MVVA Team Arch Proposal - Full Narrative

8/9/2019 MVVA Team Arch Proposal - Full Narrative

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MVVA TEAMFraming A Modern Masterpiece

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

Steven Holl ArchitectsGreenberg ConsultantsUhlir ConsultingHR&A AdvisorsGuy Nordenson and AssociatesArupLimnoTechPine and Swallow EnvironmentalApplied Ecological ServicesAnn Hamilton StudioJames Carpenter Design AssociatesCooper Robertson & PartnersElizabeth K. MeyerProject ProjectsVector CommunicationsABNA Engineering


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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

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

Framing A Modern Masterpiece

MVVA TEAM


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1. The MVVA Team Proposal

2. New Frontiers

3. Planning Framework

4. Historic Landscape & Waterfront

Technical Notes

5. Museum Expansion

Technical Notes

6. West Gateway

Technical Notes

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CONTENTS

7. North Gateway

Technical Notes

8. South Gateway

Technical Notes

9. JNEM East Wetland

Reserve

Technical Notes

10. Beyond 2015

Technical Notes

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7The MVVA TeAM

. T MVVA Tam

COMPeTITION TeAM

LANDSCAPe ARChITeCTURe & URBANISM

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

ARChITeCTURe

James Carpenter Design Associates

Steven Holl Architects

MUSeUM PLANNING

Cooper, Robertson & Partners

PLANNING & URBAN DeSIGN

Greenberg Consultants

eNGINeeRING

Guy Nordenson and Associates

Arup

Pine and Swallow Environmental

ABNA Engineering

hYDROLOGY & eCOLOGY

LimnoTech

Applied Ecological Services

FINANCe & STRATeGIeS

FOR ReALIZATION

Uhlir Consulting

HR&A Advisors

ARTISTS

Ann Hamilton Studio

LANDSCAPe hISTORIAN

Elizabeth K. Meyer

INTeRPReTATION

Project Projects

Vector Communications


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MVVA TeAM8

The MVVA TeAM PROPOSAL

Successul city connections give people two inseparable

things:ways to traverse urban obstacles and reasons to

want to. Our landscape-based approach to the Jeerson

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 itsel, physically and culturally,

toward the lie o the city, and by pioneering constructed

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

paradigm or urban National Parksand that, in turn,

makes it a oundation or sustained social and economic

vitality on both sides o the Mississippi.


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InormationKiosk

PublicRestrooms

OverpassDeck

NoiseMitigationHood

MuseumEntrance

BusDrop-O

MarketPavilion+RestaurantJNEMOfces+MuseumRootop Terrace

JNEMServiceExtension

PavedPath

MownPath

BaldCypressCircle

MuseumExit

CobblestoneLeveeRiverGauges

EadsCommons

GatewayPlayscape

OverlookLawn

OverlookPavilion+GatewayUrbanEcologyCenter

BeerGarden+IceRink

SeasonalPavilion

OverlookPavilion+BicycleRentalWater-TaxiTerminals

FloatingPool

NPSMaintenanceFacility+Yard

EarthenAmphitheater

ElevatedCanopyTrail

TrailheadAccessTower

SedimentationForebayPerchedUpperWetlandPond

OxbowSloughWetlands

AvianResearchCenter

DesignatedResearcherParking

WetlandHydrologyResearchCenter

BicycleLoop+Connector

VehicleParking

RemoteTicketingFacility

MetroStation

Benches

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Successul city connectionsgive peopletwo inseparablethings:ways to traverseurbanobstacles and reasonsto wantto. Ourlandscape-basedapproachto theJeferson National ExpansionMemorial providesboth, establishing physical andprogrammaticcontinuity betweendowntownSt. Louis, theArch grounds, thelevee, andtheIllinois bank. By reorienting itsel, physically andculturally, towardthelie o thecity, andby pioneering constructedurbanecologies, theMemorial servesas a21st-century paradigmor urbanNational Parksandthat, inturn, makesita oundationor sustainedsocial andeconomic vitality onbothsides o theMississippi.

