Framing a Modern Masterpiece: The City + The Arch + The River – 2015

Result

The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (JNEM) is defined by the single grand design gesture at its center. The monumentality of the Gateway Arch makes it impossible to transform the Memorial and its grounds with one bold stroke. Instead, the MVVA team proposes a network of finer-grained interventions incorporating natural science, engineering, and design into a holistic philosophy of ecological urbanism. The city has an ecology. It is a complex ecosystem in which the divides between the built and the organic, between nature and culture, break down. Our philosophy seeks to underscore and celebrate the blurring of these lines through art, architecture, engineering, and public programming—with revolutionary landscape design at the center of it all.

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates is a leading practitioner of this new ecological-urban paradigm, and the MVVA team structure is based on our experience synthesizing the efforts of many disciplines to achieve positive reciprocity between the constructed and living environments. United by a commitment to sustainability in all its forms, the MVVA team is composed of interdisciplinary pairs, each crucial to addressing the dramatic range of interrelated issues—of urban renewal, preservation, commemoration, social connections, and ecological restoration—that are reflected in the competition’s scope and ambitions. Each member of the MVVA team has tackled a project of this complexity and scope before, making this team uniquely positioned to hit the ground running in a proven collaborative mode.

Responding to the Memorial’s monumental scale is the central challenge of this assignment. Given the site’s sheer immensity, sectional complexity, and competing scales—all in a parcel surrounded by a crushing maze of infrastructure—we believe that expanding the site’s scalar and experiential range is crucial to engaging the wide-ranging competition goals. The creation of a new range of more intimate experiences, based primarily in landscape, will be the main engine for the transformation of the Memorial and its relationship with both the city and the river. We imagine a powerfully connective landscape that operates simultaneously in several ways—a landscape that will not only draw visitors from around the world but also serve as a new locus of civic energy in the daily lives of the citizens of St. Louis. The redesigned Memorial will be a centerpiece of civic culture, an engine of regional economic growth, a showcase for sustainable ecological restoration, and a celebration of the national significance of this historic place.

Overview

On behalf of the National Park Service and the people of St. Louis, we invite you to participate in “Framing a Modern Masterpiece,” the international design competition for the Gateway Arch. Our goal is to integrate the park, the east and west sides of the Mississippi River, the surrounding attractions and the downtown into a single vibrant and dynamic destination. We would like St. Louisans and visitors to the region to make a connection with this historic district and the river that made the city great.

Category Project Competition / Competition Result
Type International, Project/RfQ, Open, Three-Stage, Onymous
Genre Architecture, Landscape, Urban
Country St. Louis, Illinois
RegDeadline 26 January 2010 GoogleCal iCal
28 January 2010 (Must be Received) GoogleCal
Eligibility All

Description
On behalf of the National Park Service and the people of St. Louis, we invite you to participate in “Framing a Modern Masterpiece,” the international design competition for the Gateway Arch.

The Arch is among the world’s greatest structures and most visible icons. Its design was chosen in an architectural competition in 1948. After reducing 172 competitors down to five finalists, a panel of seven judges unanimously chose a design submitted by Eero Saarinen—the Arch.

Sixty one years later, we are embarking on a second competition. Our goal is to integrate the park, the east and west sides of the Mississippi River, the surrounding attractions and the downtown into a single vibrant and dynamic destination. We would like St. Louisans and visitors to the region to make a connection with this historic district and the river that made the city great.

Improving on greatness is both a challenge and an incredible opportunity. As a result, we have created a competition program and assembled a jury worthy of its subject matter.
As happened decades ago, we intend to build the winning design.

We challenge the world’s great minds to share their vision and imagination with us.

Jury
The names of jury members – from design, architecture, landscape architecture and related fields – will be announced in early January, closer to the deadline for initial registration for the competition.

Prize
The Teams that are invited to participate in Stage III of this competition will receive an honorarium of $100,000

Entry Fee
None

Entries
For Stage I, submissions are required to identify a team of designers and lead designer, and submit a portfolio of recently completed work by each member of the design team. The required portfolio submission would include a brief description of the design team, a statement of design intent and philosophy by the lead designer, a profile of the design team and examples of their work.

Submission Address
CityArchRiver Competition 2015
c/o Bryan Cave LLP
One Metropolitan Square
211 North Broadway, Suite 3600
St. Louis, MO 63102-2750

Timetable
Announce results of Stage I: 02.10.2010
Announce results of Stage II: 04.07.2010
Announcement of Team selected: 09.24.2010

Organizer
CityArchRiver 2015 Foundation

Official Website
http://www.cityarchrivercompetition.org/