the Arch grounds, an underpass park S P R U C E S T R E E T S Reading

P R U C E
Running
S T R E E T
Steps
Snowman
Making
Running

Steps

creates a mixing chamber of proposed and future connections Running

Habitat
Education
view
Food Vendors
Shade
Sitting

Fire
view
Shade
Market
Running
Habitat
Education
view
Food Vendors
Sitting

Fire
view
Warm Up Huts Ice
Fountain

between the city and the Memorial, and appropriates the

Pit Pit Ice
Sunning Beer Garden ART Skating
Snowball Fight Sculpting
Mist Food Vendors Skate Food Vendors
Walking Room Walking Walking Hire Walking
Cold Drinks Hot Drinks

Poplar Street Bridge as a part of the threshold landscape. Atop 1 - 6 4 1 - 6 4 Running Bike Running Visitors’
Running Running
Rental Center
Seasonal Lighting
Dog Run Dog Run

a new 387-space parking facility, a medium-scale venue—a

Food Vendors Food Vendors
Food Vendors Food Vendors
Running Running
Summer Winter
Farmers Farmers
Market Market
Temporary Sculptures Snow Sculptures
SUMMER WINTER

beer garden in summer, a skating rink in winter—echoes

EVENTS EVENTS
RV Parking Running
view view Walking
Walking
Food Vendors Food Vendors
Stands Stands

St. Louis history and serves as a focal point for the emerging
Chouteau’s Landing neighborhood.
South Gateway Summer Program South Gateway Winter Program

View from Underpass Park

MVVA TEAM FRAMING A MODERN MASTERPIECE: THE CITY + THE ARCH + THE RIVER 6 OF 8

The MVVA Team 13

 JNEM EAST WETLAND RESERVE
On this formerly industrial land, a system of treetop walkways allows
visitors to observe reconstructed wetland ecologies, capitalizing
on the site’s location along the Mississippi Flyway, and creating
new views of the boundless horizon of the American Midwest.
Our proposal uses water drawn from East St. Louis stormwater
infrastructure to manufacture new urban habitat for a diversity of bird
species, supported by new National Park Service ornithological and
hydrological research centers.

JNEM EAST WETLAND RESERVE

On this formerly industrial land, a system of treetop

I -

I -
P L A Z A
C O N V E N T I O N C O N V E N T I O N
P L A Z A

7 0

7 0
D G E
S B R I
E A D

L U C A S A V E N U E A V E N U E
L U C A S

E 1

walkways allows visitors to observe reconstructed

O N S T R E E T S T R E E T
W A S H I N G T W A S H I N G T
O N

Atlantic
Flyway

wetland ecologies, capitalizing on the site’s location along

L O C U S T S T R E E T L O C U S T S T R E E T
Seattle
Olympia
Washington
Maine
Montana North Dakota A ugusta
Salem Helena
Bismarck
Minnesota Montpelier N.H.
Oregon Idaho

Mississippi
Vt. Concord
O L I V E S T R E E T O L I V E S T R E E T St. Paul

Cargill Pacific
Boise Michigan Albany Boston
South Dakota Mass.
Wisconsin Providence
New York

Gateway
Pierre
Wyoming Hartford R.I.
Silos Flyway
Madison Lansing

Flyway Central
Conn.
Detroit Pennsylvania New York

the Mississippi Flyway and creating new views of the

Geyser Philadelphia T renton
Iowa Chicago
Cheyenne Nebraska Harrisburg New Jersey

Flyway
Sacramento Carson City Des Moines Dover
Salt Lake City Lincoln Ohio Md.
Indiana Delaware
Nevada Illinois Columbus West Annapolis
San Francisco Utah Virginia W ashington, D.C.
Denver Springfield Indianapolis
P I N E S T R E E T P I N E S T R E E T Colorado Topeka St. Louis Richmond
Charleston
Virginia
California Kansas Jefferson City Frankfort
Las Vegas K entucky
Missouri Raleigh
Nashville North Carolina
Los Angeles Santa Fe Tennessee
Oklahoma

Trailhead
Arizona Memphis Columbia
Oklahoma City Arkansas
Phoenix New Mexico Atlanta South
Little Rock

Overlook
Carolina

Access Mississippi Alabama Georgia

C H E S T N U T S T R E E T C H E S T N U T S T R E E T Dallas Montgomery
Jackson
S T R E E T

Tower

S T R E E T
Tower Retrofit Failed
Texas Louisiana

boundless horizon of the American Midwest. Our proposal

Tallahassee

3
Baton
Austin Rouge

Views to Gateway East St. Louis Houston

New Orleans
Florida

Arch
M A R K E T S T R E E T M A R K E T S T R E E T Stormwater Lines, Miami
S E V E N T H

S E V E N T H
New Outfall into
Wetland Reserve

D R I V E

D R I V E
Avian

S T R E E T
S T R E E T

S T R E E T
S T R E E T
Research
W A L N U T S T R E E T W A L N U T S T R E E T

uses water drawn from the East St. Louis stormwater

50-Year Storm
Center
B R O A D W A Y

M E M O R I A L

B R O A D W A Y

M E M O R I A L
F O U R T H
E I G H T H

F O U R T H
E I G H T H
5-Year Storm

2-Year Storm C L
A R C L
A R

infrastructure to manufacture new urban habitat for a

K S T R E E T K S T R E E T

Low Water Level

S P R U C E S T R E E T S P R U C E S T R E E T
Wetland
Hydrology
Research

diversity of bird species, supported by new National Park

Center
3
1 - 6 4
E 1 - 6 4

P O P L A R S T R E E T B R I D G E

Views to

Service ornithological and hydrological research centers .

Cahokia
Power Plant

Canopy Trail Cross Section

Structure Lawn (Infiltration)
Wood Elevated Walkway Woodland (Infiltration)
Steel Elevated Walkway Water Detention
American Crow Brown-headed Cowbird European Starling Northern Mockingbird
American Goldfinch Canada Goose Gray Catbird Red-bellied Woodpecker Bicycle Loop Overland Flow
American Robin Chipping Sparrow Great Blue Heron Red-winged Blackbird Floating Pavilion Subgrade Pipe Connection
Bald Eagle Common Grackle Great Crested Flycatcher Song Sparrow
Barn Swallow Common Yellowthroat Great Egret Tufted Titmouse
Landmark Sightlines
Barred Owl Double-crested Cormorant House Finch Warbling Vireo
St. Louis is located along one of the narrowest sections of the
Black-capped Chickadee Downy Woodpecker House Sparrow Wood Duck Mississippi Flyway, the route used by approximately 40 percent
Blue Jay Eastern Wood-Pewee Northern Cardinal of all migrating waterfowl and shorebirds in North America.

Bottomland Avian Species Canopy Trail Network Water System Avian Sanctuary

MVVA TEAM FRAMING A MODERN MASTERPIECE: THE CITY + THE ARCH + THE RIVER 7 OF 8

14 MVVA TEAM
 HISTORIC WATERFRONT
Our proposal removes the existing waterfront streetscape
in order to reinstate the full form of the cobblestone levee.
Sculptural river gauges mirror the monumentality of Saarinen’s
river walls and frame the use of the levee surface in relation to
the fluctuating river edge. The single central stage is replaced
by a gentle swell in the cobble surface that can accommodate a
broader spectrum of markets, concerts, and seasonal attractions.

HISTORIC WATERFRONT M

I -
P L A Z A
C O N V E N T I O N

7 0
1

Our proposal removes the existing waterfront streetscape

D G E
S B R I
E A D

Active Transition Zone L U C A S A V E N U E

M 10
A Measure of Fluctuating River Levels 2
3.4-mile loop
O N S T R E E T
W A S H I N G T

470’ - Top of River Wall

L O C U S T S T R E E T

10

in order to reinstate the full form of the cobblestone levee.

O L I V E S T R E E T

P I N E S T R E E T

C H E S T N U T S T R E E T

S T R E E T
430’ - 100-Year Storm Event 3

Sculptural river gauges mirror the monumentality of

(Great Flood of 1993)
M A R K E T S T R E E T

S E V E N T H
9

D R I V E
S T R E E T
S T R E E T
W A L N U T S T R E E T

B R O A D W A Y

M E M O R I A L
410’ - 1-Year Storm Event

F O U R T H
E I G H T H
400’ - Base of Light Mast C L
A R
K S T R E E T

Saarinen’s river walls and frame the use of the levee surface
S P R U C E S T R E E T

5
380’ - Normal Flow 8
1 - 6 4 6
P O P L A R
7
S T R E E T B R I D G E

Proposed Adjustment Flooded 3 Weeks a Year Flooded 2.5 Months a Year Flooded All Year

in relation to the fluctuating river edge. The single central

to Levee Height 4

Existing & Proposed

River Gauges Regional Bikeway
Network

stage is replaced by a gentle swell in the cobble surface 1. Eads Bridge Bicycle Lanes
2. Improved Pedestrian
Access to Metrolink
Missouri
River Lewis & Clark
Confluence

that can accommodate a broader spectrum of markets,

Station
3. Memorial Drive Modification
4. Future Greenway
1 Connection

concerts, and seasonal attractions.

1 5. Floating Pavilions
1 Horseshoe
ARCH VIEW COOL SPACE
6. South Overlook Pavilion
ARCH VIEW HEAT SPACE Lake
7. Mississippi River Connector
Historic Levee
2 8. Future Route 3
3 2 9. JNEM East Canopy Trails Forest Cahokia
3 10. Proposed Street Connections Park St. Louis Mounds
4
4
4
East St. Louis

Spring / High Flow / Café Winter / Mid Flow / Event Space Summer / Low Flow / Water-Taxi Terminal
Mississippi
1. Photovoltaic Cells Convert Sun Energy to Electrical Power Temporary Floating Pool Precedent
River
2. Heat Exchanger and Heat Pump/Chiller Provides Heating/Cooling
3. River Coils
4. Water Turbines Convert River Current to Electrical Power

Floating Pavilion – Temporary Seasonal Zero-Carbon Energy Concept Beyond 2015 – Strengthening Connections
Across the River

MVVA TEAM FRAMING A MODERN MASTERPIECE: THE CITY + THE ARCH + THE RIVER 8 OF 8

The MVVA Team 15

2. New Frontiers

New Frontiers 19
 A NEW KIND OF PARK, A NEW KIND OF CITY
Even among competitions of its size, Framing a Modern
Masterpiece: The City + The Arch + The River is
unique by virtue of the complexity of its fundamental
challenge and its potential to set a lasting standard
in the design of North American cities. It is a project
with two protagonists: the city, which is striving to
revitalize the downtown core and release the interstate
highway system’s stranglehold on the waterfront; and
the National Park Service, which is in the process of
reestablishing its relevance, reaching out to previously
neglected audiences, and defining for itself a 21st-
century urban presence.
This competition is, in essence, a local
manifestation of a larger confluence of contemporary
forces, in which cities all over the country and the
world are grappling with their infrastructural legacy
and attempting to responsibly reincorporate ecological
function, sustainable practice, and environmental
education after decades of neglecting all three. And it is
an opportunity to establish for the Park Service a new
role as the centerpiece of sustainable American cities.
Landscape architecture, with its particular
interdisciplinary fluency at the intersection of ecology,
engineering, and design, provides a particularly good
framework for approaching these globally relevant
challenges. Our landscape-based proposal focuses
on the ways that the interests of the city and the Park
Service are mutually reinforcing. Downtown St. Louis
20
will thrive with a vibrant National Park at its center—
and the National Park will establish local relevance if
it embraces the city as a new frontier, an environment
that is in need of fresh historic, interpretive, and
environmental attention.
THE LIVING MEMORIAL
Throughout history and around the world, what
makes urban monuments successful is an iconic
form linked to a rich web of everyday experiences.
Destinations such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Eiffel
Tower, the Washington Monument, and Barcelona’s La
Sagrada Familia combine their status as international
attractions with elements of civic assets and
neighborhood amenities. They write themselves not
only into national histories and regional identities but
also into the daily lives of the people who live nearby.
The commemorative mission of these places is honored,
not polluted, by the quotidian activity that surrounds
them.
George Howe’s program for the first stage of the
1947 competition to design the new Jefferson National
Expansion Memorial called in part for a “living
memorial” to Thomas Jefferson, an active function for
the park that would celebrate, in Howe’s words, “life as
lived, rather than as remembered.” He was interested
in making the new Memorial a place that would serve
not only as a national attraction but also as a local
MVVA TEAM
generator of civic energy and activity, something that
St. Louisans would visit and participate in as part of
the rhythm of their daily lives. The 172 Stage I entries
included National Science Foundations, Museums of
Architecture, and Centers for Democratic Education.
(Eero Saarinen and Dan Kiley’s submission proposed
making the Memorial the site of a branch of the
fledgling United Nations.)
At the heart of our proposal is a renewed
dedication to the spirit of that original vision. In 2015,
the memorial will be more than a once-a-generation
tourist destination. It will be St. Louis’s core civic
space, populated daily and in all seasons. It will be
visited not only by tourists but by local families after
school, by downtown workers on their lunch break,
and by residents of revitalized neighborhoods nearby.
The addition of the JNEM East Wetland Preserve, with
a system of treetop walkways and a dual mission of
research and recreation, means that the Memorial
will be a single park bisected by the Mississippi River,
shared by residents of both St. Louis and East St. Louis.
The Memorial will feature energetic activity at its edges
to complement the calm reverence of its interior. It
will be a common space for gatherings of all sizes and
kinds—a place where the democratic spirit of Thomas
Jefferson is lived, not just remembered.
THE BRANDENBURG GATE THE EIFFEL TOWER THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT LA SAGRADA FAMILIA
Berlin, Germany Paris, France Washington, D.C. Barcelona, Spain

JEFFERSON NATIONAL EXPANSION MEMORIAL

St. Louis, Missouri

New Frontiers 21
 EXPANDING THE NPS PROGRAM TO ENGAGE LOCAL CULTURE
THE ECOLOGICAL CITY
The story of westward expansion is the story of our
relationship to our land—our history of navigating it,
mapping it, cultivating it, conquering it, surrendering
to it, and ultimately making it our own. St. Louis,
sitting at almost the geographic center of the country,
at a crossroads of natural and cultural infrastructure,
has always had a central position in this narrative. The
city is the site of a fundamental shift in the character of
the Mississippi; in contrast to the engineered edges to
the north, the river flows undammed from St. Louis all
the way to the Gulf of Mexico. The city also marks the
divide between eastern precipitation agriculture and
western irrigation agriculture. And St. Louis has had a
leading role in the history of American transportation,
as the origin of the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails, a
booming focal point of the steamboat economy, a
leader and a victim of the transition to the railroad era,
and one of the earliest hubs of the interstate highway
system.
In our proposal, the Memorial suggests a new
paradigm for an urban federal parks project, one in
which these different and often competing natural and
cultural elements are reconciled as a powerful engine
of urban renewal. Many of our national parks preserve
wilderness, maintaining an ideal condition that existed
prior to human intervention. This is of course neither
22
possible nor desirable in city centers. The inevitable
artificiality of the man-made should instead provide
epigrammatic suggestions of the natural world while
functioning as society has all too recently learned it
should—in harmony with natural ecologies.
In the era when St. Louis was known as a booming
frontier city, the frontier was a physical divide between
the known and the unknown. The 21st-century
frontiers are less literal, but no less important—we
are only beginning to define and navigate a new
sustainable relationship with the land we inhabit. The
Gateway Arch need not be reduced to a reminder of
frontiers past. The Memorial can be a concrete force
for changing the patterns by which St. Louisans—and
all Americans—live their lives, whether by exhibiting
healthy urban hydrological systems and organic
maintenance regimes, pioneering innovative energy
generation and conservation methods, or even just
inspiring its visitors to walk or bike throughout the
downtown. With the National Park Service as its
partner, St. Louis can make itself into a new kind of
frontier city.
MVVA TEAM
PROPOSED SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVES
1. Fully organic soil restoration and maintenance
regime eliminates chemical pesticides, herbicides,
and fertilizers.
2. Rot-resistant benches made of American black
locust, unlike common alternatives like Ipê, do not
contribute to rainforest destruction.
3. Energy is conserved or innovatively generated by
a variety of means, including geothermal (in the
Museum of Westward Expansion), river turbines
(in the floating pavilions), photovoltaic cells (on
the river gauges), and green roofs (on the Gateway
Urban Ecology Center).
4. New accessible pathways, pedestrian connections
to the downtown, a new bicycle loop, and street
narrowing measures incentivize walking and cycling
not only within the Memorial site but throughout
St. Louis.
5. Most importantly, all these measures will be openly
legible and communicated to visitors, either through
a new pedagogical program of signage or through
the Urban Ecology Center, which will focus in part
on teaching sustainable technologies and practices
to students from St. Louis and East St. Louis.
 LEARNING EXPERIENCING

HISTORIC CULTURAL
“INTERPRETATION” CONNECTION

ADMIRING UNDERSTANDING

“PRESERVATION” OF NATURE CONSTRUCTED NATURE

New Frontiers 23
 A NEW MONUMENT

A MONUMENT FOR A NEW ERA

Since its founding, St. Louis has derived its sense of
identity in part from a series of monuments, both
natural and built—the Mississippi River, the levee, the
Eads Bridge, the Gateway Arch, the Gateway Geyser,
and now, we hope, the JNEM East Wetland Reserve,
which will fuse the built and the natural in a new icon
on the Illinois shore.
Eads
Bridge

Gateway
Gateway Geyser
Arch

Cobblestone
Levee Gateway
Reserve

M i s s i s s i p p i R i v e r

24 MVVA TEAM
 M

M
T
M P

P
T

P
T

New Frontiers 25
 MEETING PROJECT GOALS

Historic Landscape &

Museum Expansion

Wetland Reserve
North Gateway

South Gateway
West Gateway

Beyond 2015
(Chapter 10)
(Chapter 6)

(Chapter 8)

(Chapter 9)
(Chapter 4)

(Chapter 5)

(Chapter 7)
Waterfront

JNEM East
1. Create an iconic place for the international icon, the
Gateway Arch ● ● ● ●

2. Catalyze increased vitality in the St. Louis region ● ● ● ● ● ●

3. Honor the character defining elements of the National

Historic Landmark
● ● ●

4. Weave connections and transitions from the City to the ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Arch grounds to the River

5. Embrace the Mississippi River and the east bank in ● ● ●

Illinois as an integral part of the National Park

6. Reinvigorate the mission to tell the story of St. Louis as ● ● ● ●

the gateway to national expansion

7. Create attractors to promote extended visitation to the ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Arch, the City, and the River

