Museum Under the Gateway Arch

St. Louis, MO — 2018

OVERVIEW

We were part of a large project team* that won an international design competition in 2010 to catalyze the adjacent city and better connect downtown St. Louis to the Arch and river. Expanding the existing museum to establish inviting and inclusive spaces was our area of focus, and we worked closely with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates [MVVA, overall project lead] to weave the landscape through the entry and into the museum, creating shared civic spaces that culminate with views to the city and river. Diffuse, reflective materials were deployed to establish a generous, open and illuminated arrival experience, and visitors flow past select reflections of the Old Courthouse, the sky and museum exhibits, embodying the forward movements of a city embraced by an arch.

*Joseph Welker led the design team while at Studio James Carpenter, working closely with the architects Corgan [formerly Cooper Robertson] and Trivers Associates. See PROJECT TEAM below for full attribution.

The new museum entry and addition within the 92 acre National Park, needed to more directly connect visitors to the city and the Arch. Approximately 50,000 square feet of museum space was to be added, and the new entry needed to be positioned low within the historical landscape, and provide shared accessible routes to the existing Saarinen museum and ride up the legs of the Arch. We worked closely with MVVA to create a civic plaza within the park landscape, wrapping the new museum entries around a seasonal, shallow reflecting pool, and reframing views west to the Historic Courthouse building from within a generous light filled space. Large bent glass panels form a minimal vertical enclosure, and overhead glass skylights are supported by solid stainless steel beams, maximizing daylight penetration as visitors transition from outside to inside. The main interior ceiling space is composed of a series of tunable LED fixtures that illuminate the underside of the structure supporting the landscape, providing a heightened sense of brightness and easing the transition as visitors flow to the transformed, existing museum.

The project achieved LEED Gold and has been published and awarded extensively, including the Wall Street Journal, International Association of Lighting Designers, Architectural Record, ENR Midwest and Casabella.