Project Profile: Gateway Arch National Park, St. Louis, Missouri

Private Contribution and Local Sales Tax

National Park-Landmark Pedestrian / Bicycle / Light Rail Transit

The Gateway Arch National Park, formerly known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, is located near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition on the banks of the Mississippi River in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. The Gateway Arch National Park was designed to represent the role the city played in the United States expanding west in the 19th century. Specifically, it was a memorial to Thomas Jefferson, the pioneers, and Dred Scott.

The park consists of the Gateway Arch, a 91-acre park along the Mississippi River, the Old Courthouse, and a 140,000 square-foot museum. The site was originally designated as a national memorial in 1935, but redesignated as a national park in 2018. The park is maintained by the National Park Service.

The Gateway Arch was completed in 1965 and at 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide, stands as the tallest structure in Missouri. The stainless-steel arch was designed and constructed as an urban renewal project that led to the loss of a colonial-era street grid, among hundreds of historic buildings. Upon completion, the Arch was quickly cut off from the rest of the city by the heavily traveled I-44.

Visitors can explore the arch on numerous levels: underground in the park's subterranean visitor center, above ground on the banks of the Mississippi, and high in the air from the viewing deck at the top of the Arch, accessed by a short tram ride inside the legs of the structure.

In 2009, the CityArchRiver Foundation held a design competition to revamp the Arch experience. Through public and private funding, the redevelopment project got underway. In 2013, residents of St. Louis City and St. Louis County approved a 3/16th sales increase to help fund enhancements to the national park. The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) began construction on the Park Over the Highway, a parklike pedestrian platform, in 2013 and completed work in 2015.

The CityArchRiver project included 11 new acres of parkland and over five miles of bike and walking paths, as well as the North Gateway, an outdoor natural amphitheater for events and performances. The enhancements included the redesign of Luther Ely Smith Square located between the Gateway Arch and Old Courthouse, expanding the park that stretches over the highway, leading to the Gateway Arch’s new west-facing entrance, and connecting the Arch directly to downtown St. Louis for the first time. The multi-phase project, which was completed in July 2018, features a 46,000 square foot addition to the pre-existing visitor center and museum, the complete renovation of the preexisting 106,000 square foot Museum of Westward Expansion, the construction of a 300-foot wide park extension over an adjacent highway, flood abatement measures, revised landscaping for the 91-acre park, and the renovation of two major plazas that lead west from the park into downtown St. Louis.

The new museum interprets the nation's westward expansion, St. Louis' early history, and the design and construction of the Gateway Arch, and highlights an extensive collection of artifacts from the Lewis and Clark expedition. The pedestrian park over I-44 replaced an aging parking garage, so visitors can view the attraction without having to cross two intersections.

Accorded the Civic Design Award of Excellence, the Gateway Arch restoration project addressed multiple complex needs, including: modernization of the underground museum, built concurrently with the Arch, reconnecting the site to the rest of the city, which had been cut off by an interstate highway, and the repair and prevention of surface discoloration around the base of the Arch. It provided an economic impact of $367 million and 4,400 permanent jobs to the region, as well as 530 construction jobs to the region throughout the project.

$380 million – public funding totaled $159 million. The remaining $221 million was secured by fundraising from the Gateway Arch Park Foundation.

• $69 million, A combination of public funds from Federal, State, and local sources such as a U.S. Department of Transportation
• Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant, MoDOT funds, other Federal grants and funding from Great Rivers Greenway District
• $90 million, Proposition P bond proceeds. A 3/16ths of one-cent sales tax increase to fund improvement around the Gateway Arch, local parks and regional trails
• $221 million, Private funding from gifts, grants, and donations raised by the CityArchRiver Foundation

• Design-Bid-Build (The Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in 1947; construction began on February 12, 1963 and was completed on October 28, 1965)
• Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/GC) (improvements)

In 2009, the CityArchRiver Foundation held a design competition to revamp the Gateway Arch. In 2013, residents of St. Louis City and St. Louis County approved a 3/16th sales increase that would help fund enhancements to the national park. MoDOT began construction on the Park Over the Highway in 2013 and completed work in 2015. The park was reintroduced and open to the public in 2018.

• The CityArchRiver project is reconnecting the Arch and the community. This project reconnected Downtown St. Louis with its riverfront and the Gateway Arch national monument.
• The project reconnected Downtown St. Louis with its riverfront and the Gateway Arch national monument
• The Gateway Arch restoration project involved the largest public-private partnership investment ever in a national park, as of 2018.
• The Gateway Arch includes a tram system to carry passengers to the observation room at the top of the arch.
• The Gateway Arch, park grounds, and Old Courthouse are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, so the National Park Service had to meet construction requirements included in Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.
• The Gateway Arch weighs 17,246 tons. The 142 stainless-steel sections used to build the Arch required almost 900 tons of stainless steel, more than any other project in history.
• The Arch’s shape is a catenary curve, the mathematical term for the shape a free-hanging chain takes when held at both ends.
• The Arch, the tallest national monument in the United States and 4th most visited tourist attraction in the world, has foundations sunk 60 feet into the ground and can sway up to one inch in a 20 mile-per-hour wind and is built to sway up to 18 inches.
• The newly renovated visitor center and museum at the Gateway Arch were awarded LEED Gold in recognition of the building’s sustainable site development, water savings, and building materials selection.

• National Park Service – Gateway Arch
• Wikipedia – Gateway Arch National Park
• Washington Post – 50 years later, St. Louis’s Gateway Arch emerges with a new name and a skeptical view of western expansion
• Federal Highway Administration – Park Over the Highway (CityArchRiver)
• Next City – A Plan for the Gateway Arch Leaves a St. Louis Highway in Place. But for How Long?
• Jefferson National Parks Association – Gateway Arch National Park
• Gateway Arch – A Symbol of Westward Expansion for More Than 50 Years
• XYPEX – Gateway Arch Expansion
• Docomomo – Gateway Arch National Park
• State of Michigan – Facts About the Gateway Arch
• Arch Park – Reimagining the Arch Experience