Envy and pity the eight jurors who have been asked to judge the entries in The City + The Arch + The River 2015 International Design Competition.

Multi-disciplinary teams of top design professionals from around the world have labored for months on design concepts that “create an iconic place for (an) international icon, the Gateway Arch.”  The curtain rises this morning on the proposals of the five finalists.

Beginning at 9:15 a.m. — and for the next five weeks — the drawings and models that reflect their visions will be on display in the lobby of the Gateway Arch. A traveling exhibit will make nine stops in Missouri and Illinois.

The concepts are intricate and energizing, a sublime mix of small, medium and monumental proposals with uncounted moving parts, spanning two states and the greatest river in North America.

They will be judged in part on whether the projects they have proposed can be completed by Oct. 28, 2015, the 50th anniversary of the Arch’s completion. But if even half of the ideas advanced in any one of the entries are realized by then, they would have a dramatic impact on St. Louis’ international image and civic vitality, as well as the future of urban national parks, in the next half century.

What a choice. What a chance. 

The competition was initiated by the National Park Service to update a general management plan more than 40 years old for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, the national park in which the Gateway Arch and Old Courthouse are situated.

Former Republican Sen. John Danforth, now a lawyer and civic leader here, long has advocated revitalizing the Arch grounds. For all the majesty of Eero Saarinen’s masterpiece, Mr. Danforth has argued, the national park had become static and detached from city.

Mr. Danforth at first argued for a new institution, a “world-class attraction” that would complement the Arch. He worried that the competition process that came instead would not result in “transformation.”

But his fears were not realized. The visions and concepts from the competition are striking — not so much because of grand and defining new iconic creations, but because of the power and potential of the ideas.

They seek to do a hundred things. Thus, they combine to elevate the array of assets already in St. Louis and on its riverfront, which help to define St. Louis’ place in the nation’s history and portend its future.

The objective is to open doors, lower barriers and raise platforms, activating and accentuating the Arch, the park, the city and the river, permitting more people to experience them.

So what will it look like? It’s impossible to capture in a few words the full effect of the design teams’ intentions. The teams will argue their cases to the competition jury and the public Aug. 26 at the Arch’s Tucker Theater.

But there are recurring themes that make natural sense to people who are familiar with the beauty and limitations of the Arch and the surrounding area:

• All of the entries seek, in some dramatic way, to open the Arch grounds on the west, north and south ends. A common strategy is to create grand new entries to the underground museum at the western side of the park (rather than at the Arch’s northern leg), creating a natural and visible flow from downtown.

• The Gateway Mall, with the addition of CityGarden a little more than a year ago, plays a dynamic role in plans to weave the park together with downtown.

• Some proposals suggest the removal and replacement of the garage at the north end of the park, which creates a depressing barrier between the Arch grounds and Laclede’s Landing.

• At the park’s southern edge, the designers want to establish inviting paths beneath the elevated roadways that separate the Arch grounds from the still-emerging Chouteau’s Landing.

• Dramatic overlooks, a reorientation of the great steps and expanded pedestrian and biking uses of the Eads, Poplar and MacArthur bridges are primary strategies for reaching out to the river.

• None of the design teams endorsed abandoning the depressed and elevated lanes of Interstate 70 — at least not in time for the 2015 completion date. The teams have proposed various coverings. But several acknowledge that removal of the highway is the best long-term solution.

• The greatest potential for the project may lie to the east — where Malcolm Martin Park in East St. Louis represents a blank slate on which to write a new chapter for this national park. Ideas for what could happen there abound, ranging from exhibitions on food production, wetlands and renewable resources to tributes to the ancient mounds of Cahokia, all complemented by many forms of recreation.

This final phase of the competition — the winning design will be announced on Sept. 24 — represents just the end of a beginning.

The National Park Service deserves enormous credit for the speed with which it has forged partnerships and acted to move this complex project ahead.

There’s a long way to go and much to do and decide and get done.

But now the public has the right to “believe it can happen,” says Walter Metcalfe, a  former chairman of the Bryan Cave law firm. He is a leading force on the project.

Seeing and participating is the first step to believing.

That starts today.