Museum Modernization as an Urban Development Project
Museum at the Gateway Arch was opened after reconstruction and expansion in St. Louis, Missouri, in July 2018. Supported by the Gateway Arch Park Foundation and National Park Service, Cooper Robertson and James Carpenter Design Associates with Trivers Associates are seeing the completion of their design of the Museum at the Gateway Arch. Underneath the Arch, created by architect Eero Saarinen, formerly known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, is a visitor center, entered from a circular entryway facing the Old Courthouse. Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the United States, opened the way to the West for American immigrants, giving consent to the acquisition of Louisiana in 1803 – French possessions in North America, as a result of which the Western border of the United States moved to the Rocky mountains, and the territory has more than doubled.
James Carpenter Design Associates is part of the Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) team that won the 2010 City+Arch+River international design competition. The Museum developments are one part of MVVA’s comprehensive renewal of the National Park’s Dan Kiley-designed 91-acre landscape with dramatically improved connections to downtown St. Louis.
Within this comprehensive project, the work of James Carpenter Design Associates (JCDA) has focused on leading the planning and design of the Museum’s new West Entry and public spaces. JCDA has applied its design approach to the entry sequence and the new main public spaces of the Museum Arrivals Hall, which lead down to and connect with renewed exhibitions and the renovated Saarinen museum below the Arch. The new museum features exhibits on a variety of topics including westward expansion and the construction of the arch, all told through a St. Louis lens.
Materials provided by James Carpenter Design Associates
Photos: ©Nic Lehoux
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