8. Mitigate the impact of transportation systems ● ● ● ● ●

9. Develop a sustainable future ● ● ● ●

10. Enhance the visitor experience and create a welcoming ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

and accessible environment
3. Planning
Framework

Planning Framework 31
 CHOREOGRAPHING THE APPROACH
A typical visit to the Jefferson National Expansion
Memorial now revolves as much around the parking
facility at the northern edge of the site as around the
experience of the Gateway Arch. Visitors typically
traverse the boundary of the site in their car, emerging
only once they have traveled far into the interior of the
landscape. For many, the experience of the Memorial
grounds is limited to the walk between their car and the
Arch’s north leg. From an urban planning perspective,
the parking garage is one of the most potent elements
of the Memorial site.
Maximum efficiency of automotive entrance
and egress has erased all possibility of engagement
with compelling pedestrian experiences in the
urban landscape. The success of the Arch grounds’
revitalization depends substantially on solving this
problem. Even the most innovatively redesigned
interface between the city and the Arch grounds will
fail if visitors continue to bypass it entirely in their cars.
It is unrealistic to expect that within five years
the Memorial could become primarily a pedestrian
destination. Given that reality, our proposal instead
harnesses the power of parking, and spreads it over the
entire edge of the site, creating permeable thresholds
and activity bridges to the north, south, and west of
the Arch grounds. We propose replacing the single
Memorial garage with three smaller underground
facilities spaced evenly around the border of the site,
infusing all three edges of the Arch grounds with the
energy and activity that is currently concentrated in
the north. In addition, our design calls for making
better use of the abundant supply of public parking
within a ten-minute walk of the site.
The redistributed parking will accomplish several
important things. It will weave city and Memorial
grounds together, since it positions visitors on the
32
threshold between them when they emerge from any
of the three garages. The proposed garages will be
covered by new actively programmed entry landscapes
that have additional value as neighborhood parks. In
2015, with the increased usage of nearby street and
public garage parking, the average walk to the Arch
will be no lengthier, but it will be a walk through the
downtown core, with more to see and do along the
way. More visitors will approach the Memorial along
the Saarinen vista, allowing them to appreciate the
Arch as a gateway, rather than obliquely. Our proposal
reconceptualizes parking as a medium that positions
visitors in a precise choreography between city and the
Memorial.
Successful city connections give people two
inseparable things: ways to traverse urban obstacles
and reasons to want to. Our parking strategy—which
includes physical parking structures and pedestrian
connections combined with vibrant new attractions
and destinations at the Memorial’s edge—is what EXISTING PROPOSED (2015)
allows our proposal to provide both. A reimagined
and invigorated Memorial edge is just the first step in
the process of weaving St. Louis’s waterfront districts
back into the city’s more active urban core. But it is a
crucial first step. Once that connection is made, the
three gateway districts—Laclede’s Landing, Chouteau’s
Landing, and the Gateway Mall—will become
thresholds themselves, between the Memorial and
the neighborhoods one step further removed. These
preliminary steps are crucial to creating the kind of
steady, sustainable growth that will reinforce St. Louis’s
status as a preeminent American city.
MVVA TEAM
1. EXISTING CONDITIONS 2. IDENTIFY GATEWAY DISTRICTS 3. REESTABLISH CONNECTIVITY 4. REDISTRIBUTE DEDICATED PARKING
BETWEEN GATEWAY DISTRICTS,
THE MEMORIAL, AND THE RIVER

623 Parking Space

s
T T T
Spaces 5 MIN
king
0 Par
00 T T T
11,
Spaces
king
0 Par T T T
70
5 MIN
4,

T T T

T T T
T T T
T T T
10 MIN T T T

T T T
T T T

5 MIN
De

el
op
v

me
n t Pa
rking

5. MAXIMIZE USE OF EXISTING 6. IMPLEMENT REMOTE TICKETING 7. CREATE A NETWORK OF DESTINATIONS 8. ANCHOR NEW DEVELOPMENT AND
PARKING SUPPLY AND CONNECTIONS INVESTMENT

Planning Framework 33
 PARKING STRATEGY
~11,000 ~

Our proposal removes the Memorial garage and the

overflow levee parking, replacing them with three
smaller facilities evenly distributed around the edges 1,500 ~
~11,000
~11,000 ~11,000
~11,000
of the site. In conjunction, strategic traffic engineering
and wayfinding measures will distribute some Arch-
bound and through traffic into the downtown grid,
encouraging use of the abundant supply of public 1,224
parking downtown.

1,500
1,500 ~4,700
~4,700

~11,000 1,224
1,224 ~11,000
1,047
1,047

EXISTING PROPOSED (2015)

~11,000
1,500
Existing Dedicated Garage
Overflow Levee Parking
Underutilized Adjacent Parking
~11,000
~4,700Proposed Dedicated Garages
Downtown Parking (5 Min. Walk)
Downtown Parking (10 Min. Walk)

1,224
1,047

1,500 ~4,700

34 MVVA TEAM

1,224
1,047
 I -
P L A Z A
C O N V E N T I O N

7 0
PARKING STRATEGY
~11,000 L U C A S A V E N U E
~11,000

O N S T R E E T
W A S H I N G T
1224 380

L O C U S T S T R E E T

1,500 11,000 Spaces Within a

10 Minute Walk (½ Mile) ~4,700 5 Minute Walk
O L I V E S T R E E T

5 Minute Walk

P I N E S T R E E T

1,224 4,700 Spaces Within a

5 Minute Walk (¼ Mile) 1,047
Existing
C H E S T N U T S T R E E T
Museum

S T R E E T
Entry
280

Proposed
M A R K E T S T R E E T
Museum

S E V E N T H
Entry

D R I V E
~11,000

S T R E E T
S T R E E T
W A L N U T S T R E E T

B R O A D W A Y

M E M O R I A L
F O U R T H
E I G H T H

10 Minute Walk

C L
A R
K S T R E E T

Existing Dedicated Garage (to be Removed)

S P R U C E S T R E E T

~11,000Existing Overflow Levee Parking

~4,700Proposed Dedicated Garages
Downtown Parking (5 Minute Walk) 387
Downtown Parking (10 Minute Walk) 1 - 6 4

1,047 P O P L A R S

~4,700Planning Framework 35
PHASED PARKING IMPLEMENTATION

Existing overflow Shift overflow

parking at the levee parking from the
Utilization of Available Parking

(when available) levee to downtown

Add West Add South Add North

Existing Garage Gateway Garage Gateway Garage Remove Ex. Garage Gateway Garage
(1,224 Spaces) (1,504 Spaces) (1,891 Spaces) (667 Spaces) (1,047 Spaces)

2010 2015

36 MVVA TEAM
 EXPANDED PARKING REVENUE

Peak Demand - Projected

Projected Overflow To Downtown

Peak Demand - Existing
By maximizing the year-round use of the dedicated
Memorial parking facilities, the National Park Service
Existing Overflow To Levee
can reduce the overall capacity of its garages while
Capacity - Existing
retaining or even increasing its parking-generated
revenue. In peak seasons, visitors will park in the Projected Revenue Reduction
Capacity - Proposed
existing city garages, giving downtown St. Louis new
pedestrian activity—and the shopping and dining that Projected Revenue Increase Existing Revenue Projected Revenue Increase

come with it.

February
January

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December
Planning Framework 37
 WAYFINDING
CURRENT APPROACHES

EXISTING

These new parking facilities anchor three new

gathering spaces—the North, South, and West
Gateways—that in turn serve as focal points for the
surrounding neighborhoods. Programmed to be civic-
and neighborhood-scale amenities as well as regional
attractions, these gateways will allow the Memorial
to turn outward and engage with the city, and also
fundamentally reorient the surrounding city districts
toward the Arch grounds.
The three gathering spaces will also serve as the
core destinations in a new wayfinding program, which
will direct visitors arriving by car or by foot toward
one of the three gateway districts instead of to a single
on-site garage. This will distribute Memorial arrivals
evenly around the site rather than cluster them to the
north and will bring an influx of civic and economic
activity to Laclede’s Landing, Chouteau’s Landing, and
the downtown core.

Gateway Decision Point Travel Path

38 MVVA TEAM
WAYFINDING
PROPOSED APPROACHES

PROPOSED (2015)

Laclede’s
Landing

Downtown

Chouteau’s
Landing

Gateway Decision Point Travel Path

Planning Framework 39
 THE CEREMONIAL APPROACH

Interstate
Access
Incentivize Public Use of

The new wayfinding strategy will also reduce traffic in

the three-block stretch between Walnut Street and Pine
Parking Garages

Street. This corridor, along the iconic Saarinen vista,

will be an unofficial pedestrian zone, with narrower
streets and a greener streetscape.
and Pedestrian Priority
Narrow Rights of Way

Pine Street

Chestnut Street Kiener Luther Ely

Bosque Smith Square
Market Street

Walnut street
Incentivize Public Use of

S. 4th Street
S. Broadway
Parking Garages

40 MVVA TEAM
 REMOTE TICKETING

EXISTING ARRIVAL SEQUENCE

Arrive -> Security -> Ticketing -> 2-Hour Wait -> Arch
Remote ticketing facilities will be installed in each
gateway district as well as at key points around
downtown St. Louis, freeing visitors to wander through
the downtown and the Memorial grounds before their
trip to the top of the Arch, instead of being limited to
waiting on the security line (and visiting the Museum of
Westward Expansion).

PROPOSED ARRIVAL SEQUENCE

Arrive -> Ticketing -> Free Time -> Security -> Arch

Planning Framework 41
4. Historic Landscape &
Waterfront

Historic Landscape & Waterfront 45

Historic Landscape
 USING ECOLOGY TO ENRICH THE LANDSCAPE EXPERIENCE
The various iterations of Eero Saarinen and Dan Kiley’s
Memorial landscape design between 1947 and 1964
show open plazas, waterways, recreational facilities,
and networks of pedestrian trails. These overlapping
and interconnected elements were intended to create
an intricate diversity of program, microclimate, and
landscape types. Expanses of meadow punctuated
by trees, formal pathways cut through the landscape,
and vistas framed by vegetation and topography
created a choreographed procession into the heart
of the Memorial grounds. However, as the original
Saarinen-Kiley landscape was adapted by the National
Park Service over almost twenty years, the landscape,
because of budget limitations, became increasingly
monofocal, and the complexity of what Kiley called the
“forest cathedral”—a soaring landscape defined by the
interplay between the formal and the natural—was lost.
As it stands today, the Memorial reflects Saarinen
and Kiley’s ideas with varying degrees of success. The
bald cypress circles and the monoculture allées that
give the site its basic structure are present, but poor
soil conditions have severely stunted tree growth on
the site, and the substitution of rosehill ash trees for
Kiley’s intended tulip poplars has left the landscape
catastrophically susceptible to the imminent arrival
of the emerald ash borer. Though the berms that run
along Memorial Drive were significantly exaggerated
in order to buffer noise coming from Interstate 70,
the site’s basic topographical form is sound. But the
Memorial’s omnipresent lawn is sterile, demands a
high-maintenance regime of chemical fertilizers and
48
pesticides, and has led to erosion and widespread
algal bloom in the reflecting ponds. And the lack of
secondary walkways and paths makes the majority
of the landscape highly inaccessible and generally
unwelcoming—as built, it reads as a landscape
designed to be seen but not touched or enjoyed.
Our proposal for the historic landscape starts
with a ground-up strategy to ensure the sustained
health of the Saarinen-Kiley landscape and to express
elements of the original design that were lost or
warped. It adopts a new approach to the hydrology
of the reflecting ponds: subtle adjustments to the
site’s topography slow down runoff from the adjacent
slopes, and stormwater collected from the surrounding
neighborhoods is used to irrigate the landscape and
prevent algal bloom. Building on that framework, our
design includes nutrient-rich, properly draining soils
and an organic maintenance regime, underwriting a
richer planting palette that creates a rippling pattern
of lawn, meadow, and shrub woodland around the
reflecting ponds.
The more diverse planting system will prevent
erosion, create a new dimension of volumetric interest
on the site, and realize Kiley’s original desire to
recreate in microcosm the archetypal landscapes of
the American West. The plan also has the ability to
flexibly evolve in response to changing circumstances
and climate—if an area of meadow is languishing, for
instance, it can be mowed down to lawn while another
area of the site is allowed to grow out.
MVVA TEAM
Additional trees further enclose the quiet, grassy
landscape rooms created by Kiley’s bald cypress circles.
A new network of ADA-compliant paths carefully
navigates the steep topography of the site, inviting
Memorial visitors into the interior of the landscape,
as Kiley intended. A secondary system of mown paths
cuts through the meadow, creating a more immersive
landscape experience.
These fine-grained interventions all have the
same underlying goal—to transform the Arch’s static
frame into a living, functioning system that serves an
interpretive purpose and enriches the experience of
the site. Our proposal preserves the Kiley landscape
by faithfully rebuilding it on a new foundation of
sustainable landscape-making that will ensure its
health for generations. In our proposal, the Arch
grounds are a living laboratory, a testament to the
Memorial’s new expanded focus on sustainability
and constructed urban ecology—used by students
from the proposed Gateway Urban Ecology Center
and explained to visitors through a new program of
educational signage. Ultimately, and as Kiley intended,
the landscape will be a foil, a coherent organic frame
against which the Arch—both as a feat of engineering
and as a symbol—is best appreciated.
 ge
Eads Brid
M
T
M P

Bald Cypress
Circle

N. 4th Street
N. 6th Street
N. 7th Street

N. Broadway
North Pond

r
N. Memorial Drive
Mown

e
Paved Path
Path

v
i
Museum Exit

R
Chestnut Street

i
T

Kiener Bosque Old Courthouse Museum Grand

T
Entrance Staircase

p
P
Market Street

p
Museum Exit

i
T

Cathedral
S. 4th Street
S. 7th Street

S. Broadway

Square

s
T

s
P

i
Cobblestone
S. Memorial Drive

Levee

s
South Pond

s
T

i
LEGEND

M
Bald Cypress
P
Vehicle Parking Circle
T

Remote Ticketing Facility

M Metro Station P
T

0 250’ 500’
Poplar Street Bridge
P
 FORMAL CORE
TULIP POPLAR ALLÉE RENDERING
(OFFICE OF DAN KILEY, 1962)
This concept drawing by Dan Kiley shows how his
triple allées of tulip poplars were intended to echo
the verticality of the Arch along the north-south axis,
framing the monument without obscuring it.
50
EXISTING WHITE ASH ALLÉE, (2010)
This site photo shows the existing allée of rosehill
ashes, which define the volume of the space in a very
different way. The trees’ small size and low canopy
also indicate the extent to which poor soil conditions
have stunted their growth.
MVVA TEAM
PROPOSED TULIP POPLAR ALLÉE (2015)
Our proposed allée preserves the monoculture while restoring
Kiley’s original choice of species—and thus the relationship
between allée and Arch that he intended. If planted in large deep
beds with carefully calibrated structural soil, tulip poplars could
thrive on the Memorial grounds, especially given the inevitable
arrival of the emerald ash borer.
 A COMPLEX LANDSCAPE THRESHOLD

SITE PLAN, 1964 Dense, multi-layer allée bounds

The unique vertical growth habit of Tulip Poplars open field trees
afforded Kiley the opportunity to vary subtly planting
density so as to frame informal spaces, devolve the
formal into informal, and diffuse vegetation across
ecotones.

Allées converge and diffuse into

an informal grove

Islet enhances convoluted pond edge

52 MVVA TEAM
 PROPOSED (2015)

I -
P L A Z A
C O N V E N T I O N

7 0
L U C A S A V E N U E

O N S T R E E T
W A S H I N G T

L O C U S T S T R E E T

O L I V E S T R E E T

P I N E S T R E E T

C H E S T N U T S T R E E T

S T R E E T
S E V E N T H M A R K E T S T R E E T

D R I V E
S T R E E T
S T R E E T

W A L N U T S T R E E T

B R O A D W A Y

M E M O R I A L
F O U R T H
E I G H T H

C L
A R
K S T R E E T

Lawn S P R U C E S T R E E T

Meadow
Shrub Woodland
1 - 6 4

Historic Landscape & Waterfront 53

 INFORMAL FRAME

The lawn monoculture and lack of visitor traffic in

areas surrounding the reflecting ponds have blurred
the line between formal and informal landscapes on
the site. By softening and diversifying these areas, and
by replanting the monoculture allées, our proposal
gathers the edges of the Arch grounds into a series of
active, informal spaces that, as Kiley intended, create a
coherent frame around the axial gestures of the formal
allées.

LAWN AND POND LANDSCAPE, EXISTING

54 MVVA TEAM
 TULIP POPLAR ALLÉE
Restored formal element of
Kiley/Saarinen plan

SHORT GRASS MEADOW

Stormwater infiltration,
LAWN reference to midwestern ecologies
Pockets of occupiable open space

INTERPRETIVE SIGNAGE RESTORED POND

Landscape extension of Pond water circulated,
educational program free of erosion-fed algae

WET MEADOW
Stormwater cleaning,
storage, infiltration

TRAIL NETWORK
Accessible paths activate
the memorial grounds
 INCREASING ACCESSIBILITY

Because of its exaggerated topography of bowls and

berms—and because the original landscape has not
been renovated since the passage of the Americans with
Disabilities Act in 1990—the Memorial landscape is
fully accessible only to the surest of foot. Our proposal
creates a network of new ADA-compliant routes—
including elevators at each overlook—that allow
families with strollers, wheelchair users, and visitors of
all ages to enter the Memorial from any direction and
to experience the Arch grounds in their entirety.

SITE PLAN, 1958

Connective paths interweave with the pond network under a
dense canopy of informally planted trees. The formal allées are
narrower than those eventually constructed, and water features
terminate the high point allée junctions.

