WEISS/MANFREDI PROPOSAL

This team talks in circles — as in making lots of them to get people moving in and around more activities on both banks of the river.

The central element of its plan, called "Full Circle," is a pedestrian/bikeway that would use half the Eads Bridge street deck (cutting traffic to one lane each way) and a new pathway bolted to the north side of the Poplar Street Bridge. More trails on the Gateway Arch grounds and new ones on the Illinois side would complete the circle.

The full network of trails, said principal Michael Manfredi, would create circular paths of two to five miles around. The team also would connect the east and west banks with a small river ferry.

On the Arch grounds, the team would test the National Park Service's admonition against tampering with the great, grassy lawn by digging a new west entry to the underground museum.

The glass-filled entrance would curve to mimic the Arch shadow, and visitors walking from the Old Courthouse across a grass lid over the Interstate 70 depressed lanes would either descend to the west entrance or walk around to the Arch.

One juror asked whether that idea wouldn't "upstage the Arch" by making it the main thing visitors first see. Principal Marion Weiss responded that the plan would remove the existing rise of ground just east of Memorial Drive that already obscures the view, and give visitors equally easy paths down to the museum or above ground to the Arch.

The team also wants to remake Kiener Plaza by replacing the amphitheater and waterfall with green space.

It would build an underground garage beneath Luther Ely Smith Park, just east of the Old Courthouse, and use the top deck of the existing Arch north garage for a beer garden, ice-skating rink, farmers market and other activities, all protected by glass canopies. Parking would still be available on lower floors, but part of the garage would be removed for a staircase from Washington Avenue onto the Arch grounds.

Another key feature: building two sets of concrete-and-grass terraces atop stretches of the sidewalk and upper reaches of the cobblestone levee. They would be connected to the main Arch grounds with footbridges across Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard.

Jurors asked about the practicality of that idea, given flooding and barge traffic. Weiss said the terraces would let people reach the river even in high water, drawing them closer to what Manfredi called the river's "robustness."

On the Illinois side, the team proposes moving almost 1 million cubic yards of dirt for a narrow, meandering lake to mimic the river's own oxbow lakes. It proposes to draw water from deep wells that the Army Corps of Engineers would build to protect the weakening floodwall.

Juror Gerald Early, a Washington University professor, asked how the team would present the Arch museum's central theme — westward expansion — in a bigger, renovated facility.

Manfredi said, "The story begins with Cahokia and the Mississippians (mound builders). We will challenge the belief that it began with Lewis and Clark."

 

SOM, HARGREAVES, BIG PROPOSAL

When presenting his team's plan, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill partner Phil Enquist noted that the architects and workers who designed and built the St. Louis World's Fair did so in less than four years.

"We were so inspired by what happened with the World's Fair," he said. "The idea that nothing is impossible is inspirational."

Enquist and his design teammates then laid out a 17-point plan — "Relaunch: St. Louis Can Soar" — that gives equal weight to artistry and development.

On the artistry side, their plan calls for public art throughout the Arch grounds, and for Spanish contemporary artist Jaume Plensa to create a series of sculptures, called "Whispering Leaves," for Kiener Plaza.

"In the heart of downtown, I want to introduce nature," said Plensa, who was at the presentation.

There is also an artistic element in what the SOM team describes as the "Magic Carpet," its version of a lid over I-70. It would curve up at each end (hence, looking like a flying magic carpet), creating a sloping overhang under which cafes and kiosks could open.

In terms of new development, the proposal calls for a pavilion at the north end of the Arch grounds that would include a visitor center, bike-rental kiosk, parking and space for a cafe. A learning center would go up at the south end, along with basketball courts and more activity space under the Poplar Street Bridge.

Preservation is a keystone of the group's plan for landscaping around the Arch grounds, Hargreaves Associates president Mary Margaret Jones said.

She discussed adding more trees and more paths and reshaping the river's west bank along Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard into a terraced, tree-lined promenade. The promenade would be several feet higher than it is now, reducing the risk of flooding, Jones said.

Other components include an 11,000-seat performance venue on the river's east bank, a ferry system to shuttle people across the river, and a floating swimming barge filled with filtered river water.

"It will allow people access to a sundeck, to filtered water so people can bathe," Bjarke Ingels of Copenhagen-based Bjarke Ingels Group said of the barge, calling it, "an island of new urban life."

Juror Laurie Olin, a Philadelphia landscape architect, praised the floating-pool idea and asked if it could be made bigger. "I love it," Olin said.

Other jurors asked whether completing all 17 tasks by the 2015 deadline was feasible.

"This is an ambitious list," said juror David Leland, managing partner of Leland Consulting Group in Portland, Ore. "Which are the highest priorities?"

Enquist recited the World's Fair motto: Nothing impossible. He also said the group got the ideas for its proposal based on feedback from St. Louisans.

 

PWP PROPOSAL

The team's presentation on Thursday went pretty much as planned, with one surprise.

Its plan for the Illinois side includes taking down the Mississippi River Overlook, a $5 million observation deck that opened just last year.

Peter Walker, a PWP partner, said a vision for extending the Arch grounds east into Illinois must include losing the overlook because it does little to attract visitors.

"It's one of the things that has to go to make it work," Walker said.

PWP proposes replacing it with a 65-foot-tall earthen mound as part of an agriculturally themed addition.

The outlook sits in Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park, 34 acres that includes the Gateway Geyser, a feature PWP has proposed keeping.

The land is owned by the Metro East Park and Recreation District. Its executive director, Mike Buehlhorn, said until the jurors select a winner, he is not going to be critical of any plan.

The PWP team did not mention the overlook in its presentation. It came to light when a juror asked about it.

