Wallace Stegner, the late historian known as the dean of writers on the American West, once said that our national parks are “the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic. They reflect us at our best rather than…
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in front of Post-Dispatch Platform. Eddie Roth/Post-Dispatch
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was in town yesterday afternoon, ostensibly to talk about federal spending for job creation and economic recovery. But it turns out he had monumental plans,…
Laurie Skrivan/Post-Dispatch
St. Louis is on today’s itinerary for Ken Salazar, the former Democratic senator from Colorado whom President Barack Obama appointed as the nation’s 50th Secretary of the Interior.
It’s a stop in a series of low-key visits the secretary is…
Conceptual scheme for Jefferson National Expansion Memorial 1947 colored pencil on tracing paper. Eero Saarinen, Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Drawn by J. Henderson Barr.
Who wants to commune with legendary architect Eero Saarinen and design a coda to his transcendent masterwork, the…
We thought this letter in today’s edition of the Post-Dispatch was particularly important, so we are posting it here for your comments. Read former Sen. John Danforth’s letter and weigh in on the issue.
Dear Editor:
John Danforth
Regarding the editorial “‘Improbable dream,’…
1962 aerial photo of grounds where Gateway Arch would be constructed.
“Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future,” a major retrospective on the brilliant career of the Finnish-American architect, closed Monday after a lengthy run at Washington University’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.
The…
Conceptual scheme for Jefferson National Expansion Memorial 1947 colored pencil on tracing paper. Cranbrook Archives.
The finish line is within sight for a process the National Park Service began nearly a year ago. The public has until midnight Monday to weigh in…
Rendering of the east view of the Denver Art Museum's Frederic C. Hamilton Building, designed by Daniel Libeskind. Image by Miller Hare.
Sen. John C. Danforth’s vision of developing a brilliant cultural institution housed in a world class piece of…
Architect Eero Saarinen
Earlier this year, former U.S. Sen. John Danforth unveiled an ambitious vision for a revitalized St. Louis riverfront and Arch grounds.
He said he was prepared to commit $50 million of his family foundation’s assets toward the cost of connecting…
Huy R. Mach | Post-Dispatch
Michael Allen’s terrific blog Ecology of Absence reported that “Late last week, John Danforth sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne stating that the Danforth Foundation no longer intends to build a museum on the…
Former U.S. Sen. John Danforth has exhorted the St. Louis region to “think big” about the future of two of its transcendent assets — the Gateway Arch and the Mississippi riverfront.
He sees both as moribund, for…
J.B. Forbes | Post-Dispatch
The National Park Service has released its proposed “preferred alternative” for a new management plan for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
The document’s purpose is to set out the operating principles and objectives for the Gateway Arch, Arch grounds, Old…
Let me repeat my prejudices:
I think Sen. John Danforth’s and the Danforth Foundation’s big idea of developing a brilliant cultural institution as a companion to the Gateway Arch — housed in a structure and situated at a place on the Arch grounds…
We’re susceptible here in St. Louis to what might be called “fix-a-phobia” — a nervous condition caused by deep and sometimes justified concern that civic decisions are preordained by the community’s power elite.
The ongoing effort to rethink public access between downtown…
It will be recalled that what became the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and Gateway Arch began in late 1933 when Luther Ely Smith, a prominent Republican lawyer and civic activist, peered out of a train window at the shabby St. Louis…
The National Park Service (NPS) today announced the initiation of a General Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement (GMP/EIS) process for Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (commonly referred to as the Gateway Arch).
In the dry prose of a press release issued Friday comes a…