56 MVVA TEAM
 2010 2015

I -

I -
P L A Z A P L A Z A
C O N V E N T I O N C O N V E N T I O N

7 0

7 0
L U C A S A V E N U E L U C A S A V E N U E

O N S T R E E T O N S T R E E T
W A S H I N G T W A S H I N G T

L O C U S T S T R E E T L O C U S T S T R E E T

O L I V E S T R E E T O L I V E S T R E E T

P I N E S T R E E T P I N E S T R E E T

C H E S T N U T S T R E E T C H E S T N U T S T R E E T
S T R E E T

S T R E E T
M A R K E T S T R E E T M A R K E T S T R E E T
S E V E N T H

S E V E N T H
D R I V E

D R I V E
S T R E E T

S T R E E T
S T R E E T

S T R E E T
W A L N U T S T R E E T W A L N U T S T R E E T
B R O A D W A Y

B R O A D W A Y
M E M O R I A L

M E M O R I A L
F O U R T H

F O U R T H
E I G H T H

C L E I G H T H C L
A R A R
K S T R E E T K S T R E E T

ADA-Compliant S P R U C E S T R E E T S P R U C E S T R E E T

Accessible Walkways
Inaccessible Walkways
1 - 6 4 1 - 6 4

P O P L A R S T R E E T B R I D G E

Historic Landscape & Waterfront 57

 7
REDUCING MAINTENANCE IMPACT
4.25 2
4.25
15.25

4.25
By implementing an organic maintenance regime
that minimizes the use of pesticides, herbicides,
fungicides, and chemical fertilizers (as MVVA has done 15.25 7
on many recent projects), the Memorial’s Grounds
Maintenance staff could reduce its environmental 2
impact by more than sixty percent compared to a 7 7
standard maintenance program for a landscape of the 7
Memorial’s size.
4.25
2 2 2

IRRIGATION 7 PESTICIDES FERTILIZER

(MILLIONS OF GALLONS PER YEAR) (HUNDREDS OF POUNDS PER YEAR) (HUNDREDS OF POUNDS PER YEAR)
7 2
2
7
Standard Regime
Organic Regime
7
2
2

58 MVVA TEAM

7
 CYPRESS CIRCLE
Existing remnant of Kiley’s original
landscape plan

LAWN ROOM
Small scale gathering spaces

ECOLOGICAL FRAME
Midwestern biodiversity
Historic Landscape & Waterfront 59
 HARVESTING WATER

Stormwater on the Arch grounds currently does more

harm than good—an inadequate drainage system
Lacledes
leaves standing water on footpaths and causes erosion
as water runs down the grassy hillsides to the reflecting 4
1
ponds. In addition, the Memorial’s proximity to the Mall
river and St. Louis’s position over a system of natural 1
springs have created flooding problems in the subgrade
3 Springs
garage and museum. Our proposal turns this water
from a liability to an asset, collecting it for use as 3
irrigation and also feeding it into the reflecting ponds, 2
Nonpoint On Site
where increased circulation will help prevent algal 4
bloom.
2

Lacledes

Mall
Laclede’s Landing Storm Runoff
Gateway Mall Storm Runoff Springs
Onsite Storm Runoff
Spring Water from Basement Sumps
Nonpoint On Site

60 MVVA TEAM
 I -
P L A Z A
C O N V E N T I O N

7 0
L U C A S A V E N U E

1
O N S T R E E T
W A S H I N G T

L O C U S T S T R E E T

O L I V E S T R E E T

P I N E S T R E E T

C H E S T N U T S T R E E T

S T R E E T
2 3
M A R K E T S T R E E T

S E V E N T H

D R I V E
S T R E E T
S T R E E T
W A L N U T S T R E E T

Meadow (Infiltration)

B R O A D W A Y

M E M O R I A L
F O U R T H
E I G H T H
Wet Meadow (Infiltration)
Water Detention C L
A R

Pond
K S T R E E T

Overland Flow
S P R U C E S T R E E T

Subgrade Pipe Connection to City Storm System

Outfall to Mississippi
3
1 Laclede’s Landing Storm Runoff 1 - 6 4

2 Gateway Mall Storm Runoff

3 Spring Water from Basement Sumps

Historic Landscape & Waterfront 61

Waterfront
 TRANSFORMING THE LEVEE
The cobblestones that make up the levee are some
of the oldest artifacts in St. Louis and one of the last
vestiges of the city’s role as an economic capital of
19th-century America. Our proposal seeks to recapture
that entrepreneurial spirit by removing the current
waterfront streetscape and extending the cobble
surface up to the base of the Memorial’s flood walls.
Instead of tailoring the design to the waterfront’s
intermittent automobile traffic, the new waterfront,
inspired by Dutch woonerven, is a pedestrian
thoroughfare, though it will continue to accommodate
service, emergency, and event-related vehicle access.
When the river is at its normal level, the boulevard
will attract tourists and locals with a wide range of
temporary programming, including a regular flea
and farmers’ market, art installations, picnic areas,
a water-taxi terminal, a carnival midway, and a
temporary urban beach (in the style of Paris Plages).
New allées of bald cypress trees will create pockets
of shade and establish a material connection to the
Arch grounds. A gentle curve in the cobble surface will
widen the boulevard in front of the Grand Staircase
64
to accommodate the Celebrate St. Louis Summer
Concert series and other larger events. With reinforced
connections to the city through the Memorial grounds
(including, for full accessibility, elevators to the
overlooks at either end), the levee will be an animated
hub of urban activity.
A new program of levee lighting will help extend
this activity into the evening. On the upland side,
floodlights embedded in the cobblestone surface will
illuminate the monolithic Memorial flood wall and
turn it into a canvas animated by the shadows of trees
and passersby. This form will be reflected in the river,
where a series of six sixty-foot River Gauges will mirror
the imposing silhouettes of the flood walls, creating a
sense of enclosure and redefining the boundary of the
waterfront to include the fluctuating river edge. Their
light, powered by photovoltaic cells and directed down
onto the water, will vary in intensity depending on the
water level, translating the natural ebb and flow of the
river into a new experiential medium.
MVVA TEAM
Historic Landscape & Waterfront 65
 THE RIVER’S EDGE

415’
413’
410’
Fluctuating River Levels
405’
Grand Staircase Replace Temporary Proposed Road, River Wall, and Stage Removal
Planters with Bollards Cobblestone Levee Construction 400’

415’
413’
410’
Fluctuating River Levels
405’
Rail Berm Replace Temporary Planters Proposed Road and Streetscape Removal
with Crash Barrier Seat Wall Cobblestone Levee Construction 400’

66 MVVA TEAM
 ELEVATION: 380’
Typical water level

ELEVATION: 413’ ELEVATION: 410’

Top of new levee, 11 days 1-Year storm, 22 days
of flood per year of flood per year

Historic Landscape & Waterfront 67

 INSPIRATION FOR A ROBUST NEW WATERFRONT

LEVEE, 1907

KING POST TRUSS CLOTHESPIN STRUCTURE WATER HEIGHT RULER

RIVERWALL, 2010 MOORING STRUCTURE COBBLESTONE

68 MVVA TEAM
RIVER GAUGE MATERIAL

PRECAST CONCRETE REFLECTING SUNLIGHT

REFLECTIONS OF WATER SURFACE

Historic Landscape & Waterfront 69

 RIVER GAUGES — RENEWABLE ENERGY

PV Panel
River Wall
470’
Integrated Lighting

100-Year Storm Event

(Great Flood of 1993)
430’

PV panels gather and store energy

during the day

1-Year Storm Event

410’

Base
400’

70 MVVA TEAM
 RIVER GAUGES — DYNAMIC LEVEE LIGHTING

Active Transition Zone

A Measure of Fluctuating River Levels

470’ - Top of River Wall

430’ - 100-Year Storm Event

(Great Flood of 1993)

410’ - 1-Year Storm Event

400’ - Base of Light Mast

The eddies created by the feet of the

380’ - Normal Flow light masts will create a complex surface
pattern ideal for illumination.

ar Flooded 2.5 Months a Year Flooded All Year Proposed Adjustment Flooded 3 Weeks a
to Levee Height

As the water level rises, the light hitting the

water will increase in intensity.

Historic Landscape & Waterfront 71

 RIVER GAUGES — MARKING FLOOD LEVELS

Active Transition Zone

A Measure of Fluctuating River Levels

470’ - Top of River Wall

430’ - 100-Year Storm Event

(Great Flood of 1993)

410’ - 1-Year Storm Event

400’ - Base of Light Mast

380’ - Normal Flow

Proposed Adjustment Flooded 3 Weeks a Year Flooded 2.5 Months a Year Flooded All Year
to Levee Height

The river gauges will mark the flooding

Mississippi in two ways—horizontally, by serving
as a reference point against which to measure the
advancing waters, and vertically, by marking the
height of the water along their legs.

