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The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial—popularly known
as the St. Louis Gateway Arch—is the tallest monument in the
United States and an icon of modern architecture, its great steel
arc embodying strength, elegance and simplicity. Architect Eero Saarinen
and landscape architect Dan Kiley’s winning design, a gracefully
inverted catenary arch and complimentary landscape that bears little
resemblance to pre-war memorials. Yet creation of the Arch was anything
but simple. Indeed, it is a story of frequent uncertainty and sometime
bitter controversy, as planning, design and construction stretched
across more than three decades.
In January, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington
University in St. Louis will explore that history with an exhibition
and symposium titled On the Riverfront: The Gateway Arch and St.
Louis. Curated by Peter MacKeith, associate dean and associate professor
of architecture; and by Eric Mumford, associate professor of architecture,
On the Riverfront will Figuring prominently in both the exhibition
and symposium will be a number of Saarinen’s subsequent drawings
and models, which chart subtle changes and modifications in the
years leading up to construction (which, delayed by the Korean War,
did not begin until 1963).
“The significance of the Gateway Arch in Saarinen’s
career, as well as in the development of St. Louis’ post-war
identity, is unquestionable,” says MacKeith, who also serves
as St. Louis coordinator for Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future.
That exhibition is the firstmajor museum retrospective dedicated
to the architect (see sidebar).
“There is a degree of attention given to the Arch within
the retrospective,” MacKeith explains. “But the Arch
is such an icon of St. Louis, condensing histories of place and
purpose and civic pride, that we felt this would be a good opportunity
to explore the broad civic vision that ultimately brought the Arch
into being. It is a not a story of which people are really aware.”
On the Riverfront begins with a condensed history of the St. Louis
region, from the time of the Cahokia Indians, though Spanish settlement,
the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis & Clark expedition, to
statehood and industrialization. Yet by the early 20th century much
of the riverfront had fallen into disrepair and local leaders were
beginning to explore strategies for revitalization.
Chief among these was Luther Ely Smith, a St. Louis lawyer now
known as “the father of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.”
Smith first conceived the idea of constructing a memorial on the
banks of the Mississippi in 1933 and the following year, with the
help of Mayor Bernard Dickmann, co-founded the nonprofit Jefferson
National Expansion Memorial (JNEM) Association to enlist Federal
support. In 1935, Franklin Roosevelt designated the proposed 90-acre
site as a National Park and the city, having passed a bond proposal
and armed with the power of eminent domain, began leveling 40 blocks
in preparation for a national architecture competition.
The site was cleared by 1942, but the JNEM Competition was delayed
by the onset of World War II. Yet when it did begin, in 1947, the
competition proved a massive success, drawing 176 entries—many
of which will be on view — by important St. Louis figures
such as Harris Armstrong, Charles Eames and Gyo Obata, as well as
by international modernists such as Louis Kahn, Isamu Noguchi and
Eliel Saarinen, Eero’s father.
“This is a city of great beauty, which approached its riverfront
with great purpose and deliberation,” MacKeith concludes.
“Yes, there are tangled and difficult histories prior to 1947,
and subsequent to the Arch’s completion. But there was also
this astonishing moment of the competition. It’s a moment
that seemed to encapsulate St. Louis’ past and present, and
one that remains intertwined with our civic future.”
Participants
Participants will include Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, chief researcher
and co-editor of the exhibition catalog for Eero Saarinen: Shaping
the Future; architect Robert Burley, who led the Arch design team
for Eero Saarinen and Associates; and Charles Birnbaum, president
of The Cultural Landscape Foundation and former coordinator of the
National Park Service Historic Landscape Initiative. Also participating
will be landscape architect Susan Saarinen (Eero's daughter) and
former Finnish ambassador Matti Häkkänen (Eero's second
cousin), as well as regional and international architects, landscape
architects, historians, critics, and scholars.
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