Framing a Modern MasterpieceThe MVVA Team Proposal

The MVVA TeAM 9


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MownPath

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StandardRegime

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

HISTORIC LANDSCAPE

A new diversifedplanting regimeremembersDan Kileysvision bycreating acoherentrame o inormal landscapethat complementstheprocessional alles. Supportedby anetwork o accessiblepavedandmown paths, therevitalized groundsaccommodate avariety opassiverecreational activities. A reorganizedapproachto thesiteshydrology andan organic maintenanceregime preventerosion andalgal bloom, andturn thelandscape intoa living laboratory o urbanecology andsustainable practices.

hISTORIC LANDSCAPe

A new diversied planting regime remembers Dan Kileys

vision by creating a coherent rame o inormal landscape

that complements the processional alles. Supported by a

network o accessible paved and mown paths, the revitalized

grounds accommodate a variety o passive recreational

activities. A reorganized approach to the sites hydrology

and an organic maintenance regime prevent erosion and

algal bloom, and turn the landscape into a living laboratory

o urban ecology and sustainable practices.

MVVA TeAM10


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WeST G ATeWAY

A new Memorial Drive entrance to the Museum o

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

trac noise, while remote ticketing acilities liberate

visitors to enjoy the city and Memorial grounds while they

wait to ride to the top o the Arch.PlanningFramework

MuseumoWestwardExpansion

Viewtothe OldCourthouseromtheMemorialDriveEntrance

LinearExhibit

Bookstore

Theater

Theater

Viewto Old Courthouse

Special Exhibit

Queuing/

Function Space

IncorporateArch TramRide

into InterpretiveProgram

SeatingArea

General Store

MuseumoWestwardExpansion,MemorialDriveEntrance

Afternoon Light

IdentifyGatewayDistricts

MaximizeUseof Existing

ParkingSupply

Reestablish ConnectivityBetween Gateway

Districts,theMemorial,and theRiver

CreateaNetworkof Destinations

and Connections

MorningLight

Skylight

Glass EntryCanopy

DoubleHeight

Atrium

Viewto

Old Courthouse

Focus Galleries

4 ,700

Parkin

gSpaces

11,000P

arkingS

paces

5 MIN

10 MIN

5 MIN

5 MIN

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Developm

ent Pa

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WEST GATEWAY

A new Memorial Driveentrance to theMuseum o WestwardExpansionaddressesthe OldCourthouse, continuing theurban energy createdalong theSaarinenvista by Citygardenandgiving Luther Ely SmithSquarenew importanceasa central civic plaza. A one-block-widedeck over Interstate70establishespedestriansovereignty, breakssightlines into thehighway trench, andmitigatestrafc noise, whileremote ticketing acilitiesliberatevisitors to enjoy thecityandMemorial groundswhilethey waittoride to thetop o theArch.

The MVVA TeAM 11


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Parking Strategy Phased Parking Implementation

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

M A R K E T S T R E E T


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NORTH GATEWAY

By removing theexisting Memorial garageand theterminuso WashingtonAvenue, whichis usedalmostexclusively by garagepatrons, our proposal allowstheopeningsintheEadsBridgeto serveasportalsbetweenLacledesLanding anda dynamic civic landscape.Accessiblepathwaysstitchtogether a mix o neighborhoodprogramsandevent space, including alargeplayground,comortableshadedseating, ane arthenamphitheater, andtheGateway UrbanEcology Center, whichofersaterschoolprogramsandsummer campsor St. Louisand EastSt.Louisstudents.

NORTh G ATeWAY

By removing the existing Memorial garage and the terminus

o Washington Avenue, which is used almost exclusively

by garage patrons, our proposal allows the openings in the

Eads Bridge to serve as portals between Lacledes Landing

and a dynamic civic landscape. Accessible pathways stitch

together a mix o neighborhood programs and event space,

including a large playground, comortable shaded seating,

an earthen amphitheater, and the Gateway Urban Ecology

Center, which oers aterschool programs and summer

camps or St. Louis and East St. Louis students.