72 MVVA TEAM
RIVER GAUGES — SKYLINE VIEW

Historic Landscape & Waterfront 73

Historic Landscape & Waterfront:
Technical Notes

Historic Landscape & Waterfront: Technical Notes 75

 DESIGN AND PRESERVATION APPROACH (Nepa 106)
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (JNEM)
Gateway Arch Competition 2010 Arch+Grounds+City+River
Design + Preservation Approach
How can one imagine a future Arch+City+River without revitalizing the Grounds that connect these
three together? It will take more than respect for Kiley and adherence to NPS Cultural Landscape
Reports for this revitalization to happen. The Gateway Arch Grounds must be managed with a more
complex lens that is based on the landscape medium and landscape spatiality, one that was anticipated
by former NPS cultural landscape historian Mary Hughes who managed the 1996 JNEM NPS Cultural
Landscape Report:
“This case study also suggests some of the ways in which preserving landscapes is
different from preserving buildings. The historic preservation field, evolving over the
years out of a concern for preserving architecture and artifacts, has developed a bias
towards material conservation, placing an emphasis on retaining ‘historic fabric’ with a
lower regard for the less tangible qualities of place and space-making. By these
traditional standards, the Memorial landscape is not historically significant because the
materials found on the site today have only the most tenuous connections to either
‘master’ designer. Yet this judgment would ignore the fundamental fact that the
Memorial integrates landscape and structure through a single powerful artistic vision
that transcends individual details and materials by strength of its underlying spatial and
symbolic qualities. If it is to encompass landscapes adequately, the historic preservation
field will need to become more comfortable with notions of concept, space and other
intangible but no less real qualities of the built environment as well as the dynamics of
change and connection to surrounding natural systems. Landscapes, after all, are often
experienced more as ‘ground’ (no pun intended) than as ‘figure’; spatial characteristics—
proportion, scale, visual relationships—are the basic building blocks of landscape
experience. The Memorial landscape, in which the design concept is more significant
than individual material components, provides a dramatic illustration of these issues. As
the daring design of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial broke conventions in
the fields of architecture, engineering and landscape architecture, so too will its
preservation serve as an innovative modes for the emerging field of historic landscape
preservation.” (Hughes. “Dan Kiley’s Site Design for the Gateway Arch” in Charles
Birnbaum, Preserving Modern Landscape Architecture. Papers from the Wave Hill-National
Park Service Conference (1999), p32)
Given what we know about Kiley’s involvement and the key role of plants in his design vocabulary and
spatial principles from the NPS Cultural Landscape Reports (1996 and 2010 revision), it is apparent
that “rehabilitation” of the Gateway Arch Grounds should be directed towards the re-establishment of
Kiley’s concept and intentions for the Grounds. This will require translating those intentions into a
management plan that is based on spatial principles, and the relationship between parts and elements.
These relationships must include the ecological, as well as the cultural, historical and spatial. Our team
has developed an approach that seeks to work within the Secretary of Interior’s Standards and NPS
Elizabeth K. Meyer, Historical Landscape Architecture consultant August 2010 Page 1
76 MVVA team
Guidelines, but interprets them so they are more suitable for the landscape medium in general, and
modernist landscapes in particular.
The MVVA team will build on this more nuanced, and more landscape based, understanding of the
Gateway Arch Grounds so that the center of the Arch+City+River complex is a compelling, urban
landscape that has historic integrity. But the Gateway Arch Grounds need to be more than this. They
also should be a healthy ecosystem that is more self-sustaining and regenerative than it is now. For this
to occur, the disciplinary boundaries that exist between natural and cultural resource protection need
to be examined, so that the essential conditions necessary to the health of urban trees are improved
on the site. Cultural preservation cannot ignore the obvious, and serious need for improving the soil
and pond ecology. Kiley design intentions and spatial principles should be overlaid with contemporary
urban ecological practices, so that decisions about plant species, lawn seed mixes, and water quality in
the ponds are not seen through a double lens, of the cultural or the ecological. While sustainability
best practices should be considered, they cannot trump cultural landscape character, as if our
generation “knows best.” But neither can a concern for cultural landscape preservation be accepted as
an excuse for maintaining acres of “suburban lawn” when a Kiley’s conception of a meadow might
allow for a mix of grasses and forbs, nor a concern for material conservation result in preserving a
monoculture of trees that are threatened by a devastating insect.
This approach is much needed in the profession where landscape architects and their collaborating
consultants of historians and scientists carve up landscape into elements, categories and systems,
neglecting the complex, and fascinating aspect of most great landscapes—that they are simultaneously
records of past human actions, small and great, and dynamic ecosystems. The Jefferson National
Expansion Memorial, the Gateway Arch Grounds, can be a demonstration for the National Park
Service that overcomes this separation. There are many references and resources for this work such
as the Mary Hughes article quoted above. Articles such as Robert Cook’s “Is Landscape Preservation
an Oxymoron?” written for the 1996 conference proceedings, Balancing Natural and Cultural Issues in
the Preservation of Historic Landscapes, urged landscape architects to be clear about the values that
undergird one’s approach to landscape change, and to recognize that all preservation is an act of
interpretation. Just as an architect would be able to insert new mechanical systems into a historic
building, if done sensitively, so too such a landscape architect consider how to preserve Kiley’s
intentions with more sustainable water systems or mowing practices.
This will require a team with deep knowledge of the landscape medium—soils, water, plants and their
ecological interactions, of Kiley’s modernist spatial principles and experiments with planted form, and
contemporary design+preservation debates. We are that team. The lessons learned from this approach
to the Gateway Arch Grounds will have application to many other sites and projects—from the
National Park Services’ other urban properties, such as Constitution Gardens and the National Mall,
and numerous modernist landscapes commissioned by private and public clients around the United
States. In brief, the rehabilitation of the Gateway Arch Grounds can be a re-imagination of the
twenty-first century American landscape, one that conceptually and physically considers the site
through a cultural and ecological lens. Knowing how much Dan Kiley appreciated the spiritual, emotive,
and physical aspects of the landscape, we cannot help but think he would appreciate this focus on
preserving his intentions, by seeing the forest as well as the trees. In doing so, we can rehabilitate the
character, the spirit, the emotion, and the experience Kiley and Saarinen intended for the Gateway
Arch Grounds.
Elizabeth K. Meyer, Historical Landscape Architecture consultant August 2010 Page 2
Significance of this Cultural Landscape
Daniel Kiley’s office was involved the St. Louis Gateway Arch Grounds planning and design for twenty
years, during which time he collaborated on several other projects with architect Eero Saarinen,
including the Irwin and Xenia Miller house and garden, University of Chicago, Dulles Airport as well as
the Stiles and Morse Residential Colleges at Yale. At the same time, and more to the point, his firm
gained a reputation for creating memorable spaces of geometrically-ordered groves and bosques with
projects such as Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Lincoln Center in NYC, the Oakland Museum in
the Bay Area, and Washington, D.C.’s Pennsylvania Avenue pilot block in front of the FBI Building. In
these projects and many others, Kiley collaborated with the most respected architects of his
generation, including SOM, Noyes, Pei, Harrison and Abramowitz, Breuer, Giurgola, Weiss, Barnes,
Robertson, Rogers, and Pelli. During the time Kiley’s conceptual ideas for the Gateway Arch slowly
formed into a final design direction, his stature within the American architectural design community
was growing; he came to be appreciated by architects as the most sought after landscape architecture
collaborator in late 20th century America.
During this period from the late 1940s through the mid 1960s when Kiley worked on the Gateway
Arch Grounds, Kiley’s design vocabulary matured into a modernist spatial vocabulary that is recognized
today as his major contribution to twentieth century landscape architecture. It is also the reason he
was such a respected collaborator with his generation of architects—they had a shared medium for
integrating inside and outside, architecture and site. As he explained during a 1982 symposium at the
University of Virginia, Kiley considered his primary medium as a landscape architect to be the three
dimensional spaces created by plants that were neither as bounded as a built room nor as amorphous
as the “open plan” in modernist architecture. Kiley was fascinated with an in-between form of
landscape experience that more akin to the spatial quality of a walk through the woods:
“…the poetics of space, where space is continuous; where two-dimensional
space gets broken down into a movement—dynamic movement that never ends,
but extends into infinity. Movement that is ever-continuous and elusive—like a
maze.”
His spatial sequences were realized through the arrangement of plants and experienced through
movement, especially walking. This required precision in geometric plan alignments as well as in the art
of parallax—walking amidst a planted “peristyle hall” of regularly spaced trees. Kiley’s spatial focus
resonated with the theories and practices of mid-20th century modern architecture, but it was
grounded in landscape theory and practices (see Meyer essay, “Kiley and the Spaces of Landscape
Modernism” in Rainey and Treib, Dan Kiley Landscapes. The Poetics of Space) and manifest in the
landscape medium, requiring a knowledge of the habits and form of plant species individually and in
groupings.
How was this design interest manifest in the landscape Kiley made for the Gateway Arch Grounds?
While he and Saarinen developed several schemes for the site between 1947 and 1964, each of them
included a spatial sequence from the city to the memorial that was framed by a dense planting of
regularly spaced trees. They imagined this landscape matrix first as a forest, and then as a forest and
meadow. The urban forest resonated with Saarinen’s Scandanavian heritage, as well as Kiley’s long-
term interest in interpreting the experience of “walking through the woods” into a designed landscape
experience. The terms forest and meadow, instead of park, connoted the spatial vastness and
unbounded horizon associated with America’s westward expansion.
Elizabeth K. Meyer, Historical Landscape Architecture consultant August 2010 Page 3
Historic Landscape & Waterfront: Technical Notes
The final scheme they developed together was the most integrated. Saarinen described his pleasure
with the result as follows:
“More and more I believe that all parts of an architectural composition must be parts of
the same form world…..You see, before it was put together with many different well-
related things, but of many different form worlds. Now it’s going to be all one.” Eero
Saarinen (JNEM CLR, 2010 revision, p. 91)
The memorial effect of that sequence was contingent on the interplay of the streamlined, catenary
arch-like shaped of the paths in the site plan, the gently ascending and descending ground plane, the
specific plan arrangement and spacing of tall tree trunks, and the species of trees. Beyond the regularly
spaced rows of trees defining the broad walks, the remainder of the memorial grounds was conceived
of a matrix of groves of smaller, mixed species trees and meadows that contrasted spatially with the
approaches. Collectively, plan arrangement, sectional changes, form and materials defined the character
of this designed landscape, as with others.
Current conditions and management approach
Despite the best efforts of many NPS site managers and professional staff, the Gateway Arch
Grounds—the essential matrix (or “fabric” or “mooring”, other terms used in the CLRs) for the
Saarinen Arch--are suffering from a management approach that has not protected the landscape’s
primary character-defining aspect, the spatial experience of a five minute memorial promenade through
a majestic peristyle of tree trunks and under a canopy that mediates between the urban scale of the
City and the sublime scale of the Arch and the River.
Focusing on each in separation, as it required by NPS Guidelines for the Treatment of Cultural
Landscapes, confuses the means and the ends. This process of analyzing a cultural landscape as a series
of separate material elements or characteristics, but not re-integrating them into a set of design tactics
or spatial principles often reduces works of landscape architecture to the combination of plants,
ground, water and structures. The way that these materials interweave to construct space and
experience is not clearly articulated. The essence of the design is lost.
We know from the documentation undertaken in the NPS Cultural Landscape Reports (1996, 2010
revision) and the General Management Plan (2009) that Kiley choreographed the three ceremonial
approaches to the Saarinen-designed arch with the careful placement of multiple rows of tall native
plants, Liriodendron tulipifera, thirty feet on center in the long dimension. The trees in each row were
staggered by fifteen feet, creating a, elongated “quincunx,” a variation on the typical evenly spaced
bosque. The spacing between rows, approximately 20 feet on center, widened as one walked towards
the memorial, opening up towards the scale of the Arch. Kiley described this tree that can grow up to
100 feet tall even in urban environments as appropriately scaled to the 630 feet of the Arch itself. The
spatial experience of the grounds, the interaction of geometry, plant species and perambulation, is the
essence of Kiley’s contribution to this project. Individual aspects of his project—its plan, its circulation,
its topographic manipulation—were tools for the construction of experience.
Elizabeth K. Meyer, Historical Landscape Architecture consultant August 2010 Page 4
77
 DESIGN AND PRESERVATION APPROACH (Nepa 106)
Critique and response
“No generation has talked so much about ‘outdoor space’ as ours and none done so little about it.”
(Eero Saarinen, Architectural Record, November 1960)
The NPS Cultural Landscape Reports for the Gateway Arch Grounds go a long way towards
correcting the narrow architectural focus of the original 1970s National Register nomination by
documenting Kiley’s design contributions, and the role of the site design, to the project. While it is
clear that Saarinen was a major force in setting the design direction of the project, Kiley’s work was
much more than a green background setting for the Arch. Conceived with the same “form-language,” it
was developed in a very different medium, one whose properties are very different from stainless steel
and concrete. Kiley’s urban forest and meadows were conceived as a means to order the large scale of
the site, to provide contrast between the ceremonial approaches and the secondary meadows and
lower forest canopy, and to provide a sense of vastness evoking the possibilities of an ever-expanding
American frontier.
These comprehensive Cultural Landscape Reports also document the difference between Kiley’s
intentions and conceptual design, and the implementation of those intentions over the past forty years
by NPS staff and consultants. We understand that Kiley’s concept remains intact, but recognize that
there have been many changes that are not supportive of that concept. We are interested the
opportunity that the Arch+City+River competition affords to differentiate Kiley’s intentions from the
landscape that exists within the Gateway Arch Grounds today, and to imagine the process of strategic,
targeted physical design alternations and changes to maintenance procedures as a means to both
regenerate the site’s ecological health and return to Kiley’s intentions for the Grounds.
In reviewing the Cultural Landscape Reports, it is apparent that the 1970s-80s NPS design development
of Kiley’s design concept does not account for the interplay of plants, space, and experience. Under Jon
Ronscavage, the plant substitutions made during the 1960s design development of the NPS diluted
Kiley’s intended spatial experience. For instance, when the specified tulip poplar tree was criticized by
members of the public, pin oak and ash, among other species, were considered. A pin oak that will
grow to sixty to seventy feet tall and a ‘Rosehill’ ash tree that will grow to thirty-five to fifty feet tall
will not create the same effect as a tulip poplar that will grow to one-hundred feet tall when planted in
a row or bosque. From the NPS Cultural Landscape Report, it is not clear if these changes were
politically expedient and the result of lobbying on the part of individuals as well as the regional nursery
trade, or well-intended but inappropriate. Regardless, the allees are not significantly different in scale
from the surrounding groves today. While they are impressive, they do not form a high, lofty
processional corridor and threshold to the Arch that contrasts dramatically with its surrounding
meadow and grove matrix or fabric. The NPS determination to maintain the ash monoculture in the
face of mounting plant ecological research about the impact of the emerald ash borer on the health of
this genus and species further complicates this problem. Over 150 ash are currently missing from the
allees.
Gateway Arch Grounds today are managed like a machine with interchangeable parts. One plant dies,
another is substituted. Since 1981 when the designed landscape was ostensibly complete, over 50% of
the plant species have been changed. An assessment of the replacements (CLR 1996), reveals little
similarity in form between the new plants and those replaced. The Gateway Arch Grounds have not
been managed as a living landscape creating a designed spatial experience that contributes to the
Memorial’s intention. As such, The Gateway Arch Grounds appear more spatially homogeneous than
Elizabeth K. Meyer, Historical Landscape Architecture consultant August 2010 Page 5
78 MVVA team
they should be because of the lack of appreciation of the scalar and formal differences that exist
between plant species, and that should exist between the plants within the approach and those in the
surrounding groves. This focus on the specific materials and elements, such as lawn, trees, pavement,
and furnishings, in the landscape has been to the detriment of the spatial characteristics of the Gateway
Grounds. It has also contributed to the declining ecological health of the site. Despite the pervasive
brilliant green veneer that drapes its constructed topography, even during a dry summer, the Gateway
Arch Grounds matrix of groves and trees drains across over fertilized mown lawns into putrid ponds
that cannot overcome the excessive nitrogen in their system.
The 1996 Cultural Landscape Report section on Spatial organization focuses on the site plan, as if that
was the sole bearer of spatial experience. The role of specific plant species in establishing the character
of the allees and providing strong contrast or juxtaposition between the allees and the grove was lost
in this analysis. That earlier report focused on individual landscape design elements and systems, but
failed to synthesize how these elements are distilled into a set of design tactics and spatial principles.
This bias is an outgrowth of the guidelines of the NPS Secretary of Interior Standards for the
Treatment of Historic Properties and Cultural Landscapes that separate design characteristics out into
elements and categories, and that privilege materials over space.
We were pleased to read the revisions to the section on Spatial Organization in the 2010 Cultural
Landscape Report. In its more sophisticated analysis of the Gateway Arch Grounds, the 2010 Cultural
Landscape Report defines the Memorial landscape’s spatiality in terms that extend beyond the site plan
organization to include spatial compression and expansion, orchestrated movement, proportion and
scale (CLR 2010, Section 3.3). Hughes’ 1999 comments appear to have been incorporated into this
important revision. A major symposium on Kiley’s work occurred at the Harvard Graduate School of
Design in 1999, and several scholarly books and articles published over the last fifteen years have
enriched, and deepened, our understanding of Kiley’s work and significance (Amidon, Rainey and Treib,
Meyer, Hilderbrand). Fortunately, the Cultural Landscape Report 2010 revision takes into
consideration these more complex understandings of landscape spatiality. These new perspectives
must be brought to bear when considering a landscape rehabilitation approach to the Gateway Arch
Grounds.
When Elizabeth Meyer presented the lecture, “Preservation in the Age of Ecology: Post World War II
Built Landscapes” to the National Park Service-Wave Hill conference in 1995, she spoke of the need
for a more spatially focused understanding of modernist landscapes, and one that considered the
impact of changing ecological theories on the conservation and rehabilitation of cultural landscapes.
These issues are central to ensuring the integrity of the Gateway Arch Grounds, and many National
Park Service properties. Through the process of working through them on this significant modernist
landscape on the Mississippi River waterfront in St. Louis, the MVVA team in collaboration with the
National Park Service and its partners can reinvigorate and regenerate the Gateway Arch Grounds as
well as the standards for “rehabilitating” cultural landscapes. That is a mission worthy of a Memorial to
the history of westward expansion, and ultimately, American’s complex and contradictory relationship
to our vast continent.
Elizabeth K. Meyer, Historical Landscape Architecture consultant August 2010 Page 6
Miscellaneous Notes from Reading, Site visits
What is significant about the JNEM?
What is significant about the Kiley design?
National Register significance based on association with:
Criteria A: Thomas Jefferson, History of US territorial expansion
Critieria C: Saarinen and Kiley long term collaboration, 19 (first of several, including the Miller House
and Garden)
Original National Register nomination:
Period of significance, 1950-1974? (NRHP website, 08-02-10)
does not credit or mention Kiley
But NPS addressed this omission in the 1996 Cultural Landscape Report that asserted the significance
of Kiley’s involvement and his collaboration with Saarinen. The Bellavia/Bleam CLR also found that the
plant varieties and location were key to the design; this contradicted Gary Easton’s 1994 “Statement
for Management” (See B/B, p 6)
“,,, both the architecture and landscape together form a work of art, reflecting the work of two
masters, that contribute to the significance of this property.” (B/B, p 11)
DK design, according to the CLR
Themes: “architecture addressing the total environment” (4)
“forested, park-like setting” (4)
evolved from forest to “more open landscape with continuous use of parabolic line” (6)
occurs in 1961, post ES death; KR works with DK to create “forest and meadow”
concept
“Spatial continuity, was DK’s 1957 design intent (53)
Key Characteristics (“Contributing to its significance” in NPS parlance)
Spatial Organization
1957 DK Spatial continuity, tulip poplars spaced closely together (B/B 53)
1966 DK planting plan—scale of tulip poplars was related to scale of the Arch; taller than other
plantings
Topography
Rose Hill Ash along approach, 280 of them; 82 died due to soil compaction and insufficient drainage
(B/B, p 107-108)
B/B says there are 985 ash, 71 of which are in poor condition
[I do not agree with this, and believe this point will need to be explicitly addressed)
Elizabeth K. Meyer, Historical Landscape Architecture consultant August 2010 Page 7
Historic Landscape & Waterfront: Technical Notes
* Critique of CLR. There is not formal analysis of the Gateway Arch grounds design principles in this
document. It describes the grounds in terms of elements and systems, but not how they come
together. You cannot replace Tulip poplars with ash trees and have the same spatial organization.
Non-contributing Characteristics
Railroad plantings
Smaller details such as the Tree grates and railroad tunnel plantings
Changes from DK to NPS (post 1979)
Evergreen substitution: hemlock to pine because soils were not acidic enough (B/B 85)
Eliminated gingko
Tulip poplar substitution, 1971 : Fraxinus Americana “Rosehill” (B/B, 87)
[ Need to compare profile of these two trees to explain how they do not have the same habit]
Tulip poplar substitution, debate:
concerns about monoculture; design team argued for DK monoculture in approach;
design team suggested Quercus palustris (pin oak) when Liriodendron criticized (B/B, 89)
also considered Tilia Americana and Tilia Cordata (linden)
Then local reporter criticized use of Pin oak because the soil was too alkaline (see above??!!)
Tests revealed soil was 7.5 pH; too alkaline for Pin oak
Fraxinus was selected at this point
Tally: by end of CDs. 50% DK’s plant species were retained (10 or 11 out of 21) ; ten new species
added (B/B, 91)
[CONTRADICTION: “The composition of the plant material in relationship to the hardscape features
such as the walks, lakes, Arch and overlook was reasonably retained.” (B/B, 91)
By 1996, an additional eleven more large tree species than in 1981; five more flowering tree, and two
more groundcover/shrub..
My understanding of design approach
Self-contained environment, with emphatic edges that separate the JNEM from the city through
different approaches on each side
Constructed ground plane, with undulating surface, connotes rolling prairie
Modernist space—intermediate spatiality, between building mass and open landscape
Not open landscape
Third condition
Not addressed in the 1996 CLR
Elizabeth K. Meyer, Historical Landscape Architecture consultant August 2010 Page 8
79
DESIGN AND PRESERVATION APPROACH (Nepa 106)

Historical Timeline (from CLR, 1996) [my commentary]

1935 National Historic Site, and clearing of 40 acre site except for two buildings

1947 competition, 91 acres

1951 Luther Ely Smith Square, east of Courthouse, developed by St Louis Parks Dept landscape architects

1957 DK spatial continuity [post Miller garden]

1961 ES dies in September; change from forest concept to forest and meadow concept

1962- Oct 65 Arch construction

1964 Final Landscape CDs done by DK (includes lagoons, despite CW’s objections earlier)

1966 DK planting plan complete [after CD?] see B/B, 83 drawing “approved plan” (GDP desribes as DD drawings)

1966-1978 NPS construction documents

1969 John Ronscavage, NPS San Francisco Team Captain for Arch grounds landscape construction; he substituted Pinus
nigra (Austrian pine) and Pinus strobus (White pine) for Tsuga Canadensis as soil was not acidic enough

1970 Bid package plants criticized by nurserymen

1972-74 Planting installed

1973 NPS construction drawings given to HBA to complete; NPS reviewed the drawings through 1978

1974 Walks and lighting constructed

1974 Overlooks constructed

1975-7 Monumental river stair constructed (HBA changed riser tread relationship)

1977 Monumental river stair crumbling; rebuilt

1978-81 Completion of a major part of the planting

1980 Bald cypress circles planted

1983 RR cut Bulgarian ivy replaced with grass (NPS not maintaining/weeding)

1986 Parking garage complete

1986 Plant replacements (dogwood not doing well; replaced with snowdrift crabapples)

1993 Mississippi River flood decimated plants around RR cuts; replaced with wet tolerant species like river birch, swamp
white oak, black gum, heritage birch, sweetbay magnolia

1995 J. Patterson notes poor soil drainage, and impact on ash [same situation and detail at Constitution Gardens, by Henry
Arnold in 1976—former Kiley employee!]

1996 NPS Cultural Landscape Report completed; notes ash are at extent of mature urban life—15 years? Pathetic!

2009 NPS General Management Plan

2010 JNEM Cultural Landscape Plan, revision (AECOM)

Elizabeth K. Meyer, Historical Landscape Architecture consultant August 2010 Page 10

80 MVVA team
proposed changes to historic landscape topography

1-3 Feet 3-10 Feet 10+ Feet

Historic Landscape & Waterfront: Technical Notes 81

 memorial grounds Soil Memo
Me m o fro m Jo hn S wa llow : St . L ou is Ar ch Tr ip
I observed many soil/water/plant issues on my trip. Prior to going and subsequently, I
have reviewed selected reference materials and I blend those ingredients together in this
memo. Michael outlined pertinent issues of concern to include in my trip and those
topics are included below in bold.
Soils
Soils throughout the Memorial were placed and originated from varying sources: urban
demolition fills, alluvial soils from river deposits, and borrow soils from Lambert Field
Airport. From geotechnical boring data, urban rubble fill soils range from 6 to 35 feet in
depth, although demolition rubble was reportedly found in tree pits during replanting.
From a test pit that was open during my visit in the open turf area nearly under the
Arch, I observed 8 inches clay silt loam on top of clay loam down to 3 feet, the depth of
the pit. The soils were strongly influenced by loess deposits.
Historic and recent soil tests indicate the site soils are alkaline arising from free calcium
carbonate. This fact was recognized at a late point during the original design work and
influenced the final plant list. One of the arguments for the Rosehill Ash was its
tolerance for higher pHs.
These heavy clay soils are killers during construction and would have created a world of
trouble during construction activities to produce horticulturally viable soil conditions. I
expect many areas would have been and still are suffering from compacted soil layers
impeding drainage, aeration and root penetration.
As replanting occurs along the major paths, there should be a more comprehensive,
integrated approach to planting soil, drainage and path. Use of Sand-Based Structural
Soil under paving, underdrainage and ample designed-soil resource volumes will be
essential. Also this approach will provide the opportunity to control pH for tree choices.
Restoration of existing trees must involve location-specific drainage solutions and
aeration. Fortunately, there are many opportunities to exploit topography changes to
accomplish both remedial and new underdrainage solutions.
Trees
Conditions of the trees vary a lot. For those in decline or dead I frequently noted more
than one contributing stressor including crossing/strangling roots, planting depth,
competitive overcrowding, borers, physical damage, tree grate interference, and what
are undoubtedly limiting soil and drainage conditions.
Three major tree species stood out as being fully adapted and vigorous: baldcypress,
82 MVVA team
river birch, and swamp white oak. Honey locusts are nonstarters and then there are the
ashes.
The workhorse of the Park is the Rosehill Ash, a male clone of white ash, selected from
seedlings by Evert Asjes (owner of Rosehill Gardens, Kansas City) and patented in 1966
(#2678). Note that the original plantings were executed in 1971-72 – not a lot of time
from the 1960’s to evaluate a clone’s growth characteristics and potential. It was
heavily marketed as a replacement for the American elm - broad wide angle branching,
tolerant of poor alkaline soil, borer resistant, and seedless. Unfortunately there were
also several fatal flaws: borer vulnerability, shade intolerance and lower and wider growth
habit than typical for the species. It is this latter aspect that presents a rather stunted
appearance.
The Emerald Ash Borer is a recent and probably the most fatal of the flaws. From Asia
and first recognized in Michigan in 1982, it has spread throughout the Midwest. Rapid
spreading is facilitated by the fact that it has no predators in North America. The
Memorial has worked on control strategies that are described in two publications:
“Memorial’s Ash Management Workgroup Recommendations” and “Draft Emerald Ash
Borer Management Plan (2009).” I was not able to access either to determine the
viability of the Plan. Perhaps, in essence, it is a deliberate replacement with another
species over time. Hopefully. The chronology of Kiley’s plant list wars reveals that there
was a mountain of very strong feeling against the tulip poplar and for the Rosehill Ash. I
wonder how much of that still lives?
Turf
There has been a long history of massive re-sodding efforts after large events, especially
when those events coincided with extended rainstorms. Reportedly, poorly drained
surficial soils contributed to large-scale damage.
Sod that I observed was all cut from sod farms with high clay soils similar to site soils.
Rooting depths were not great (3-5”). Redesign of high use turf areas should consider
alternative sod farm soils underdrainage and a sandy soil texture, probably with
reinforcement.
It appears that when seeding occurs now, a range of seed blends are used for different
settings, unlike earlier when one blend was everywhere (Arch Grounds Seed Mix – 70%
bluegrass, 15% rye, 15% creeping red). Blends now are of differing mixtures.
Ponds
There are a lot of opportunities to rethink the ponds and a lot of need to solve some
failures.
The obvious algae problem arises from excess nutrients transported to the ponds.
Transport is by three means:
 1. Dissolved in storm water flowing directly into the ponds overland.