PWP instead focused on the "terrible conditions" that the Arch grounds are in now. The design team said that almost a third of the budget for the project — $60 million to $90 million — would be used on repairing drainage, irrigation and erosion problems.

They want to provide more paths through the grounds — some paved, some grassy — and provide better access to the ponds, including small bridges. PWP also suggests replacing many of the trees in the park that now line paths to create more formal entrances to the grounds.

And like all other design groups, PWP is proposing a lid over I-70 to better connect downtown to the Arch grounds. They also propose reconfiguring several streets and narrowing Memorial Drive to better connect the Arch to downtown.

PWP wants to build parking garages under Kiener Plaza and Luther Ely Smith Park, with up to 1,100 spaces. The existing garage north of the Arch would be replaced with a cultural center. A similar center is proposed for the south side of the Arch as well, although the PWP plan provides no details for either location.

PWP also would rebuild the Arch staircase to double as an amphitheater and increase the park's lawn by building a grassy bluff over the railroad that runs between the Arch and the river.

The museum under the Arch would be expanded and skylights added with a new western entrance facing downtown.

The earthen mound on the Illinois side would serve as the centerpiece for a new agriculture center, including crop fields and greenhouses, harvest festivals and a farmers market. Water taxis would shuttle passengers across the river.

One of the team members, Mark Johnson, said the plan would create a vibrant neighborhood.

"We believe this can become a district," he said. "This plan is about the future."

 

MVVA PROPOSAL

This team's members, like those on other teams, expressed great appreciation of the Arch and its designer, Eero Saarinen. And they were careful not to be critical of the national monument and the 91 acres on which it sits.

But at the same time, the team pointed out the potential to take something respected by designers and beloved by the public and make it even greater.

"There is much more to be admired and revered," said Michael Van Valkenburgh, the head of the design team.

The best way to improve is to better link the Arch grounds to downtown, Laclede's Landing to the north, and an emerging Chouteau's Landing neighborhood to the south, he said.

The design team proposes removing the parking garage north of the Arch, as well as a small stretch of Washington Avenue, to create an earthen amphitheater, a large playground, ball fields, an ecology center and a new entrance to Laclede's Landing.

A new garage would be built to the south, with the roof used for year-round activities. An underpass park below the Poplar Street Bridge ramps would create a formal south entrance to the park on land that is now "throwaway space," Van Valkenburgh said. The new entrance, he said, "would build excitement as you approach the grounds."

MVVA's lid over I-70 would lead to a new western entrance and into an expanded museum below the Arch. The team also proposes a banquet facility and bus drop-off area next to the Old Cathedral, including an area to purchase food and Arch tickets.

The "most exciting part of the proposal," Van Valkenburgh said, is the idea to create elevated walkways on the Illinois side of the river, reaching 35 feet as they wind through a bird sanctuary. The walkways would tie into the existing Mississippi River Overlook and allow visitors to observe reconstructed wetlands and, according to the proposal, create "new views of the boundless horizon of the American Midwest."

The proposal suggests capturing East St. Louis stormwater to create an urban habitat for a diversity of birds.

But the excitement Van Valkenburgh expressed did not transfer to juror Carol Ross Barney, a Chicago architect. She called the overall design plan "honorable" but said she was not sure it was striking or developed enough on the Illinois side.

Van Valkenburgh said reaching to East St. Louis provides one of the biggest challenges. Land conditions are very different on the Illinois side, MVVA's designers said. There are several landowners, many of the properties are old industrial sites and remediation would be expensive.

 

BEHNISCH PROPOSAL

Behnisch Architekten principal Stefan Behnisch wasted no time addressing the most eyebrow-raising element of his group's proposal.

"There has been a lot of discussion in your newspapers and blogs about the gondola," Behnisch said with a smile to jurors and audience members at Thursday's presentation. "The fact is, it is less expensive than building a bridge. And it's a moving element — it's life."

He was referring to the idea of elevated glass gondolas that would glide on cables to get people across the river. But jurors seemed less concerned with any single element of Behnisch's plan — called "River Circle" — than with the sum of its parts.

Would building a gondola system, a music museum, a sports park and an amphitheater take away from the main attraction: the Arch?

"I don't perceive it to be competing," Behnisch said. "Our goal is to create a destination that makes people want to stay here."

Behnisch, who noted that his company is headquartered in St. Louis sister city Stuttgart, Germany, and team partner Oliver Schulze, of Gehl Architects in Copenhagen, passionately talked about "activating" the link between the city and the Arch.

Their plan for doing so includes putting a lid over I-70 and adding new entry points at the north, south, east and west ends.

"We want to bring out the life of the city and make it visible," Schulze said.

When questioned by jurors, Behnisch acknowledged that items in the proposal were open for debate. The music museum planned for the north entrance at Washington Avenue, for example, would only be built if that's what residents want.

"Right now we have a shopping cart from which we can pick and choose what we want to include," Behnisch said.

An abundance of activities, team members noted, would help ensure the Arch grounds remain a "drive-to destination," not a "drive-through stop."

The Behnisch team also proposes building an amphitheater, featuring a floating state, on the Illinois side of the river. A replanting of native vegetation and a nature resource center on the east side are also included in the plan.

Turning the Illinois side into an "urban national park" with a performance stage would give visitors a reason to spend time there, Behnisch said.

A new design for the existing museum beneath the Arch would create an open space that the architects said would be more appealing to children because of its renovated displays. Skylights would let visitors look up directly at the Arch.

Schulze emphasized that even though the deadline to complete the work is in 2015, his team is ready to make immediate changes to the infrastructure and landscaping at the Arch grounds.

"We want to start right away," he said.