MVVA TeAM12


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SUMMEREVENTS

BikeRental

Stands

Shade

SunningMistRoom

Running

Running

Market

Running

Running

Running

Shade

RV ParkingWalking

WalkingWalking

Beer Garden

Sitting

Reading

ART

ColdDrinks

FoodVendors

HabitatEducation

SummerFarmersMarket

DogRun

Temporary Sculptures

view

view

view

FirePit

Steps

Food Vendors

Food Vendors

Food Vendors

Food Vendors

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VisitorsCenter

Stands

WarmUp Huts

Snowball FightSkateHire

Seasonal Lighting

Running

Running

Running

Running

Running

IceFountain

Running

Walking

WalkingWalking

Skating

Sitting

SnowmanMaking

IceSculpting

Hot Drinks

FoodVendors

HabitatEducation

WinterFarmersMarket

DogRun

Snow Sculptures

view

view

view

FirePit

Steps

Food Vendors

Food Vendors

Food Vendors

Food Vendors

SouthGatewaySummerProgram

ViewfromUnderpassPark

SouthGatewayWinterProgram


SOUTH GATEWAY

Immediately southof theArch grounds, anunderpasspark createsamixing chamber of proposedandfutureconnections betweenthe city andtheMemorial, andappropriatesthe Poplar StreetBridge asa partof thethresholdlandscape. Atop anew 387-spaceparking facility, amedium-scalevenuea beer gardeninsummer, askating rink inwinterechoesSt. Louishistory andservesas afocal pointfor theemerging ChouteausLanding neighborhood.

SOUTh GATeWAY

Immediately south o the Arch grounds, an underpass park

creates a mixing chamber o proposed and uture connections

between the city and the Memorial, and appropriates the

Poplar Street Bridge as a part o the th reshold landscape. Atop

a new 387-space parking acility, a medium-scale venuea

beer garden in summer, a skating rink in winterechoes

St. Louis history and serves as a ocal point or the emerging

Chouteaus Landing neighborhood.

The MVVA TeAM 13


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BottomlandAvianSpecies

CanopyTrailCrossSection

50-Year Storm

5-YearStorm2-YearStormLow Water Level

AmericanCrow

AmericanGoldfnch

AmericanRobinBaldEagle

BarnSwallow

BarredOwl

Black-cappedChickadeeBlueJay

Brown-headedCowbird

CanadaGoose

ChippingSparrowCommonGrackle

CommonYellowth roat

Double-crestedCormorant

DownyWoodpeck erEasternWood-Pewee

EuropeanStarling

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LandmarkSightlines

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Silos Gateway

Geyser

Views to Gateway

Arch

Views to

Cahokia

Power Plant

Avian

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Wetland

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Trailhead

Access

Tower

Overlook

Tower

NorthernMockingbird

Red-belliedWoodpecker

Red-wingedBlackbirdSongSparrow

TutedTitmouse

WarblingVireo

WoodDuck


JNEM EAST WETLAND RESERVE

Onthis formerly industrial land, asystemof treetop walkwaysallowsvisitorsto observereconstructed wetlandecologies, capitalizingonthe siteslocationalong theMississippiFlyway, andcreatingnew viewsof theboundlesshorizon of theAmerican Midwest.Our proposal useswater drawnfromEastSt. Louis stormwaterinfrastructuretomanufacture new urbanhabitatfor adiversity of birdspecies, supportedby new National Park Serviceornithological andhydrological researchcenters.

JNeM eAST WeTLAND ReSeRVe

On this ormerly industrial land, a system o treetop

walkways allows visitors to observe reconstructed

wetland ecologies, capitalizing on the s ites location along

the Mississippi Flyway and creating new views o the

boundless horizon o the American Midwest. Our proposal

uses water drawn rom the East St. Louis stormwater

inrastructure to manuacture new urban habitat or a

diversity o bird species, supported by new National Park

Service ornithological and hydrological research centers .

MVVA TeAM14


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Mississippi

River

Forest

Park

East St.Louis

St.Louis

Horseshoe

Lake

Cahokia

Mounds

Lewis & Clark

Confuence

Existing& ProposedRegional Bikeway

Network

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River

Floating Pavilion Temporary Seasonal Zero-Carbon Energy Concept Beyond2015 Strengthening ConnectionsAcrosstheRiver

1.PhotovoltaicCellsCon vertSunEnergy toElectricalPower

2.HeatExchangera ndHeatPump/ChillerProvidesHeating/Cooling

3.RiverCoils

4.WaterTurbinesConvert RiverCurrenttoElectricalPower

TemporaryFloatingPoolPrecedent

RiverGauges

1. EadsBridgeBicycleLanes

2. ImprovedPedestrianAccesstoMetrolink

Station

3. MemorialDriveModifcation

4. FutureGreenway

Connection

5. FloatingPavilions

6. SouthOverlookPavilion7. MississippiRiverConnector

8. FutureRoute3

9. JNEMEastCanopyTrails

10.ProposedStreetConnections

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HistoricLevee


HISTORIC WATERFRONT

Our proposal removestheexisting waterrontstreetscapeinorder to reinstatethe ull ormo thecobblestone levee.Sculptural river gaugesmirror the monumentality o Saarinensriver wallsandrametheuseo theleveesuraceinrelationtothefuctuating river edge. Thesingle central stageisreplacedby agentle swell inthe cobblesurace thatcanaccommodateabroader spectrumo markets, concerts, andseasonal attractions.