2. Adsorbed on soil particles eroded by storm water that flows directly into the
ponds.

3. Dissolved in storm water piped to the ponds from large areas of the site.

The water depth is 27” by design, reportedly, so as to not require a perimeter

protection fence. They are concrete-lined and walled, drained periodically, and cleaned.
Far from a naturally functioning water body. Too much of the fertilizer applied on those
lush turf areas flows downhill and by pipe into the ponds. Without any aquatic plants
and subsequence nutrient uptake and aeration, they soon become algal stews.

There are three critical parts to the multi-dimensioned remedy:

1. Collect storm water before entering the ponds and treat it biologically thru
“rain gardens” with green matter harvesting which is then composted for
reuse. Nutrient absorption on soils with subsequent mineralization and plant
uptake greatly reduces nutrient concentrations. The goal would be to infuse
the nutrient-rich runoff into the deeper soils, then collect it for recharge to
the ponds. Deduction in turf fertilization rates and different types would be
wonderful.

2. Create a functioning self-sustaining ecosystem within the ponds. Presently

they are nothing more than stagnant pools, devoid of any biological balance.

3. Prevent all soil erosion into ponds and provide failsafe backup protection.

An important issue that turned up in my research is there has been and probably still is,
an issue about the water being deeper than 27 inches for safety reasons. This is true?
Any go-arounds?

Stree t Narrowi ng

I would expect the usual challenges to establishing new streetscape plantings along the
streets leading from the site westward. Under the roadbed will be engineered fill and
under that will be combinations of highly compacted clayey subsoils and urban rubble fill.
During a reconstruction process that all can be fixed.

I believe an exciting prospect of a street narrowing design would be the chance to bring
creative and beneficial efforts to storm water management thru “rain gardens” with
subsequent recapture for reuse. There’s good grade change that would make this easy.

In addition to the aesthetic benefits to the city are long-term cost saving in storm water
treatment if the city has a CSO. Also there would be far less nutrient discharge to
surface water. This would be an important ecological benefit.

Historic Landscape & Waterfront: Technical Notes 83

5. Museum
Expansion

Museum Expansion 87
 A DISEMBODIED ARCHITECTURE

As a historic cultural landscape, the Arch grounds

cannot easily accommodate a new large-scale program
of institutional architecture, and should not be forced
to. Nevertheless, enlarging the Jefferson National
Expansion Memorial’s museum facilities should be a
central ambition of this project. Providing a visitor
experiences that are on par with that of other world-
COURTYARD
class museums is an important way to attract new, and
more importantly, repeat visitors.
The existing conceptual organization of the
Memorial’s interpretive facilities provides a guide
to creating a new first-rate museum space without
detracting from the character-defining features of its
CIVIC MUSEUM
landscape context. Physically, the Museum of Westward MUSEUM ARCH
ENTRANCE EXPANSION
Expansion presents a unique and compelling condition:
it consists of two distinct spaces, separated by 630 feet,
the experiences of which are totally divorced from one
another because of the intervening Arch tram ride. The
Museum is made up of a formless underground core
ROOF
and a discrete, iconic above-ground projection. TERRACE
This, then, is the template for creating subtle
interventions within the Memorial’s existing
architectural vernacular. We propose three new
above-ground architectural extrusions: a civic
entrance, a roof terrace, and a courtyard, with minimal
structural continuity among them. From within, these
new spaces will be experienced as fully formed and
programmatically coherent spaces, but they will be
intrude only minimally on the exterior experience
of the Memorial grounds. Instead of creating a
singular new architectural presence, or even a series
of structures that distract from the centrality of the
landscape, our strategy of letting the Memorial’s
architecture be unimposingly disembodied lets the
landscape itself be the connective force that makes
several disparate architectural moments into a
coherent whole.

88 MVVA TEAM
 N. Memorial Drive
JNEM Service Museum Exit
Extension

i - 70

Noise
Mitigation
Hood
Chestnut Street

Museum
Entrance

Luther Ely
Smith Square
Overpass Museum Extension Jefferson National Grand
Deck Expansion Memorial Staircase
T

P Market Street
Noise
Mitigation
Hood
S. Memorial Drive

Museum Exit
JNEM Offices & Museum
Rooftop Terrace
LEGEND

P Vehicle Parking T
Remote Ticketing Facility

M Metro Station

0 100’ 200’
T
 CONNECTING DISCRETE MUSEUM EXPERIENCES

3. Exhibit

Programmatic Connection
Landscape Connection

1. Exhibit 2. Exhibit

90 MVVA TEAM
CIVIC ENTRANCE

Top of Arch

View of
Courthouse

Relocated
Thomas
Jefferson
Statue

630’ Proposed Civic Entrance

(Street Level)

Museum
(Level -1)

Museum Expansion 91
 CREATING A NEW CIVIC ADDRESS

The new museum entry is envisioned as a discreet

incision into the landscape, establishing a presence for
the museum in direct proximity to the Old Courthouse.
The new entry, a strategic and surgical intervention,
provides an intimate connection to the landscape and
gives new symbolic weight to the statue of Thomas
Jefferson, which now looks out into downtown St. Louis
and to the American West beyond.
The entrance is defined by the ethereal presence of
a subtly arched glass canopy, delicately supported by a
series of radial stainless steel columns and cantilevered
beams. As one enters under the canopy, the Arch
remains visible through the glass, maintaining its
gravitational force throughout the site.
As one traverses the transparent threshold into
the new museum (after passing quickly through
strategically positioned security and ticketing facilities
that do not diminish the sense of openness and
welcoming), the visitor has two distinct options.

92 MVVA TEAM
Museum Expansion 93
 MUSEUM EXPANSION
STREET LEVEL

Directly ahead, across two bridges crossing the

open atrium space, is a special exhibitions area. This
area is programmed for changing exhibits that would
attract both the one-time visitor and a repeat audience
of local residents. The subject matter of these exhibits
might touch on immediate ecological issues, larger
land-use issues, and other such subjects directly related
the memorial’s mission of exploring the expansion to
the West, interpreted in a contemporary context.
The visitor is also directed to descend, via either
stairs or an escalator, into the expanded exhibition
environment. A new bookstore, café, and exhibition
space provide an active and focused series of
programming organized linearly along a timeline and
culminating in the existing theaters and Arch tram
entries.
By using carefully positioned skylights, the new
exhibition environment provides a clear sense of
intuitive way-finding and orientation. It transitions
from a darkened environment at the museum core to
one that is more closely linked to the landscape and
environment above at the new museum entrance.

Service
Special Program

94 MVVA TEAM
 MUSEUM EXPANSION
LEVEL -1

In addition to providing daylight as a way to

reduce electric lighting demand, we are proposing to
use new foundation excavations as an opportunity to
deploy geothermal systems that will reduce heating
and cooling costs for the entire complex. Significant
savings—both financial and environmental—could be
achieved by replacing the existing mechanical systems
with more efficient units that take advantage of the
heat-exchange potential of geothermal technology.
In the evening, due to the use of carefully
developed glass structures and skylights, the new
museum entry will have a soft glow that spills out
into the entry plaza, welcoming evening visitors and
announcing this newly active exhibition environment.
It will provide a clearly active urban presence at night,
bringing the park into a dialogue with the city at all
hours of the day.

Exhibition
Service
Special Program

Museum Expansion 95
SITE SECTION

Old
Courthouse

Luther Entry Museum

Ely Smith Plaza Expansion
Square

96 MVVA TEAM
 Top of
Arch

ARCH PRESENCE ON SITE: SHADOWS CAST

THROUGHOUT DAY ON SOLAR EQUINOX

SHADOWS CAST THROUGHOUT DAY ON

DECEMBER 21ST
Museum of
Westward
Expansion

SHADOWS CAST THROUGHOUT DAY ON

JUNE 21ST

Museum Expansion 97
MUSEUM EXPANSION
ENTRY DIAGRAM, DAY

Overlook

Event Space
Special
Entry Plaza Exhibition
Jefferson Illuminated
by Western Light
Linear Time Line Exhibition

98 MVVA TEAM
MUSEUM EXPANSION
ENTRY DIAGRAM, NIGHT

Overlook

Event Space Special

Entry Plaza Exhibition
Jefferson Statue
Linear Time Line Exhibition

Museum Expansion 99
 MUSEUM EXPANSION
DAYLIGHT STRATEGY

Morning Light

Afternoon Light

Glass Entry Canopy Skylight

Double Height Atrium

100 MVVA TEAM

 DAYLIGHT STUDIES: AMOUNT OF LIGHT
TRANSMITTED THROUGH SKYLIGHT

DIAGRAMS OF SKYLIGHT SHAPE STUDIES Skylight DAYLIGHT ILLUMINATION LEVEL WITHIN SPACE BELOW
Opening

Study 1

Study 1
Skylight
Opening

Study 2
Study 2

Skylight
Opening

Study 3 Study 3

Museum Expansion 101

 REORGANIZATION OF THE MEMORIAL EXHIBITS
The design for the expansion and renovation of the
Museum of Westward Expansion will be transformative.
By extending the “activity bridge” through the Museum
itself and up to the Top of the Arch, the new Museum
will strengthen the physical connections between
the city and the Arch, and employ a dynamic plan to
interpret the several stories associated with St. Louis
as the gateway to national expansion. Visitor activities
are organized along a linear spine with security, visitor
services, and amenities including a special exhibition
gallery at the entry level, followed by a narrative
exhibition that leads to the Gateway Arch on the lower
level, and culminating in a visit to the top. As the visitor
moves along the exhibit, focus galleries offer a deeper
interpretation of stories presented in the narrative and
views of the Arch link the actual icon to those stories
through carefully placed views.
The new Museum will:
• create a more coherent and memorable visitor
experience by integrating the museum spaces and
their content with the views from the top of the Arch.
• create an appropriate venue for changing exhibitions
and programs to attract local and repeat visitors, and
to increase visibility.
• create more efficient systems for ticketing, security
checks, and queuing to improve the visitor
experience.
VISITOR SERVICES
In order to avoid the long queues caused by inefficient
ticketing and security checks, the design incorporates
state-of-the-art electronic ticket vending and pick-
up. Visitors will be able to purchase timed tickets for
special exhibitions, events, and visits to the top of
the Arch on-line and at ticket machines placed at key
102
locations throughout the park. An information desk SPECIAL EXHIBITION GALLERY
and staffed ticket counter will also be located in the new Changing exhibits provide an opportunity to attract
museum entrance lobby. Appropriate space for security local visitors and encourage multiple visits by offering
machines and staff, and queuing will produce smoother something new and different. It is also a means to form
checks and improved circulation. Once visitors are partnerships with sister institutions locally, regionally,
inside, the long galleries will help absorb queuing for and nationally to both catalyze increased vitality in the
the Arch experience. St. Louis region and elevate the Museum to national
prominence.
EXHIBITIONS By building a gallery to Smithsonian standards
The design recognizes that some visitors may have for environmental controls, lighting, and security, the
limited time or are primarily interested in visiting Museum could collaborate on thematic loan shows
the Top of the Arch, while others have more time and with institutions like the St. Louis Art Museum, the
interest in a deeper exploration of the history and Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation at Monticello,
meaning of our nation’s expansion west. A two-track and the Smithsonian. These exhibits could be ticketed,
concept for the permanent exhibits will accommodate providing a source of revenue to support programming.
both kinds of visits and create many ways to experience Taken together, these features of the new Museum
them. of Westward Expansion help create a more welcoming
A linear “Narrative Gallery” will run the length and accessible environment, enhance the visitor
of the museum from its entrance to the Arch. The experience, and promote multiple and extended visits
exhibit will provide a kind of summary of the key by an expanded audience.
themes associated with westward expansion, St. Louis
as the gateway, and the iconic Arch. It will afford the
possibility of a manageable tour that covers all of
these themes. As visitors move through this exhibit,
the actual Arch becomes a living part of it by means
of a series of dynamic views. The trip through this
exhibit merges seamlessly with the trip up the Arch
and provides a coherent and meaningful context for
viewing St. Louis, the river, and the West.
Adjacent and parallel to the “Narrative Gallery”
will be “Focus Galleries” that will afford the option of
examining aspects of the main narrative in more detail.
The effect is not to make some galleries seem more
important. The aim is for Museum visitors to be able
to experience multiple stories on single and successive
visits.
MVVA TEAM
MUSEUM EXPANSION
PROGRAM ALLOTMENT

View to Courthouse Incorporate Arch Tram

Ride Into Interpretive
Special Exhibit Program

Queuing /
Function Space Tucker
Theater

Bookstore

Seating Area

Linear Exhibit
General Store

Odyssey
Theater

Focus Galleries

Museum Expansion 103

INCORPORATING THE ARCH INTO THE INTERPRETIVE PROGRAM

PROSPECT

“The JNEM East Wetland Reserve, on the Illinois bank,

includes approximately twenty acres of constructed
4 mins wetlands…”

“The Mississippi was first explored by...”

MEMORIAL GROUNDS
“At the top you will be able to see 30 miles and...”
MUSEUM

104 MVVA TEAM

 PROSPECT

“The river’s ecology in the past several decades...”

“St. Louis is the southernmost dam and levee controlled...”

“As you exit through the Memorial landscape, be sure

to read about our new organic maintenance regime…”
4 mins
MEMORIAL GROUNDS

MUSEUM

Museum Expansion 105

 ROOF TERRACE

Top of Arch

Under
the Arch

630’

Proposed
Roof Terrace
(Level +2)

Museum
(Level -1)

106 MVVA TEAM

 Outdoor
Terrace & Café

LEVEL +2

Storage &
Café Kitchen

VIEW FROM CAFÉ

LEVEL +1

Existing Loading
Dock & Site
Wall to Remain
Unchanged Service
Special Program

LEVEL -1

Museum Expansion 107

 MUSEUM EXTENSION

VIEW FROM SERVICE DRIVE VIEW FROM SERVICE DRIVE

Existing Conditions Proposed Extension

108 MVVA TEAM

 ROOF TERRACE

VIEW PRECEDENT
New York City’s Metropolitan Museum rooftop, with its
spectacular views of park and city, is a major draw for events
and special programming.

MEMORIAL VIEWSHED
When viewed from the memorial, the museum
extension is shrouded by the tree canopy.

FAÇADE PRECEDENT
Façade concept for fall / winter condition.

Museum Expansion 109

COURTYARD

Top of Arch

630’

Proposed
Courtyard
(Level -2)

Geothermal
Heating/Cooling
System

Museum
(Level -1)

110 MVVA TEAM

 North
Pond
1
3

Proposed Museum Existing Museum

Expansion

EXISTING CONDITIONS GEOTHERMAL TEMPERING SYSTEM

There are two key reasons to create an intervention with the north service entry. 1. Field of Shallow Wells
First, despite the efforts of Saarinen and Kiley, the service entry is still highly visible,
and unsightly, within the Memorial landscape. Second, doubling the amount of 2. Deep Well
museum space on the site will necessitate renovations to the facility’s mechanical,
electrical, and plumbing systems, presenting a natural opportunity to address 3. Pond as Thermal Sink or Field of Shallow Wells
inhabitable place nestled into the landscape.

Museum Expansion 111

Museum Expansion:
Technical Notes

Museum Expansion: Technical Notes 113

 eis conformance

2-24
/
A LT ERNATIV ES

Figure 2.4 Management Alternative 4: Portals

“Visitor opportunities are expected to improve Legend:

with the redesign of exhibits to include more Original Landscape

Heritage Education and

interactive experiences at the expanded Laclede’s Landing Visitor Amenities
Eads Bridge Below-grade Heritage
Museum of Westward Expansion and at the Education
Northwest Plaza Service
Old Courthouse…. Visitors would benefit from North Overlook
Below-grade Service
additional activities and special events
Streetscape / Riverscape
throughout the grounds of the Memorial…. 24'

Streetscape / Riverscape

15'
Visitor experience would improve with the Outside of Park Boundary

Orientation
development of barrier-free access to the
Below-grade Orientation
Museum of Westward Expansion, via a new Connective Improvements
entrance near Memorial Drive…. Visitors Base of Arch

would be expected to benefit from the expansion Park Boundary

of food services…. Visitor opportunities Underground Arch Complex NHL Boundary

would improve with the development of Old Courthouse

barrier-free access and improved streetscapes

Mississippi River Overlook in
and connections with downtown and local Luther Ely Smith Square Malcolm Martin Memorial Park
(Metro East Parks & Recreation)
neighborhoods....” Increase connectivity through
two pedestrian bridges over Memorial
Drive, a nearly 3-block at-grade lid
centered on the Old Courthouse,
P. 4:27, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, and pedestrian at-grade improvements
at Pine and Walnut streets.
Final General Management Plan/Environmental
J E F F E R S O N N AT I O N A L E X PA N S I O N M E M O R I A L

Old Cathedral
Impact Statement, October 2009

Maintenance Facility

South Overlook

Poplar Street Bridge

0 300 600ft Chouteau’s Landing

114 MVVA team

mep expansion and systems improvements (geothermal)

The new buildings at the Jefferson National Memorial Arch complex

will employ a highly energy efficient radiant floor system for heating
and cooling. A network of piping will circulate liquid through the North
exposed concrete structure and through the earth and the river to Pond
take advantage of the natural tempering and heat-exchange effects of 1
the earth and the river. During the cooling season, the liquid will be 3
cooled by both the natural springs in the earth which are at a constant
temperature of 51 degrees Fahrenheit, while during the heating season
the natural insulating effects of the earth and the springs will keep
the liquid above the freezing temperature, reducing the need for
additional mechanical conditioning.

