The Gateway Arch of St. Louis by Eero Saarinen is definitely one of the greatest examples of architectural infill in public urban spaces so far. In September 1947 Saarinen’s design won the competition of designing a memorial for Thomas Jefferson in the National Park of St. Louis on the Mississippi River bank framing downtown St. Louis on the West and Illinois on the East side of the river. The jury of that competition chose the 630 feet high stainless steel arch designed by the short-lived genius Eero Saarinen.Now for the first time in a half century the National Park Service calls a design competition to better “frame” this modern masterpiece. This competition aims to invite world’s best designers to weave it back into the fabric of the city and the region, rejuvenate the connection, welcome and draw people for repeated visits and re-energize the region for living, working and visiting with a target of finishing the construction of new design by October 28, 2015 on the 50th anniversary of the competition of the Arch.
It’s a three stage design competition.
Stage 1: Submission and selection of portfolios
Stage 2: Calling selected Designers/Design Teams to submit initial design, interviews, QA etc.
Stage 3: Design Reviews and stage III Q/As, finally selected design’s negotiation begins for the project contract
Registration Deadline: 26th January 2010
Pre-submittal meeting/ Site Visit: 13th January 2010
The deadline for registration is approaching. So interested designers, firms should register soon to participate in this competition which is obviously treated as one of the most important competitions of the decade.
Visit the competition website for details: cityarchrivercompetition.org
To know more about the Gateway Arch you may visit: Gateway Arch on Wikipedia
You may visit the site on Google Earth: Download Site Location KMZ.
Gateway Arch in the dask
Sattelite view of Gateway Arch overlooking downtown St. Louis