hISTORIC WATeRFRONT

Our proposal removes the existing waterront streetscape

in order to reinstate the ull orm o the cobblestone levee.

Sculptural river gauges mirror the monumentality o

Saarinens river walls and rame th e use o the levee surace

in relation to the fuctuating river edge. The single central

stage is replaced by a gentle swell in the cobble surace

that can accommodate a broader spectrum o markets,

concerts, and seasonal attractions.

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2. New Frontiers


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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 Kileys submission proposed

making the Memorial the site of a branch of the

edgling 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. Louiss 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 s ingle 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

kindsa place where the democratic spirit of Thomas

Jeerson is lived, not just remembered.

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 systems 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 dening for itself a 21st-

century urban presence.

This competition is, in essence, a local

manifestation of a larger conuence 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 uency 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

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.

H LVNG MMAL

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 EielTower, the Washington Monument, and Barcelonas 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 Howes program for the rst stage of the

1947 competition to design the new Jeerson NationalExpansion Memorial called in part for a living

memorial to Thomas Jeerson, an active function for

the park that would celebrate, in Howes 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

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THE BRANDENBURG GATEBerlin, Germany

JEFFERSON NATIONAL EXPANSION MEMORIAL

St. Louis, Missouri

THE EIFFEL TOWERParis, France

THE WASHINGTON MONUMENTWashington, D.C.

LA SAGRADA FAMILIABarcelona, Spain


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The story of westward expansion is the story of our

relationship to our landour 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 ows undammed from St. Louis allthe 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 inwhich these dierent 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

possible nor desirable in city centers. The inevitable

articiality of the man-made should instead provide

epigrammatic suggestions of the natural world while

functioning as society has all too recently learned it

shouldin 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 importantwe

are only beginning to dene and navigate a new

sustainable relationship with the land we inhabit. T he

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. Louisansand

all Americanslive 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.

PPD UANABLY NAV

1. Fully organic soil restoration and maintenanceregime eliminates chemical pesticides, herbicides,and fertilizers.

2. Rot-resistant benches made of American blacklocust, unlike common alternatives like Ip, do notcontribute to rainforest destruction.

3. Energy is conserved or innovatively generated bya variety of means, including geothermal (in theMuseum of Westward Expansion), river turbines

(in the oating pavilions), photovoltaic cells (onthe river gauges), and green roofs (on the GatewayUrban Ecology Center).

4. New accessible pathways, pedestrian connectionsto the downtown, a new bicycle loop, and streetnarrowing measures incentivize walking and cyclingnot only within the Memorial site but throughoutSt. Louis.

5. Most importantly, all these measures will be openlylegible and communicated to visitors, either througha new pedagogical program of signage or throughthe Urban Ecology Center, which will focus in parton teaching sustainable technologies and practicesto students from St. Louis and East St. Louis.

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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 dening elements of the National

Historic Landmark

4. Weave connections and transitions from the City to theArch 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

WestGateway

(Chapter6)

NorthGateway

(Chapter7)

SouthGateway

(Chapter8)

HistoricLandscape&

Waterfront

(Chapter4)

MuseumExpansion

(Chapter5)

JNEMEast

WetlandReserve

(Chapter9)

MNG PJC GAL

Beyond2015

(Chapter10)


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A typical visit to the Jeerson 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, emergingonly 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

Archs north leg. From an urban planning perspective,

the parking garage is one of the most potent elements

of the Memorial site.

Maximum eciency 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 thisproblem. 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 ve 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 undergroundfacilities 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

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 andpublic 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 obstaclesand reasons to want to. Our parking strateg ywhich

includes physical parking structures and pedestrian

connections combined with vibrant new attractions

and destinations at the Memorials edgeis what

allows our proposal to provide both. A reimagined

and invigorated Memorial edge is just the rst step in

the process of weaving St. Louiss waterfront districts

back into the citys more active urban core. But it is a

crucial rst step. Once that connection is made, the

three gateway districtsLacledes Landing, Chouteaus

Landing, and the Gateway Mallwill becomethresholds 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. Louiss

status as a preeminent American city.