Proposed Museum Existing Museum

Expansion

Geothermal Tempering System

1. Field of Shallow Wells
2. Deep Well
3. Pond as Thermal Sink or Field of Shallow Wells

Museum Expansion: Technical Notes 115

PROGRAM DIAGRAMS
street level
ref text:

Public
vertical Space
circulation

Exhibition
changing exhibit

bike rental
Security Ticketing Restroom MEP
Security
Queuing

Slope D
own Ramp
Exit

Escalator
Entry Plaza Event Space Special
Jefferson Stair 4,500 SF Exhibition
5,500 SF
Escalator

Exit Ramp
wn
Slope Do

Security
Queuing Security Ticketing Restroom MEP

116 MVVA team

PROGRAM DIAGRAMS
Level -1
ref text:

Public
vertical Space
circulation

Exhibition
changing exhibit

bike rental

Exit Ramp
Ex. Service Court

Existing
Storage Ex. Book
Theater Existing
Store

DN to trams
Restroom
Focus Galleries
11,500 SF

Out
Out
HC Out

Cafe Seating
Reflecting
Linear Time Line Exhibit Bear Pool

HC Out

Out
Out
Focus Galleries

DN to trams
11,500 SF Ex. Gen. Existing
Existing Store Restroom
Theater
Storage

Ex. Loading Dock

Exit Ramp
Museum Expansion: Technical Notes 117
 ada ACCESS
street level

ADA Compliant Pathways

Restroom

Memorial Drive Northbound

Special
Exhibits

Restroom

118 MVVA team

 ada ACCESS DIAGRAMS
Level -1 ADA Access study 1
(North Portion Shown: Assume Symmetry)

ADA Compliant Pathways New Ramp Added

Adjacent Existing

Exit
Path

ADA Exit Vestibule

ADA Exit
ramp start

ADA Exit
New Elevator

New Ramp Added

Exit

Adjacent Existing
Path

ADA Access study 2

(South Portion Shown: Assume Symmetry)

Museum Expansion: Technical Notes 119

level -1

Existing Museum

Existing
Loading Dock
Tunnel Addition

Escalator

Elevator

Existing Site Walls

Support Column for

JNEM Addition

120 MVVA team

Level +1

Restroom

Mechanical
Storage Egress Stair
9,750 SF
Elevator

Escalator Pass-through
(No stop on this floor)

Café Kitchen Common

1,290 SF Area
700 SF

Janitorial Closet

Egress Stair

Museum Expansion: Technical Notes 121

Level +2

Office
7,640 SF Restroom
Mechanical

Egress Stair

Elevator
Café Escalator

Lobby
1,250 SF
Café Terrace
2,875 SF

Egress Stair

122 MVVA team

6. West Gateway

West Gateway 125

 ESTABLISH GATHERING SPACES THAT
ANCHOR GATEWAY DISTRICTS

With the goal of reinforcing Saarinen and Kiley’s

ceremonial approach, our proposal creates a three-
block-wide pedestrian priority corridor along the
St. Louis Mall, featuring narrowed streets, widened
sidewalks, and a greener, shadier streetscape. Within
this framework, two new civic landscapes gather
energy and activity from the north and south, and
create forceful connections east and west.
Kiener Plaza becomes a simple bosque that
gathers the playful energy of Citygarden and channels
it around the Running Man fountain into a formal OLD EVENT
processional axis facing the Old Courthouse and the MALL KIENER BOSQUE
COURTHOUSE PLAZA
JNEM ENTRY PARK
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. On the other
side of the Courthouse, a revitalized Luther Ely Smith
Square, built over a new 300-car parking facility, serves
as a core civic space, bounded by two of the city’s most
important cultural institutions. And finally, instead CATHEDRAL
SQUARE
PARK
of presenting an uninviting berm to face the city, the
Museum of Westward Expansion’s new Memorial
Drive entrance will serve as a new public façade for
the Memorial, providing an intuitive ground floor
destination for pedestrians instead of a wall of green.
In 2015, as new physical spaces and programs begin to
take hold at the Memorial, bringing with them an influx
of social and economic activity, this energy will be
released along this ceremonial axis out into the city.

126 MVVA TEAM

 N. Memorial Drive
N. 6th Street

N. 4th Street
N. 7th Street

N. Broadway

I - 70
Noise
Chestnut Street Mitigation
Hood
Information Museum
Kiosk Entrance
T

“The Runner” Overpass

Kiener Old Courthouse Luther Ely Jefferson National
Bosque Smith Square Deck Expansion Memorial

Gateway Mall “Hallway” T

Public Restrooms
P Noise
Market Street
Mitigation
Hood

S. 4th Street
S. 7th Street

S. Broadway

Cathedral
Square
LEGEND T

S. Memorial Drive
P Vehicle Parking

Remote Ticketing Facility

M Metro Station P

0 100’ 200’’
KIENER BOSQUE

KIENER PLAZA, EXISTING T

128 MVVA TEAM

 Gateway
Mall Axis

KIENER BOSQUE
Our proposal unifies all of Kiener Plaza, creating Views open onto the
a flat bosque that better connects the eastern Wainwright Building
end of Citygarden to the Old Courthouse and
the Memorial beyond. The bosque features a
smooth gradient between formally and informally
organized space, and can accommodate
everything from large sports rallies to intimate
gatherings around a café table. Carefully placed
trees frame views of the historic Wainwright
Building, and new restrooms and visitor
Create canopy horizon at
service facilities—including a remote ticketing sidewalk perimeter
location—make the Kiener Bosque a natural
starting point for a visit to the Memorial.

Embed small service

buildings within bosque

Extensive areas of shade

West Gateway 129

 MEMORIAL DRIVE EAST SIDEWALK TRANSFORMATION

EXISTING

Jefferson National
Expansion Memorial
Memorial Drive Bollard Line
(Northbound)

130 MVVA TEAM

 PROPOSED (2015)

Add Pedestrian Add Shade Tree

Lighting Planting

Jefferson National
Expansion Memorial
Memorial Drive Bollard Line
(Northbound)

MEMORIAL DRIVE EAST SIDEWALK TRANSFORMATION

Instead of wasting valuable space on a flat green strip between
road and sidewalk, we propose using it to create a more dynamic
edge for the Arch grounds and to disguise security bollards
behind a sumptuously planted screen.

West Gateway 131

 HIGHWAY TRENCH
SOUND & VIEW

EXISTING

4th Street (Beyond)

Southbound Memorial Drive

Market Street Traffic Noise Chestnut Street

< South Existing Interstate 70 Road Cut North >

PROPOSED (2015)

Improved Visual Field Bounded Landscape

and Civic Space

< South Proposed Decking Structure (with Hoods) North >

132 MVVA TEAM

 HIGHWAY TRENCH — SOUND AND VIEW
The Interstate 70 trench is now the most striking
barrier between the Memorial and the city.
Our proposal creates physical and experiential
continuity by creating a pedestrian overpass Ely Smith Square Southbound
Memorial Drive
Northbound
Memorial Drive
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial

between Market and Chestnut Streets. Both the

deck itself and the landscape hoods on either side Remove Undesirable
Existing I-70 Section
View and Noise Source
will break direct lines of sight and sound between
the highway and Memorial-bound pedestrians,
creating a quiet, landscape-focused choreography
of approach between Luther Ely Smith Square and
the Arch grounds.
We have proposed a one-block overpass,
rather than an at-grade boulevard, because it is
less expensive, easier to achieve by 2015, and Improved
Visual Field
would require fewer jurisdictional and regulatory
negotiations. But the benefits of removing
the highway altogether are clear, and we have Bounded Civic Space Southbound Northbound Bounded Civic Space New JNEM Entry
Memorial Drive Memorial Drive
purposely created a proposal that is compatible
with either solution. Construct Decking
over Road Cut
Proposed I-70 Section

West Gateway 133

MUSEUM ENTRY

T LUTHER ELY SMITH SQUARE, EXISTING

T
134 MVVA TEAM
 LUTHER ELY SMITH SQUARE
A system of gentle landscape berms between the Old
Courthouse and the new Memorial Drive entrance
to the Museum of Westward Expansion create sight
ENTRANCE
lines of unbroken landscape into the Memorial
Museum of Westward Expansion
grounds and beyond, forging forceful visual meets urban edge
connections along the Saarinen vista and completing
the green corridor of the Gateway Mall. This will LANDSCAPE LAYERING
be a perfect venue for a program of engaging, LANDSCAPE Contiguous landscape view from
LAYERING the Old Courthouse to Memorial
interactive public art, since installations on this and beyond
Framed view corridor
site can attract visitors and then distribute them to along the Saarinen vista
the Old Courthouse, the Museum, or the Memorial
landscape.

West Gateway 135

LUTHER ELY SMITH SQUARE

136 MVVA TEAM

 Proposed Museum Expansion

West Gateway 137

LUTHER ELY SMITH SQUARE

EXISTING SEATING
The Saarinen-Kiley benches are exemplars of the Modern style, but
they are also highly formal, rigid, backless, and invite only brief
stays.

138 MVVA TEAM

PROPOSED SEATING
Our new bench design complements, instead of attempting to
replicate, the original furniture, using an entirely different form
and materiality—rot-resistant American black locust—to create a
comfortable, ergonomic sitting experience that encourages longer
stretches of repose.

West Gateway 139

LUTHER ELY SMITH SQUARE

140 MVVA TEAM

 T CATHEDRAL SQUARE

Cathedral
Basilica of
St. Louis
T

Cathedral
Square

T
Market
Pavilion &
Restaurant

CATHEDRAL BASILICA OF ST. LOUIS, EXISTING

Bus
Drop-Off P
South Pond

142 MVVA TEAM

 CATHEDRAL SQUARE RESTAURANT
A new town square outside the Cathedral
Basilica of St. Louis creates a local destination
at the terminus of Market Street. Opposite the
Cathedral, a restaurant with a banquet hall
provides space for wedding receptions and other
events, with views of the interior landscape, the
south reflecting pond, and, of course, the Arch.
This location will be appreciated in particular by
tour groups, who will arrive on the Arch grounds CATHEDRAL FACADE
via the adjacent bus drop-off on Memorial Drive. HEDGE
Low spatial edge
CATHEDRAL PLAZA
Hard urban space

FOOD
Local destination
at urban edge

West Gateway 143

West Gateway:
Technical Notes

West Gateway: Technical Notes 145

wayfinding - arrival

Gateway Decision Point Travel Path

146 MVVA team

wayfinding - departure

Destination

Gateway Decision Point Travel Path

West Gateway: Technical Notes 147

 streetscape reductions & closures

20% Reduction 29% Reduction

24% Reduction 24% Reduction

Remove Links
20% Reduction
40% Reduction 26% Reduction

28% Reduction 42% Reduction

148 MVVA team

existing traffic volume to capacity ratio — 2009

West Gateway: Technical Notes 149

proposed traffic volume to capacity ratio - 2015

Remove
Intersection

Remove
Intersection

150 MVVA team

proposed Typical Streetscape section (pine street)

14’-0” Proposed Street Width = 32’-0” 18’-9”

10’-0” Existing Street Width = 40’-0” 14’-9”

New Hardy Urban Street Trees

Open & Connected Tree Trench

Silva Cells/Structural Soils

Existing Sidewalk

Proposed Sidewalk Expansion

West Gateway: Technical Notes 151

 kiener bosque

Vista to Wainwright Building A

5,200 Person Capacity

(130,000 SF @ 25 SF per person) Information Kiosk
Axis Between Fountain & The Old Courthouse
700 SF

B
Gateway Mall “Hallway” Connection

A B

Gathering Place

Built Structure
Information Kiosk Toilets
700 SF 700 SF
View Corridors

152 MVVA team

luther ely smith square
accessibility & Gathering capacity

Gathering Place

Garage Access

ADA Compliant Pathways

Luther Ely Smith Square New Museum Entry

1,440 Person Capacity 720 Person Capacity
(18,000 SF @ 12.5 SF per person) (9,000 SF @ 12.5 SF per person)

West Gateway: Technical Notes 153

luther ely smith square
below grade parking garage

Chestnut Street

280 Space Garage on Two Levels Below Grade

Memorial Drive
6% Slope
Fourth Street

Market Street

154 MVVA team

cathedral square
accessibility & gathering capacity

Gathering Place

Built Structure

ADA Compliant Pathways

Cathedral Basilica
of St. Louis

Cathedral Square
1,360 Person Capacity
(17,000 SF @ 12.5 SF Per Person)

Restaurant

Parking Lot
Bus Dropoff (68 Spaces)

West Gateway: Technical Notes 155

cathedral square
Restaurant

Function Room Banquet Hall Entry

3,850 SF 430 SF

Egress Stair Elevator

Restrooms Egress Stair

Mechanical

Street Level

Egress Stair Restaurant Elevator

6,400 SF
Restrooms Egress Stair

Kitchen Mechanical
800 SF

Level +1

156 MVVA team

7. North Gateway

North Gateway 159

 EMBRACE THE EADS BRIDGE AS A NEW MONUMENTAL THRESHOLD

A 1931 map of St. Louis shows the boundary of the

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial site running
CITY CITY CITY
all the way to the stone foundations of the Eads Bridge.
Even though the competition to design the Memorial
RIVER
was still sixteen years away, that map represents a CROSSING
powerful idea—the association of St. Louis’s new
monument with an older one, a dialogue between the CITY
city’s industrial past and its vision for the future. ECOLOGY WATERFRONT
AMPHITHEATER CENTER
Our proposal draws inspiration from this nascent
vision by removing both the Memorial garage and
the terminus of Washington Avenue, which is used OVERLOOK
almost exclusively by garage patrons. Our reimagined
Memorial margin will embrace the Eads Bridge as a
monumental threshold, turning the openings in the PLAYGROUND
EVENT LAWN
bridge into portals to a welcoming neighborhood-
scale edge landscape. Instead of being confronted
by a concrete garage wall, pedestrians looking down
North 1st or North 2nd Street in Laclede’s Landing
will see sunbathers and recreational athletes in the
PARK
Eads Commons, children in the Gateway Playscape,
and a concert or a movie on the Overlook Lawn or the
Eads Amphitheater. The North Gateway will be the PARK
heterogeneous, highly informal center for recreation PARK
and relaxation on the Arch grounds. Tapping into the
emergent urban energy of the Washington Avenue loft
district and immediately raising the value of real estate
in Laclede’s Landing, the North Gateway will be the
physical and programmatic force that ties the Memorial
most closely to the lives of St. Louis residents.

160 MVVA TEAM

 Street
N. Commercial
eet
eet
Lucas Str

N. 1st Str
treet
N. 2nd S
Street

Laclede’s Landing
ge
Eads Brid
N. 3rd

M
T Overlook Pavilion & Gateway
Urban Ecology Center
M P “The Captains’
Return”

Eads Commons
rive

Overlook Lawn
D

Gateway North
rial

Playscape Overlook
emo
N. M

Paved Path T

Bald Cypress
Circle

LEGEND

P Vehicle Parking Mown Path

Remote Ticketing Facility

M Metro Station

0 100’ 200’
REMOVAL OF WASHINGTON AVENUE TERMINUS

JNEM BOUNDARIES, 1931

This 1931 map, made sixteen years before the original JNEM
design competition, shows the Memorial site contiguous with
the Eads Bridge. Our proposal realizes this idea by removing
the terminus of Washington Avenue.

PARKING ACCESS NEIGHBORHOOD PARK

162 MVVA TEAM
 PLAY & PARK

Unlike most other areas of the competition

site, the North Gateway will be a place where
many different kinds of things can go on
simultaneously, creating the hum of activity
that characterizes any successful neighborhood
park. It will be shared by Memorial visitors
looking for a comfortable place to wait for their
ride to the top of the Arch and by local families
looking to spend an afternoon throwing balls at
a playground or just reading and relaxing on a
bench under a tree.

164 MVVA TEAM

North Gateway 165
 GATEWAY URBAN ECOLOGY CENTER

EXPANDING THE MEMORIAL’S

EDUCATIONAL MISSION
Drawing on precedents such as the Crissy Field Center
at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the
Center of Creative Arts in St. Louis, the North Overlook
Pavilion will house the Gateway Urban Ecology Center,
a new locally oriented National Park program that runs
after-school programs and summer camps with a focus
on engineering and the natural sciences for students
from both St. Louis and East St. Louis.
With over ten thousand square feet of classroom,
laboratory, and exhibition space, the Urban Ecology
Center will allow students of all ages to explore the
interaction of the built and natural environments as
Urban Ecology Center
they relate to urban wildlife, ecosystem restoration, River
Courtyard
biomimicry, and hydrological science and engineering. Wall Eads Bridge
Beyond the dedicated facility building, the Center will Stair Tower
take full advantage of the reinvigorated Arch grounds,
the River, and the JNEM East Wetland Reserve as living Rail
laboratories for discovery and research on tree health, Cobblestone Line
riverine ecology, avian migration patterns, and the Levee
engineering of the Arch, the levee, and the river gauges.

166 MVVA TEAM

 Just as importantly, the Center will expose young
people to the mission and accomplishments of the
National Park Service in a time of unprecedented
uncertainty about the organization’s future. Students at
the Urban Ecology Center will come into close contact
with passionate and knowledgeable Park Service staff
and perhaps grow into volunteer leadership roles
as they progress through the program. This is an
opportunity for the Park Service to use a new kind of
National Park to tap into a new audience and visitor
demographic, and to inspire a new generation of
Americans to see the Park Service as an invaluable
national asset.
The North Overlook Pavilion is directly linked
to the Urban Ecology Center and will serve as an
exhibition hall where Memorial visitors can view
student research and projects. A public elevator will
provide accessible passage between the overlook, the
North Gateway landscape, the levee, and a viewing
room that opens onto the rail tunnel under the
Memorial.

North Gateway 167

VIEW FROM ARCH – LACLEDE’S METROLINK STATION
Our proposal transforms the Memorial’s north edge from
what is in essence a solid concrete barrier into a welcoming
and accessible threshold landscape that draws locals, in
addition to tourists, to the Arch grounds.

