Winning design of the new St. Louis Gateway Arch Museum unveiled

The new museum design for the famed St. Louis Gateway Arch Park was revealed today. Back in 2015, a team led by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) with architects Cooper Robertson and James Carpenter Design Associates had the winning proposal for the renovation and expansion of the landmark museum in a competition launched by the Gateway Arch Park Foundation. After years of delay, the Foundation announced that the new museum will open to the public this year, and a dedication ceremony will take place in July.

The museum is part of the Foundation's long-term plan to improve the Gateway Arch Park's connectivity to the landscape of the U.S. National Park Service's Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, as well as the surrounding city.

MVVA is in charge of the new entry plaza and landscape, which will fully integrate into the historic 91-acre Gateway Park, originally designed by Dan Kiley. The new Museum and Park will directly connect to the 1862 Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis.

“The new museum is extended west towards downtown with a new entrance and plaza connecting to the redesigned and expanded Luther Ely Smith Square, now spanning over a depressed interstate highway,” the design team says. 

Cooper Robertson and James Carpenter Design Associates expand the museum with a new entrance and public plaza, reconfigured exhibitions designed by Haley Sharpe Design, and new public education facilities and visitor amenities. St. Louis-based Trivers Associates will also work on the project as associate architect, and McCarthy Building Companies will serve as general contractor.

“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,” says Scott Newman of Cooper Robertson. A linear exhibition by Haley Sharpe Design “offers various ways to navigate multiple stories on single and successive visits, and merges seamlessly with the trip up the Arch.”

More project images in the gallery below.