MVVA AM3

EXISTING PROPOSED (2015)

CHGAPHNG H APPACH


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5. MAXIMIZE USE OF EXISTINGPARKING SUPPLY

6. IMPLEMENT REMOTE TICKETING 7. CREATE A NETWORK OF DESTINATIONSAND CONNECTIONS

8. ANCHOR NEW DEVELOPMENT ANDINVESTMENT

1. EXISTING CONDITIONS 2. IDENTIFY GATEWAY DISTRICTS 3. REESTABLISH CONNECTIVITYBETWEEN GATEWAY DISTRICTS,THE MEMORIAL, AND THE RIVER

4. REDISTRIBUTE DEDICATED PARKING


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Our proposal removes the Memorial garage and the

overow levee parking, replacing them with three

smaller facilities evenly distributed around the edges

of the site. In conjunction, strategic trac engineering

and waynding measures will distribute some Arch-

bound and through trac into the downtown grid,

encouraging use of the abundant supply of public

parking downtown.

EXISTING PROPOSED (2015)

MVVA AM34

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Minute Walk

Minute Walk

ExistingMuseumEntry

ProposedMuseumEntry

, Spaces Within a Minute Walk ( Mile)

, Spaces Within a Minute Walk ( Mile)

Minute Walk

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PAKNG AGY

Existing Dedicated Garage to be Removed

Existing Overflow Levee Parking

Proposed Dedicated Garages

Downtown Parking Minute Walk

Downtown Parking Minute Walk


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January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

eptember

October

November

December

Capacity - Proposed

Existing Revenue Projected Revenue IncreaseProjected Revenue Increase

Projected Revenue Reduction

Projected Overflow To Downtown

Existing Overflow To Levee

Capacity - Existing

Peak Demand - Existing

Peak Demand - Projected

By maximizing the year-round use of the dedicated

Memorial parking facilities, the National Park Service

can reduce the overall capacity of its garages while

retaining or even increasing its parking-generated

revenue. In peak seasons, visitors will park in the

existing city garages, giving downtown St. Louis new

pedestrian activityand the shopping and dining that

come with it.

PLANNNG FAMK 37

XPANDD PAKNG VNU

AYFNDNG


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These new parking facilities anchor three new

gathering spacesthe North, South, and West

Gatewaysthat 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 waynding program, which

will direct visitors arriving by car or by foot towardone 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 inux of civic and economic

activity to Lacledes Landing, Chouteaus Landing, and

the downtown core.

Gateway Travel PathDecision Point

MVVA AM38

EXISTING

AYFNDNG


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Lacledes

Landing

ChouteausLanding

Downtown

AYFNDNG

PPD APPACH

Gateway Travel PathDecision Point

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PROPOSED (2015)

H CMNAL APPACH


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The new waynding strategy will also reduce trac inthe three-block stretch between Walnut Street and Pine

Street. This corridor, along the iconic Saarinen vista,

will be an unocial pedestrian zone, with narrower

streets and a greener streetscape.

MVVA AM40

H CMNAL APPACH

Interstate

Access

Kiener

Bosque

Walnut street

S.Broadway

S.4thStreet

Market Street

Chestnut Street

Pine Street

NarrowRightsofW

ay

andPedestrianPrio

rity

IncentivizePublicUseof

ParkingGarages

IncentivizePublicUs

eof

ParkingGarages

Luther Ely

Smith Square

M CKNG


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XNG AVAL QUNC

Arrive - Security - Ticketing - Hour Wait - Arch

Remote ticketing facilities will be installed in eachgateway 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).

PLANNNG FAMK 41

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PPD AVAL QUNC

Arrive - Ticketing -Free Time - Security- Arch


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MVVataM48

The various iterations of Eero Saarinen and Dan KileysMemorial 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 NationalPark Service over almost twenty years, the landscape,

because of budget limitations, became increasingly

monofocal, and the complexity of what Kiley called the

forest cathedrala soaring landscape dened by the

interplay between the formal and the naturalwas lost.