168 MVVA TEAM

North Gateway 169
North Gateway:
Technical Notes

North Gateway: Technical Notes 171

wayfinding — arrival

Gateway Decision Point Travel Path

172 MVVA team

wayfinding — Departure

Gateway Decision Point Travel Path

North Gateway: Technical Notes 173

Accessibility & gathering capacity

Gates Open During JNEM Hours of Operation (8 am to 10 pm)

Eads Bridge MetroLink Entry MetroLink Entry Garage Entry

Gateway
Urban
Eads Commons Ecology
1,120 Person Capacity Center
(14,000 SF @ 12.5 SF per person)
Overlook
Pavilion

Gateway Playscape
16,000 SF

Overlook Lawn
1,840 Person Capacity
(46,000 SF @ 25 SF per person)

Gathering Place
Remote Ticketing
Garage Access

ADA Compliant Pathways

174 MVVA team

below grade parking garage

Connection to North Commercial Street

15% Slope
6% Slope

381 Space Garage on Three Levels Below Grade

North Gateway: Technical Notes 175

proposed Changes to grading along Eads Bridge

Metrolink Entry Metrolink Platform Metrolink Entry Existing Freight Line

New Fill Material (typ) Remove Stairs & Railing Flood Protection Wall Parking Garage Entry

176 MVVA team

 proposed Section Through Eads Bridge

8’-0” Sidewalk Proposed - Three 16’-0” Wide Lanes or Four 12’ -0” Wide Lanes 8’-0” Sidewalk

5’-0” Sidewalk Existing - Four 13’-0” Wide Lanes 5’-0” Sidewalk

Extended Curb Extended Curb

Metrolink

North Gateway: Technical Notes 177

 overlook PAVILION AND GATEWAY URBAN ECOLOGY CENTER

Level +3

Existing River Wall

Level +2
Existing Rail Tunnel

Level +1

Access To Waterfront Beyond

Ground
Level

West-East Section

178 MVVA team

 Plan - Levels +1 & +2

Classrooms,
Workrooms
950 SF

Offices, Storage,
Restrooms Train Viewing
1,250 SF Gallery, Exhibit

Plan - Ground Level Plan - Level +3

Classrooms,
Workrooms Entry Plaza Gallery
950 SF 1,200 SF

Elev
Offices, Storage, Terrace Observatory
Restrooms 800 SF
1,250 SF Stair

North Gateway: Technical Notes 179

8. South Gateway

South Gateway 183

 INCORPORATE YEAR-ROUND
NEIGHBORHOOD DESTINATIONS
Approaching the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial from the
south is currently a bleak and unwelcoming experience. From the PARK
largely abandoned loft district of Chouteau’s Landing, one must venture
through the no-man’s-land of broken glass and parking created by the PARK
Poplar Street Bridge overhead, cross Poplar Street, which combines a PARK
highway interchange and a service road, and confront a buffer landscape
designed to disguise the JNEM maintenance and operations building from
Memorial visitors. SEASONAL
EVENT SPACE
Within this large stretch of land, owned by the city but tangled
up in state and federal jurisdiction over bridge structures and flood
controls, landscape design can transform the meaning of this space, from
a stockyard of undesirable vehicles and urban blight to an underpass
park—a mixing chamber of existing and proposed connections between OVERLOOK
the city and the Memorial. New links will help establish the fledgling
Chouteau’s Landing arts district, which in turn will become a larger-scale
connection between the Arch grounds and the LaSalle Park and Soulard
WATERFRONT
neighborhoods beyond.
Our proposal transforms the negative association of the underpass RIVER
UNDERPASS PARK
CROSSING
into a landscape bridge to the Arch grounds by creating an earthen “MIXING CHAMBER”
groundswell of short meadow grass that frames the monolithic scale of
the bridge abutments. The underpass park is bounded by a low-speed
traffic rotary and a ring of RV parking, and is bisected by a bicycle and
pedestrian path that connects directly into the Memorial site. Toward
the river, the maintenance building and yard take up a new unobtrusive FUTURE
position under the bridge, with access to the Arch grounds and the GREENWAY
CONNECTION
waterfront via a portion of Poplar Street that has been reserved as a
dedicated service route.
On the previous site of the maintenance building, a sweeping oval
earthform brings visitors up to the level of the Memorial’s processional
pathways via several accessible footpaths. Nestled in a depression at its
peak, atop a below-grade parking structure, a mid-size gathering and
event space—a beer garden in the warm months and a skating rink in
winter—will draw visitors to the currently under-populated south side
of the Arch grounds and be a generator of local energy in the emerging
Chouteau’s Landing neighborhood.

184 MVVA TEAM

 N. Memorial Drive
I-70
South
Overlook

Beer Garden & Ice Rink

T
Water-Taxi
Terminals
Seasonal
Pavilion

P
T Overlook Pavilion &
Bicycle Rental

Underpass Park
Bicycle Loop & Connector

I - 64
Poplar Street Bridge

LEGEND
Future Greenway
P Vehicle Parking Connection
NPS Maintenance
Facility & Yard
Remote Ticketing Facility
Chouteau’s
M Metro Station Landing

0 100’ 200’
 ARTS, CULTURE, & THE JEFFERSON NATIONAL EXPANSION MEMORIAL

INTERPRETING AN INDUSTRIAL LEGACY - CHOUTEAU’S LANDING, THE CITY MUSEUM AND THE GRAFFITI FLOOD WALL
St. Louis, Missouri

186 MVVA TEAM

 A NEW CANVAS FOR URBAN ART
Cobble skirt accommodates event
Chouteau’s Landing is being developed as a new staging, bus parking & loading, etc.
mixed-use neighborhood focused on the St. Louis
arts scene and community, which has long been
a pioneer in the reinterpretation of the city’s
Underpass lighting
industrial heritage and legacy. Our proposal, in
which new park space reframes the experience
of large-scale elements of infrastructure,
provides a framework for that community-
scale artistic energy to expand northward; the Perimeter pole lighting Humanizes large-scale
infrastructure
southern boundary of the Arch grounds will be
a place where local culture and the Memorial’s
interpretive mission intermingle.

Earthen mound
improves visibility

Pedestrian & bicycle link between

Arch grounds and Chouteau’s Landing

South Gateway 187

 S T
B R O A D W A Y

M E M O R I A L
SEASONAL PROGRAM

F O U R T H
SUMMER

A R
K S T R E E T

Running
S P R U C E S T R E E T Reading
Steps

Sitting
Habitat view
Education Shade Market
Running view
Food Vendors Fire
Shade

Pit
Sunning Beer Garden ART
Mist Food Vendors
Walking Room Walking
Cold Drinks
Running Bike
Running
Rental
Dog Run
Food Vendors
Food Vendors
Running
Summer
Farmers
Market
Temporary Sculptures
SUMMER
EVENTS
RV Parking
view Walking
Food Vendors
Stands

188 MVVA TEAM

 S T
B R O A D W A Y

M E M O R I A L
SEASONAL PROGRAM

F O U R T H
WINTER

L A
R K S T R E E T

Running
S P R U C E S T R E E T Snowman
Making Steps

Sitting
Habitat view
Education Warm Up Huts Ice
Running view
Food Vendors Fire
Fountain

Pit Ice
Skating
Snowball Fight Sculpting
Skate Food Vendors
Walking Hire Walking
Hot Drinks
Running Visitors’
Running
Center
Seasonal Lighting
Dog Run
Food Vendors
Food Vendors
RunningWinter
Farmers
Market
Snow Sculptures
WINTER
EVENTS
Running
view Walking
Food Vendors
Stands

South Gateway 189

 SUMMER PROGRAM

BEER GARDENS
Historic beer gardens in St. Louis - inspirations for new social spaces

190 MVVA TEAM

In summer, a beer garden on the site will be a
major revenue generator, drawing Cardinals fans
on game days and celebrating St. Louis’s history
as a destination for German immigrants and
one of the epicenters of 19th-century American
brewing. At the Memorial’s beer garden, as
in traditional beer gardens, food and drink
will be focal points for a much larger culture SOCIAL
of entertainment and local community life, JNEM gateways as
public gathering space
with long shared tables and spaces for small
performances. We imagine the beer garden
as a place where St. Louis’s tradition of craft
brewing—which dates back to the Louisiana
Purchase and has seen a resurgence in recent
years—is celebrated.

South Gateway 191

WINTER PROGRAM

In winter, the beer garden plaza will be flooded

to create an oval skating rink, and the support
structures for the concession will house a
Zamboni, a warming hut, and skate-rental
facilities. The rink will keep the south half of the
Arch grounds active throughout the year and
serve as a family-friendly community asset whose
energy stands up to the noise from the Poplar
Street Bridge overhead.

192 MVVA TEAM

South Gateway:
Technical Notes

South Gateway: Technical Notes 195

wayfinding - arrival

Gateway Decision Point Travel Path

196 MVVA team

wayfinding - departure

Gateway Decision Point Travel Path

South Gateway: Technical Notes 197

 existing poplar street bridge undercroft
To Memorial Drive

Remove Existing Maintenance Building & Yard

Exit From
I-44

Remove Poplar Street

Relocate Undercroft Parking

South 2nd Street South 1st Street

198 MVVA team

 proposed poplar street bridge undercroft

To Memorial Drive

To Parking Garage
Exit From
I-44

Reoriented
Streets

Underpass Park New Maintenance Yard Under

80,000 SF Poplar Street Bridge
20,000 SF
Bus/RV Parking
30,000 SF

Cedar Street
Future
Greenway New NPS Maintenance Building
Connection on Currently City-Owned Parcel
20,000 SF

South 2nd Street South 1st Street

South Gateway: Technical Notes 199

Accessibility and gathering capacity

Skating Rink

Gathering Place

Vertical Circulation

ADA Compliant Pathways

Support Space Bikeway

400 Person Capacity
(10,000 SF @ 25 SF per person)

Skating Rink
220 Person Capacity
(11,000 SF @ 50 SF per person)

200 MVVA team

below grade parking garage

387 Space Garage on Three Levels Below Grade

6% Slope

t
rStree
Po pla

Fir
st S
tre
et
South Gateway: Technical Notes 201
 overlook pavilion & bicycle rental facility

Gallery

Level +2

Existing River Wall

Bicycle Rental Gallery

Level +1
(Existing)

Access To Waterfront

Waterfront
Level

West-East Section

202 MVVA team

 Terr
Gallery ace
1,500 SF
Open to
Below
Terr
ace

Level +2

Bicycle Rental

vertical circulation

changing exhibit
Elev 1,500 SF
Lobby Gallery

bike rental
Str 1,100 SF

ref text:
Up
vertical circulation

changing exhibit

Connection to
Bikeway River
bike rental

Waterfront Crossing
ref text:

Street Level Level +1

South Gateway: Technical Notes 203

 maintenance facility

Egress Stair Egress Stair

Elevator Elevator

Mechanical Mechanical

Garage Storage
4,350 SF 4,350 SF
Offices Offices
1,100 SF 1,100 SF

Restroom Restroom

Egress Stair Egress Stair

Street Level Levels +1 & +2

204 MVVA team

9. JNEM East
Wetland Reserve

JNEM East Wetland Reserve 207

 INTRODUCE THE EXPERIENCE OF
NATURE TO EVERYDAY CITY LIFE
Historically, the Mississippi River floodplain was a
glaciated bottomlands with a mix of forested areas,
marshes, wet prairies, and oxbow sloughs. The advent
of agriculture and then urbanization fundamentally
changed the bottomlands, but traces of its history
remain. While the floodplain’s hydrological regime
has been so heavily modified that it cannot be simply
restored, our proposal reconstructs a bottomland
ecology within this highly urban commercial and
industrial context.
This constructed bottomland ecosystem is also
a monument in the making, a counterpoint to the
Gateway Arch. The Arch is beautiful but enigmatic—
easy to touch but still remote in its immensity.
Similarly, the restored bottomlands will be beautiful
and touchable, but only from above, and accessible
only in certain areas. The monuments on the east and
west sides of the Mississippi will be complementary:
the Arch will be visible from every corner of the
bottomlands via the Canopy Trails, and the restored
wetlands will be viewable from the top of the Arch.
ELEMENTS OF THE EAST
ST. LOUIS WETLANDS RESTORATION
• Forested Wetlands Restoration: Sixty acres of
forested wetlands restoration will include forest
swamp, scrub/shrub wetland margins, emergent
wetlands, and a permanently flooded aquatic bed
that will replicate the vegetation and topographic
gradients of a historic oxbow slough. The diversity
of habitat types will support a variety of terrestrial
and avian species, and will serve as a resting place for
migratory birds.
208
• Stormwater Retrofitting: The wetlands restoration
also provides a unique opportunity to improve
the surrounding neighborhood. The stormwater
infrastructure in the neighborhoods immediately
to the east of the site is badly in need of repair,
diminishing the viability of the neighborhood and
its residents. By initiating a program of phased
retrofits in partnership with the City of East St. Louis,
stormwater can be harvested from the site and used
to provide the needed flows for wetlands restoration.
• Stormwater Management: The interface between
the stormwater produced by highway drainage
and neighborhood rainwater collection will be a
stormwater management structure consisting of a
forebay for screening and basic settling of solids, a
swirl concentrator for further solids handling, and
a perched treatment wetlands for initial storage,
clarification, and treatment of collected stormwater.
The treatment wetlands will discharge moderated
stormwater flows to the restored wetlands using a
structure for managing flows.
• Human Interaction: The restoration will include
Canopy Trails that will allow visitors to experience
the wetlands without intruding on the habitat
space. Visitors will experience the tree canopy in
the forested wetlands areas, view seasonal bird
migrations, and descend into the restoration site
to a visitors’ center and interpretive areas. The
stormwater management system will also be
designed to be open for viewing, allowing direct
experience of the hydrology and ecology of the site.
MVVA TEAM
 Cargill
Silos

r
Gateway
Geyser

Front Street
v
Malcolm W. Martin
Earthen Memorial Park
i

Amphitheater
P
R

Sedimentation
Forebay
y Avenue
W. Trendle

ago
e3
Trailhead Perched Upper
Access

out

Chic
Wetland Pond
i

Tower

ed R

o
Floating

rak t
pos
p

Pool

Pro

Amt
Elevated
p

T
Canopy Trail
i

Water-Taxi Avian
Terminals Oxbow Research
s

Slough Center
Levee Wetlands
s
i

Designated
Researcher
Parking
s

River
s

Trail
i

Terminal Railroad Bicycle Route +

Wiggins Ferry Connector
Wetland Hydrology
M

Company
Research Center
LEGEND

P Vehicle Parking

Remote Ticketing Facility Oxbow

Slough
Wetlands
M Metro Station

0 250’ 500’
WATERSHED CONTEXT

LL
I N O I S RIVE

I
R
IVER

R
IPPI
SS
S I
MIS

VE R

I
IR
OUR
SS
MI

St. Louis East

St. Louis

210 MVVA TEAM

 Watershed Context               

The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial sits at the

narrowing of the national hourglass just below the
confluence of the Illinois, Missouri, and Mississippi
Rivers. The site also marks the highly symbolic point
along the Mississippi where the river begins to flow,
undammed, to the Gulf of Mexico.

JNEM East Wetland Reserve 211

 THE NATURAL LANDSCAPE

INUNDATED WETLAND SPIDERWORT

FORESTED WETLANDS THICK UNDERSTORY

212 MVVA TEAM

 AN AVIAN SANCTUARY

Atlantic
Flyway

Seattle
Olympia
Washington
Maine
Montana North Dakota A ugusta
Salem Helena
Bismarck
Minnesota Montpelier N.H.
Oregon Idaho

Mississippi
Vt. Concord
St. Paul

Pacific
Boise Michigan Albany Boston
South Dakota Mass.
Wisconsin Providence
Pierre
New York
Wyoming Hartford R.I.

Flyway
Madison Lansing

Flyway Central
Conn.
Detroit Pennsylvania New York
Iowa Chicago Philadelphia T renton
Cheyenne Nebraska Harrisburg New Jersey

Flyway
Sacramento Carson City Des Moines Dover
Salt Lake City Lincoln Ohio Md.
Indiana Delaware
Nevada Illinois Columbus West Annapolis
San Francisco Utah Virginia W ashington, D.C.
Denver Springfield Indianapolis
Topeka St. Louis Richmond
Colorado Charleston
Virginia
California Kansas Jefferson City Frankfort
Las Vegas K entucky
Missouri Raleigh
Nashville North Carolina
Los Angeles Santa Fe Tennessee
Oklahoma Memphis
Arizona Arkansas Columbia
Oklahoma City
Phoenix New Mexico Atlanta South
Little Rock Carolina
Mississippi Alabama Georgia
Dallas Montgomery
Jackson

Louisiana
Texas
Tallahassee
Baton
Austin Rouge
New Orleans
Houston
Florida

Miami

St. Louis is located along one of the narrowest

sections of the Mississippi Flyway, the route used
by approximately 40 percent of all migrating
waterfowl and shorebirds in North America.

JNEM East Wetland Reserve 213

 STORMWATER

r
i Rive

Highway Our proposal benefits both the built and natural

ssipp

environments by collecting stormwater from

failing East St. Louis infrastructure and using it to
create new working wetlands and wildlife habitat.
Missi

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 4
Phase 3

EAST ST. LOUIS Lac

Ma
Phase 1 Storm Runoff
Phase 2 Storm Runoff Spr
Phase 3 Storm Runoff
Phase 4 Storm Runoff
No
Highway Storm Runoff
Onsite Storm Runoff

214 MVVA TEAM

 I -
7 0

Retrofit
Collapsed
East St. Louis
2 3 Stormwater
Lines, New
Outfall into
Wetland Reserve
D R I V E
M E M O R I A L

DIRECTIONAL BORING MACHINE

R E E T
Existing Lawn (Infiltration)
Existing Woodland (Infiltration)
Water Detention
3 Overland Flow (Run-off)
Subgrade Pipe Connection

JNEM East Wetland Reserve 215

 THE BUILT LANDSCAPE

CARGILL GRAIN ELEVATOR RAIL TRESTLE

MACARTHUR BRIDGE MARTIN LUTHER KING MEMORIAL BRIDGE

216 MVVA TEAM

 CANOPY TRAILS

50-Year Storm

5-Year Storm

2-Year Storm

Low Water Level

CROSS-SECTION THROUGH ELEVATED WALKWAY
JNEM East’s Canopy Trails have a light footprint,
minimizing their impact on the delicate wetland
ecosystem below. Visitors are brought into close
proximity to a variety of migratory bird species, but their
ability to inadvertently harm the flora or fauna is limited.

JNEM East Wetland Reserve 217

 REDISCOVERING THE AMERICAN PLAINS

At 35 feet high, the Canopy Trails elevate

visitors above the east bank levee
and rail berm, where they can better
appreciate the boundless horizon of the
American Midwest.

