A design team consisting of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Cooper Robertson, and James Carpenter Design Associates with Trivers Associates and Haley Sharpe Design won the international competition for the opportunity to expand and renovate the Eero Saarinen-designed Gateway Arch Museum in St. Louis.
The expanded Gateway Arch Museum, designed by Cooper Robertson and James Carpenter Design Associates, has a dramatic entrance and plaza that is nestled into the historic landscape. The design includes new public spaces, a great entry hall that leads to re-imagined exhibitions and the fully renovated original Saarinen building beneath the Arch.
Nearly 45,000 sf of new museum space has been added and over 100,000 sf of existing space has been reconfigured into new exhibition galleries, public education facilities, and visitor amenities. The new Gateway Arch Museum extends west towards downtown St. Louis with a new entrance and plaza that connects to the redesigned and expanded Luther Ely Smith Square, which now spans over a depressed interstate highway.
Rendering courtesy Cooper Robertson.
The museum’s public spaces and surroundings are fully integrated into the overall plan for the Dan Kiley-designed 91-acre Park. The Museum and Park now connect directly to the 1862 Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis.
“The Museum design is fully integrated into the National Register-listed landscape,” says Cooper Robertson’s Scott Newman, in a release. “The new entrance is precisely inserted into the topography, allowing visitors to enter the building through the landscape rather than descending underground. As one enters, a luminous great hall is revealed with views deep into the Museum’s monumentally scaled exhibits below, elevating and enlivening the visitor experience, while respecting Dan Kiley’s original Park design.”
According to the Gateway Arch Park Foundation, the nonprofit group behind the project, one of the main goals of the renovation and expansion is to create closer and more robust connections between the Gateway Arch Museum, the landscape of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, and the city of St. Louis as a whole.
McCarthy Building Companies is the general contractor for the project.
The Museum will open to the public this year with an official dedication ceremony planned for July 2018.
UPdate
EarthCam has released a new time-lapse video showing the construction of the Gateway Arch Museum project. The one minute video shows the construction of the museum between February 2014 and March 2018.
Courtesy EarthCam.
Related Stories
Building Team Awards | Jun 7, 2017
Rising above adversity: National Museum of African American History and Culture
Gold Award: The Smithsonian Institution’s newest museum is a story of historical and construction resolve.
Architects | Jun 7, 2017
Build your very own version of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum with this new LEGO set
744 LEGO bricks are used to recreate the famous Wright design, including the 1992 addition.
Museums | May 25, 2017
The museum as workspace
Many museum staff are resistant to the idea of open offices.
Architects | May 23, 2017
Queens Museum exhibit shows New York City as it could have been
The installation will showcase 200 years worth of unrealized Big Apple projects via original drawings, renderings, newly commissioned models, and 3D visualizations.
Museums | May 18, 2017
American Writers Museum opens on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue
Amaze Design designed the 10,000-sf space.
Cultural Facilities | May 4, 2017
Obama Foundation reveals first look at the Obama Presidential Center
The design comprises three buildings set in the public space of Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side.
Art Galleries | Apr 21, 2017
The Odunpazari Modern Art Museum pays homage to Ottoman Empire era architecture
The wooden façade is a link to the history of the area as a wood market.
Art Galleries | Apr 14, 2017
Activating exteriors as gallery space
Owners would like to get more value from their exterior spaces. One architecture firm details how it made that happen for the new Whitney Museum.
Museums | Jan 19, 2017
Turning museums inside out: White paper addresses the value of exterior gallery space
Many contemporary museum designs are beginning to utilize the exterior wall space to display art that can help attract new audiences.
Museums | Dec 15, 2016
The design of the Shanghai Planetarium draws inspiration from astronomical principles
Housed within the 400,000-sf building will be the world’s largest planetarium theater.