As it stands today, the Memorial reects Saarinen

and Kileys ideas with varying degrees of success. The

bald cypress circles and the monoculture alles 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 forKileys 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 signicantly exaggerated

in order to buer noise coming from Interstate 70,

the sites basic topographical form is sound. But the

Memorials omnipresent lawn is sterile, demands a

high-maintenance regime of chemical fertilizers and

pesticides, and has led to erosion and widespreadalgal bloom in the reecting ponds. And the lack of

secondary walkways and paths makes the majority

of the landscape highly inaccessible and generally

unwelcomingas 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 reecting ponds: subtle adjustments to thesites topography slow down runo from t he 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

reecting ponds.

The more diverse planting system will prevent

erosion, create a new dimension of volumetric intereston the site, and realize Kileys original desire to

recreate in microcosm the archetypal landscapes of

the American West. The plan also has the ability to

exibly evolve in response to changing circumstances

and climateif 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.

Additional trees further enclose the quiet, grassylandscape rooms created by Kileys 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 ne-grained interventions all have the

same underlying goalto transform the Archs static

frame into a living, functioning system that serves an

interpretive purpose and enriches the experience ofthe 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

Memorials new expanded focus on sustainability

and constructed urban ecologyused 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 frameagainst which the Archboth as a feat of engineering

and as a symbolis best appreciated.

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MuseumEntrance

Old Courthouse

Market Street

Chestnut Street

Kiener Bosque

CobblestoneLevee

PavedPath

MownPath

GrandStaircase

N.MemorialDrive

S.MemorialDrive

S.4thStreet

N.4thStreet

S.Broadway

N.Broadway

N.6thStreet

N.7thStreet

S.7thStreet

Museum Exit

Museum Exit

Poplar Street Bridge

South Pond

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Bald CypressCircleVehicle Parking

LEGEND

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TULIP POPLAR ALLE RENDERING(OFFICE OF DAN KILEY, 196)

This concept drawing by Dan Kiley shows how histriple alles of tulip poplars were intended to echothe verticality of the Arch along the north-south axis,framing the monument without obscuring it.

EXISTING WHITE ASH ALLE, (1)This site photo shows the existing alle of rosehillashes, which dene the volume of the space in a verydierent way. The trees small size and l ow canopyalso indicate the extent to which poor soil conditionshave stunted their growth.


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PROPOSED TULIP POPLAR ALLE (1)

Our proposed alle preserves the monoculture while restoringKileys original choice of speciesand thus the relationshipbetween alle and Arch that he intended. If planted in large deepbeds with carefully calibrated structural soil, tulip poplars couldthrive on the Memorial grounds, especially given the inevitablearrival of the emerald ash borer.

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Islet enhances convoluted pond edge

MVVataM52

Dense, multi-layer alle boundsopen eld trees

Alles converge and diuse intoan informal grove

sitpLan,1964

The unique vertical growth habit of Tulip Poplars

aorded Kiley the opportunity to vary subtly planting

density so as to frame informal spaces, devolve the

formal into informal, and diuse vegetation across

ecotones.


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LAWN AND POND LANDSCAPE, EXISTING

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The lawn monoculture and lack of visitor trac in

areas surrounding the reecting ponds have blurred

the line between formal and informal landscapes on

the site. By softening and diversifying these areas, and

by replanting the monoculture alles, our proposal

gathers the edges of the Arch grounds into a s eries of

active, informal spaces that, as Kiley intended, create a

coherent frame around the axial gestures of the formal

alles.


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WET MEADOW

Stormwater cleaning,storage, inltration

TULIP POPLAR ALLERestored formal element ofKiley/Saarinen plan

SHORT GRASS MEADOW

Stormwater inltration,reference to midwestern ecologiesLAWN

Pockets of occupiable open space

TRAIL NETWORK

Accessible paths activatethe memorial grounds

INTERPRETIVE SIGNAGE

Landscape extension ofeducational program

RESTORED POND

Pond water circulated,free of erosion-fed algae

incrasinGaccssiBiLitY


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Because of its exaggerated topography of bowls andbermsand because the original landscape has not

been renovated since the passage of the Americans with

Disabilities Act in 1990the 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 overlookthat 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, 198

Connective paths interweave with the pond network under adense canopy of informally planted trees. The formal alles arenarrower than those eventually constructed, and water featuresterminate the high point alle junctions.