218 MVVA TEAM

 BUILDING A NATURAL PRESERVE - ELEVATED WALKWAY AND VIEWS

PROPOSED AVIAN
RESEARCH CENTER

GATEWAY GEYSER

CAHOKIA POWER PLANT

This is our study model of JNEM East. The Canopy

Trails were structured around axial views of the
monumental built forms that impose themselves on
the St. Louis and East St. Louis horizons.
CARGILL SILOS GATEWAY ARCH

JNEM East Wetland Reserve 219

JNEM East:
Technical Notes

JNEM East Wetland Reserve: Technical Notes 223

 sTORMWATER sTRATEGY
General Observations and Vision
The topography of the proposed avian wetlands in
East St. Louis is bounded by the levee to the west, a
rail berm to the east, upland and built environment
conditions to the north, and a remnant historic
discharge to the Mississippi River to the south. The
ecologically informed design will build on this existing
topography by expanding the submerged bottomlands
areas and improve hydrologic connections, creating a
wetlands that recalls the historic oxbow sloughs of the
Mississippi River bottomlands.
Process Notes
The project team would conduct a thorough review
of historic environmental documents in order to
determine last occupancy, investigate potential
remedial actions, and analyze soils and groundwater
data.
For the soils study, Limnotech and ABNA would
research site history and regional geomorphology to
determine factors influencing soils characteristics.
In-place soils would be sampled to determine degree
of compaction, and bulk density to serve as a test for
hydric wetland soils. Contamination remedies and
soil amendments would be proposed as needed (eg.
in former rail siding areas). In studying the regional
drainage area, Limnotech would gather information on
the existing stormwater drainage network and detail
a history of past operations. Building on this analysis,
the mix of impervious/pervious surfaces would be
calculated and stormwater tributaries flow volumes
refined.
224
Upon establishing the historic hydrology, the team
will explore the quality of existing stormwater sources
by evaluating the current profile of oil/grease/chemical
contamination both for existing highway alignments
and in East St Louis neighborhoods.
A Phased Approach
As a first step, the project team will seek to establish a
joint program for stormwater management between
the National Park Service and the City of East St. Louis
Department of Water. A phased program of stormwater
retrofitting will provide significant benefits the City of
East St Louis while providing a regular and clean source
of water for the restored wetlands.
Stormwater would be conveyed from the east side
neighborhoods by gravity/pumping and by tapping
into the existing elevated highway drainage network.
It would then be discharged to the restored wetlands
and retained for infiltration into groundwater, or
discharged across the existing levee wall through the
remnant outfall to the Mississippi River.
The high water table throughout the restored
wetlands makes it possible to maintain a year-round
wet pond central to the wetlands. Groundwater levels
will be monitored and form the basis for wetlands
establishment and seasonality. Coordination with the
City of East St. Louis will be required to ensure that
the maintained wetlands levels are compatible with
ongoing levee dewatering operations.
MVVA team
Ecologically Informed Design
Stormwater gathered from the existing elevated
highway and East St. Louis neighborhood would
undergo basic treatment for grit removal and oils
and greases, with a staged system containing a swirl
concentrator, settling forebay, and controlled discharge
outlet. The flow would then enter a perched wet pond
prior to entering the restored wetlands.
Prior to construction, an inventory of existing
native and local plants will be conducted, identifying
invasive and preferred species and major ecological
zones in the restoration area to determine not only
impacts but also potentials. Additional successional
species may be added to improve species diversity and
encourage vegetative gradients (ecotones) that add
complexity and improve habitat function.
At a larger scale, the historic conversion of
historic migratory bird habitat to cropland and urban
development has profoundly affected the Mississippi
River flyway. AES and Limnotech will target wetland
restoration efforts to create a diversity of vegetation
types, providing cover from predatory species, places
for rest, and access to water and food sources. Species
will include migratory songbirds, wading birds, and
larger birds of prey including the Bald Eagle.
 iver
Highway

ippi R
Storm Type

s
Missis
0.5-Year, 24-Hour
1-Year, 24-Hour
Phase 1
3-Year, 24-Hour

r ive
Highway 10-Year, 24-Hour

ippi R
Runoff Sources

s
Phase 2

Missis
Phase 4 Phase 1
Phase 3

EAST ST. LOUIS

Phase 2

Phase 4
Phase 3

EAST ST. LOUIS

Generated Volume (thousand cubic feet)

Highway + Highway + Highway + Highway +
Event Precip (in) Highway Only Phase 1 Phase 1-2 Phase 1-3 Phase 1-4
0.5 Year, 24 Hour 2.0 272 629 1,191 1,808 2,041
1 Year, 24 Hour 2.7 378 1,069 2,158 3,353 3,805
5 Year, 24 Hour 4.0 576 2,017 4,289 6,782 7,724
10 Year, 24 Hour 4.6 668 2,490 5,363 8,517 9,709

JNEM East Wetland Reserve: Technical Notes 225

Malcolm Martin W Memorial Park — mississippi river overlook

Existing Viewing
Canopy Trail Platform
Connection

226 MVVA team

 Canopy Trail Structure & Access TOWER

Stair
Steel Superstructure
Elevator

Metal Canopy Trail

Pile Cap

Piles

JNEM East Wetland Reserve: Technical Notes 227

 Avian research center

Fieldwork Research Offices Entry Hall

Staging & Storage 1,645 SF & Gallery
1,810 SF 1,600 SF

Level -2 (Ground) Level -1 Entry Level

Café Counter Park Ranger Roof Terrace

Offices 2,000 SF
Auditorium 1,940 SF
1,810 SF

Level +1 Level +2 Roof Level

228 MVVA team

wetland hydrology research center

Park Ranger
Offices
1,500 SF

Information Desk

Exhibition Space
5,950 sqft

Wood Canopy Trail

Research Offices
1,500 SF

JNEM East Wetland Reserve: Technical Notes 229

10. Beyond 2015

Beyond 2015 233

 CROSSING THE MISSISSIPPI

While we have proposed an ambitious program

of architecture and landscape design that will
substantially transform the Jefferson National
Expansion Memorial by the deadline of October
28, 2015, we have also kept our eye on more long-
term projects that can build on the ambitions and
accomplishments of the first phase of work.
In particular, we propose a series of broader
infrastructure-related projects that can take the
localized success of the 2015 vision and reinforce it
at a larger scale. The longer time frame will serve as
an opportunity to strengthen the initial connections
across the Mississippi River and to find more ways to
tie the Memorial into a larger regional system of open
spaces and non-motorized transportation networks.
Our long-range plan revolves around several discrete
interventions that combine to create a new loop of
pedestrian and bicycle connections, appropriating
portions of existing infrastructure in order to make
the Memorial into a single site that is bisected by the
largest river in North America.

234 MVVA TEAM

 M

idge
Eads Br

M
T
M P

North
Overlook

r
e
Cobblestone

v
Levee

i
Gateway

R
Gateway Geyser
Helicopter
Tours
Malcolm W. Martin
Memorial Park

i
P

p
Jefferson National Grand
Expansion Memorial Staircase
T
JNEM East

p
P
Wetland
Floating Reserve

i
Pool
T
s

Water-Taxi
s

Terminal
i

Levee
s

Elevated
s

Canopy Trail
i

LEGEND
M

South
P
Vehicle Parking Overlook
T

Remote Ticketing Facility Water-Taxi River

Terminal Trail
Metro Station
P
M T

Bicycle Loop & Connector

0 250’ 500’
P
Poplar Street Bridge
 STRENGTHENING CONNECTIONS ACROSS THE RIVER

1 Eads Bridge Bicycle

M Lanes
I -

P L A Z A
C O N V E N T I O N
7 0

1
D G E
S B R I
E A D

L U C A S A V E N U E

M 10 2 Improved Pedestrian
W A S H I N G T
O N S T R E E T
2 Access to Metrolink
3 Memorial Drive
L O C U S T S T R E E T
Modifications
10 4 Proposed Greenway
O L I V E S T R E E T

Connection
5
P I N E S T R E E T

Floating Pavilions

1
C H E S T N U T S T R E E T
S T R E E T

3
M A R K E T S T R E E T
6 South Overlook
S E V E N T H

9 Pavilion
D R I V E
S T R E E T
S T R E E T

W A L N U T S T R E E T

5 7 Mississippi River
B R O A D W A Y

M E M O R I A L
F O U R T H
E I G H T H

C L
A R
Connector
K S T R E E T

8 Proposed Route 3
S P R U C E S T R E E T

5
8 9
1 - 6 4 6 JNEM East

7
10
P O P L A R S T R E E T B R I D G E

Proposed Front
4 Street Connection

236 MVVA TEAM

 BICYCLE LOOP AND REGIONAL CONTEXT

Missouri
River
Confluence
Point

Laclede’s
Landing

Gateway
Geyser
Horseshoe
Lake

Cahokia
Busch Stadium Forest
Mounds
Park St. Louis

Chouteau’s
Landing East St. Louis

3.4 MILE BIKE LOOP

Mississippi
River

REGIONAL BIKEWAY NETWORK

Beyond 2015 237

 THE FIRST 100 FEET

Successful urban parks have thick edges. These rims,

usually around 100 feet deep, define how the park is
90’ 96’ 97’ seen from the city and invite and organize multiple
choreographies of approach. It is the experience of
these first 100 feet that determines whether or not a
visitor will want to venture further into the interior. A
deep, penetrable, highly trafficked edge that serves as a
physical and programmatic gradient between city and
park is perhaps the most surefire guarantor of a park’s
success. This can be seen in acclaimed parks all over the
world.

BRYANT PARK 6TH AVENUE UNION SQUARE

New York, New York New York, New York New York, New York

114’ 125’
142’

LES TUILERIES CENTRAL PARK MILLENNIUM PARK

Paris, France New York, New York Chicago, Illinois

238 MVVA TEAM

 MVVA study model of the Jefferson National Expansion
Memorial, indicating the potential for “thick edge”
programming in the Arch grounds’ first hundred feet.

Beyond 2015 239

 CREATING A THICK EDGE

We propose ultimately removing the eastern side of

Memorial Drive and consolidating northbound traffic
into a new two-way local avenue on the city side of the
Interstate 70 trench. Both Arch-bound and through
traffic will be absorbed into the downtown core,
making better use of the existing capacity of 4th Street
and Broadway and further incentivizing the use of the
public parking supply.
In place of the removed traffic lanes, a new highly
permeable linear edge landscape, including welcoming
points of entry at the east ends of Walnut Street, Pine
Street, and Washington Avenue, will give the Memorial
a comfortably navigable perimeter and will serve as
the western side of our proposed bicycle loop. The new
edge, approximately 100 feet deep, will also have the
advantage of being programmatically flexible. Future
planning projects will be able to carve out landscape
rooms that could be filled with buildings or park space
as new Park Service needs arise.

EXISTING

240 MVVA TEAM

NEW BERM FOR SECURITY
& NOISE MITIGATION
OPEN UP
UNDERSTORY

EXPANDED MEMORIAL EDGE

PROPOSED (2015)

Beyond 2015 241

 SOUTH OVERLOOK

Stair to Waterfront

Levee

River
Wall
Rail
Line

Stair to Overlook

The South Overlook will house a bicycle rental facility and a direct
connection from the Overlook to a new pedestrian and bikeway river
crossing closely associated with the existing Poplar Street Bridge (in
order to minimize disturbances to existing river currents and shipping
channels). The new bridge—an extradosed span system that mimics the
600-foot span of the Poplar Street Bridge—will tie into the JNEM East
Wetland Reserve’s canopy trails and will circle north to a dedicated lane
on the Eads Bridge, connecting many of the major attractions in both the
Metro-West and Metro-East regions.

242 MVVA TEAM

PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE AND BICYCLE RIVER CROSSING

Beyond 2015 243

 FLOATING PAVILIONS — CONCEPT SKETCHES

A series of floating pavilions, serving as water taxi terminals, cafés, or floating

swimming pools, will animate the waterfront on both sides of the Mississippi and
echo the industrial architecture of the Cargill grain conveyors. These Steven Holl
watercolor sketches show the development of the concept.

244 MVVA TEAM

Beyond 2015 245
 FLOATING PAVILIONS — ENERGY STRATEGY

1
1
ARCH VIEW COOL SPACE 1
ARCH VIEW HEAT SPACE

2
3 2
3
4
4
4

SPRING / HIGH FLOW / CAFÉ WINTER / MID FLOW / EVENT SPACE SUMMER / LOW FLOW / WATER TAXI TERMINAL

1 Photovoltaic Cells Convert Sun

Energy to Electrical Power

2 Heat Exchanger and Heat Pump/

Chiller Provides Heating/Cooling

SUSTAINABILITY ON THE WATER

3 River Coils The floating pavilions will be designed to
be zero-carbon structures, with climate
controlled entirely through solar power, river
4 Water Turbines Convert River Current turbines, and heat exchange via river coils.
to Electrical Power

246 MVVA TEAM

 FLOATING PAVILIONS — EAST ST. LOUIS MOORING

EAST SIDE RIVER BANK ZERO CARBON FLOATING PAVILION

A ZERO CARBON FLOATING PAVILION 1 PV SOLAR CELLS

B ROLLER MOUNTED BRIDGE CONNECTION 2 CARBON FIBER SHELL
C WOODEN DECK ELEVATED BOARDWALK 3 WATER TURBINES F
D WETLAND 4 RIVER COILS
E EXISTING TRAILS 5 NON PERMEABLE BALLAST
F WOODEN TRUSS BRIDGE
CONNECTING DAM PATH AND BOARDWALK
G PAVED DAM BIKE AND PEDESTRIAN PATH G

A
C
1 E E
D
B
2

5
4
3

Beyond 2015 247

Beyond 2015:
Technical Notes

Beyond 2015: Technical Notes 249

 Through-lane Volume to capacity analyis - existing conditions

2009 Existing Volume To Capacity Ratios

2009 - Broadway (Southbound PM)
Walnut to Market Market to Chestnut Chestnut to Pine

Memorial Drive Currently Fun

Volume veh/hr 1152 1200 1441
22% Lanes # 5 5 5
39% Capacity veh/hr 3900 3900 3900
v/c Ratio % utilized 30% 31% 37%
2009 - 4th Street (Southbound PM)
Walnut to Market Market to Chestnut Chestnut to Pine
Volume veh/hr 676 1040 840
Lanes # 5 5 5
Capacity veh/hr 3900 3900 3900
v/c Ratio % utilized 17% 27% 22%

ctions As Extension of Inte

2009 Existing Volume
2030 Projected VolumeToToCapacity
CapacityRatios
Ratios
2009 - Broadway
Broadway (Southbound
(Southbound PM)PM)
31% 27% Walnut to Market Market to Chestnut Chestnut to Pine
Volume veh/hr 1152
3759 1200
3726 1441
3116
Lanes # 5 5 5
Capacity veh/hr 3900 3900 3900
v/c Ratio % utilized 30%
96% 31%
96% 37%
80%
2009 - 4th
4th Street
Street (Southbound
(Northbound PM)PM)
Walnut to Market Market to Chestnut Chestnut to Pine
Volume veh/hr 676
3108 1040
3081 840
3500
Lanes #
rstate Junction To South
5 5 5
Capacity veh/hr 3900 3900 3900
v/c Ratio % utilized 17%
80% 27%
79% 22%
90%

17%
30% 2030 Projected Volume To Capacity Ratios
Assumptions
1. Capacity estimate represents LOS D for ClassBroadway (Southbound
3 and Class PM)
4 roads according to Exhibit 10-7
in HCM 2000 Walnut to Market Market to Chestnut Chestnut to Pine
Volume veh/hr
2. All volumes 3759 volumes: through
represent total one-way approach 3726
movement plus turning3116
Lanes
vehicles # 5 5 5
Capacity 3900NPS Memorial Drive
veh/hrrepresent values from 2009
3. Traffic volumes 3900
Closure Traffic Study 3900
v/c Ratio by%AECOM
prepared utilized 96% 96% 80%
4th Street
4. NPS Closure study gives 2011 no-build volumes which(Northbound PM) growth rate over
include 1% annual
Walnut
2009 plus additional estimated to generated
trips Market byMarket
Ballparkto Chestnut Chestnut to Pine
Village development
Volume include 1% annual growth3108
veh/hr
5. 2015 volumes rate onto 2011 volumes,3081 3500
plus rerouting of traffic
Lanes # of Market Street and Chestnut5Street over the I-70 trench
due to closures 5 5
Capacity veh/hr
6. 2030 volumes 3900rate over 2015 volumes,
include 0.5% annual growth 3900 plus shift of all traffic
3900
v/c
fromRatio
Memorial Drive to Broadway (NB) and80%
% utilized 4th Street (SB) 79% 90%

Assumptions
1. Capacity estimate represents LOS D for Class 3 and Class 4 roads according to Exhibit 10-7
250 MVVA team in HCM 2000
2. All volumes represent total one-way approach volumes: through movement plus turning
vehicles
3. Traffic volumes represent values from 2009 NPS Memorial Drive Closure Traffic Study
 through-lane volume to capacity analysis - long term projections

Memorial Drive Southbound Traffic Uses

Excess Capacity Along Broadway

2009 Existing Volume To Capacity Ratios

2009 - Broadway (Southbound PM)
Walnut to Market Market to Chestnut Chestnut to Pine
Volume veh/hr 1152 1200 1441
Lanes # 5 5 5
Capacity veh/hr 3900 3900 3900
v/c Ratio % utilized 30% 31% 37%
2009 - 4th Street (Southbound PM)
Walnut to Market Market to Chestnut Chestnut to Pine
Volume veh/hr 676 1040 840

Western Lanes Reduced to

Lanes # 5 5 5

Remove Eastern Lanes of Me

Capacity veh/hr 3900 3900 3900
v/c Ratio % utilized 17% 27% 22%

2030 Projected Volume To Capacity Ratios

Broadway (Southbound PM)
Walnut to Market Market to Chestnut Chestnut to Pine
Volume veh/hr 3759 3726 3116
Lanes # 5 5 5
Capacity veh/hr 3900 3900 3900

2-Way Boulevard
v/c Ratio % utilized 96% 96% 80%
4th Street (Northbound PM)

morial Drive
Walnut to Market Market to Chestnut Chestnut to Pine
Volume veh/hr 3108 3081 3500
Lanes # 5 5 5
Capacity veh/hr 3900 3900 3900
v/c Ratio % utilized 80% 79% 90%

Assumptions
1. Capacity estimate represents LOS D for Class 3 and Class 4 roads according to Exhibit 10-7
in HCM 2000
2. All volumes represent total one-way approach volumes: through movement plus turning
vehicles
3. Traffic volumes represent values from 2009 NPS Memorial Drive Closure Traffic Study
prepared by AECOM
4. NPS Closure study gives 2011 no-build volumes which include 1% annual growth rate over
2009 plus additional estimated trips generated by Ballpark Village development
5. 2015 volumes include 1% annual growth rate onto 2011 volumes, plus rerouting of traffic
Memorial Drive Northbound Traffic Uses due to closures of Market Street and Chestnut Street over the I-70 trench
Excess Capacity Along 4th Street 6. 2030 volumes include 0.5% annual growth rate over 2015 volumes, plus shift of all traffic
from Memorial Drive to Broadway (NB) and 4th Street (SB)

Beyond 2015: Technical Notes 251

extradosed Bridge
cross SEctions

252 MVVA team

extradosed Bridge
north Elevation

Beyond 2015: Technical Notes 253