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ADA-CompliantAccessible Walkways

Inaccessible Walkways

200 205


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CYPRESS CIRCLE

Existing remnant of Kileys originallandscape plan

LAWN ROOMSmall scale gathering spaces

ECOLOGICAL FRAME

Midwestern biodiversity

HarVstinGWatr


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1

Lacledes Landing Storm Runoff

Gateway Mall Storm Runoff

Onsite Storm Runoff

Spring Water from Basement Sumps

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4

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Stormwater on the Arch grounds currently does moreharm than goodan inadequate drainage system

leaves standing water on footpaths and causes erosion

as water runs down the grassy hillsides to the reecting

ponds. In addition, the Memorials proximity to the

river and St. Louiss position over a system of natural

springs have created ooding problems in the subgrade

garage and museum. Our proposal turns this water

from a liability to an asset, collecting it for use as

irrigation and also feeding it into the reecting ponds,

where increased circulation will help prevent algal

bloom.


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Wef


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Wef


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transorMinGtHLV


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The cobblestones that make up the levee are someof the oldest artifacts in St. Louis and one of the last

vestiges of the citys 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 Memorials ood walls.

Instead of tailoring the design to the waterfronts

intermittent automobile trac, 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 ea

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 alles 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

to accommodate the Celebrate St. Louis SummerConcert 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,

oodlights embedded in the cobblestone surface will

illuminate the monolithic Memorial ood wall and

turn it into a canvas animated by the shadows of trees

and passersby. This form will be reected in the river,where a series of six sixty-foot River Gauges will mirror

the imposing silhouettes of the ood walls, creating a

sense of enclosure and redening the boundary of the

waterfront to include the uctuating 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 ow of the

river into a new experiential medium.


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tHriVrsdG


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Replace Temporary

Planters with BollardsGrand Staircase

Rail Berm

Proposed Road, River Wall, and Stage RemovalCobblestone Levee Construction

Proposed Road and Streetscape RemovalCobblestone Levee Construction

Fluctuating River Levels

Fluctuating River Levels

Replace Temporary Planterswith Crash Barrier Seat Wall

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ELEVATION: 1

Top of new levee, 11 daysof ood per year

ELEVATION: 1

1-Year storm, 22 daysof ood per year

ELEVATION: 8

Typical water level

inspirationoraroBUstnWWatrront


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LEVEE, 197

RIVERWALL, 1

KING POST TRUSS WATER HEIGHT RULER

COBBLESTONE

CLOTHESPIN STRUCTURE

MOORING STRUCTURE

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riVrGaUGMatriaL


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REFLECTIONS OF WATER SURFACE

PRECAST CONCRETE REFLECTING SUNLIGHT


riVrGaUGsrnWaBLnrGY


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PV panels gather and store energyduring the day

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The eddies created by the feet of thelight masts will create a complex surfacepattern ideal for illumination.

As the water level rises, the light hitting thewater will increase in intensity.


- Base of Light Mast

- -Year Storm Event

- -Year Storm Event(Great Flood of )

- Top of River Wall

- Normal Flow

riVrGaUGsMarKinGLoodLVLs


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The river gauges will mark the oodingMississippi in two wayshorizontally, by servingas a reference point against which to measure theadvancing waters, and vertically, by marking theheight of the water along their legs.

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- Base of Light Mast

- -Year Storm Event

- -Year Storm Event(Great Flood of )

- Top of River Wall

- Normal Flow

Flooded All YearFlooded . Months a YearFlooded Weeks a YearProposed Adjustmentto Levee Height

Active Transition ZoneA Measure of Fluctuating River Levels

riVrGaUGssKYLinViW


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H L & W:


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Historic Landscape & Waterfront: tecHnicaL notes 75

H L & W:

thl n

desiGn and preserVation approacH (nepa 106)


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Elizabeth K. Meyer, Historical Landscape Architecture consultant August 2010 Page 1

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (JNEM)

Gateway Arch Competition 2010Arch+Grounds+City+River

Design + Preservation Approach

How can one imagine a future Arch+City+River without revitalizing the Grounds that connect thesethree 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 morecomplex lens that is based on the landscape medium and landscape spatiality, one that was anticipatedby 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 isdifferent from preserving buildings. The historic preservation field, evolving over the

years out of a concern for preserving architecture and artifacts, has developed a biastowards 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 thematerials 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 visionthat transcends individual details and materials by strength of its underlying spatial andsymbolic 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 ofchange and connection to surrounding natural systems. Landscapes, after all, are often

experienced more as ground (no pun intended) than as figure; spatial characteristicsproportion, scale, visual relationshipsare 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. Asthe daring design of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial broke conventions in

the fields of architecture, engineering and landscape architecture, so too will itspreservation serve as an innovative modes for the emerging field of historic landscape

preservation. (Hughes. Dan Kileys Site Design for the Gateway Arch in CharlesBirnbaum, Preserving Modern Landscape Architecture. Papers from the Wave Hill-National

Park Service Conference (1999), p32)

Given what we know about Kileys involvement and the key role of plants in his design vocabulary andspatial 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

Kileys concept and intentions for the Grounds. This will require translating those intentions into amanagement 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 teamhas developed an approach that seeks to work within the Secretary of Interiors Standards and NPS


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, urbanlandscape 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 thisto occur, the disciplinary boundaries that exist between natural and cultural resource protection needto 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 soiland 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 inthe ponds are not seen through a double lens, of the cultural or the ecological. While sustainabilitybest practices should be considered, they cannot trump cultural landscape character, as if our

generation knows best. But neither can a concern for cultural landscape p reservation be accepted asan excuse for maintaining acres of suburban lawn when a Kileys conception of a meadow might

allow for a mix of grasses and forbs, nor a concern for material conservation result in preserving amonoculture of trees that are thr eatened 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 landscapesthat 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 ParkService 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 Cooks Is Landscape Preservationan Oxymoron? written for the 1996 conference proceedings, Balancing Natural and Cultural Issues inthe Preservation of Historic Landscapes, urged landscape architects to be clear about the values that

undergird ones approach to landscape change, and to recognize that all preservation is an act ofinterpretation. 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 Kileysintentions with more sustainable water systems or mowing practices.

This will require a team with deep knowledge of the landscape mediumsoils, water, plants and theirecological interactions, of Kileys modernist spatial principles and experiments with planted form, and

contemporary design+preservation debates. We are that team. The lessons learned from this approachto the Gateway Arch Grounds will have application to many other sites and projectsfrom 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 UnitedStates. 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 GatewayArch Grounds.

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Significance of this Cultural Landscape

Daniel Kileys 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 asthe 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 inthe 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 hisgeneration, including SOM, Noyes, Pei, Harrison and Abramowitz, Breuer, Giurgola, Weiss, Barnes,

Robertson, Rogers, and Pelli. During the time Kileys 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 architecturecollaborator in late 20 th century America.

During this period from the late 1940s through the mid 1960s when Kiley worked on the Gateway

Arch Grounds, Kileys 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 hewas such a respected collaborator with his generation of architectsthey 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 threedimensional 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 oflandscape 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 movementdynamic movement that never ends,but extends into infinity. Movement that is ever-continuous and elusivelike amaze.

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 artof parallaxwalking amidst a planted peristyle hall of regularly spaced trees. Kileys spatial focusresonated with the theories and practices of mid-20 th 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 ingroupings.

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 ofregularly spaced trees. They imagined this landscape matrix first as a forest, and then as a forest and

meadow. The urban forest resonated with Saarinens Scandanavian heritage, as well as Kileys 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 Americas westward expansion.


The final scheme they developed together was the most integrated. Saarinen described his pleasurewith 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 its 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, thespecific 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 theapproaches. Collectively, plan arrangement, sectional changes, form and materials defined the character

of this designed landscape, as with others.

Current conditions and management approachDespite the best efforts of many NPS site managers and professional staff, the Gateway Arch

Groundsthe essential matrix (or fabric or mooring, other terms used in the CLRs) for theSaarinen Arch--are suffering from a management approach that has not protected the landscapes

primary character-defining aspect, the spatial experience of a five minute memorial promenade througha 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 CulturalLandscapes, confuses the means and the ends. This process of analyzing a cultural landscape as a seriesof 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 ceremonialapproaches 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 towardsthe memorial, opening up towards the scale of the Arch. Kiley described this tree that can grow up to100 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 theessence of Kileys contribution to this project. Individual aspects of his projectits plan, its circulation,

its topographic manipulationwere tools for the construction of experience.

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MVVA Team Arch Proposal - Full Narrative

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