By Adam Allington and Rachel Lippmann, St. Louis Public Radio
ST. LOUIS –
Organizers of the competition to redesign the grounds of the Gateway Arch have chosen Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc. for the project
CityArchRiver made the announcement three days early after several media outlets, including Urban STL, broke the news. Team leaders will be introduced on Friday.
East-Coast-based MVVA has worked on a variety of high-profile urban parks including Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York and the Don River Park in Toronto.
In St. Louis, MVVA is proposing a green capped lid over Interstate 70 that does not include the removal of Memorial Drive. The plan also includes a beergarden, a bird sanctuary and an ice-skating rink, as well as removing the parking garage at the north end of the park and replacing it with an amphitheater.
The competition jury called MVVA "a strong team with solid methodology." As a team, said Arch superintendent Tom Bradley in a statement, MVVA "showed great reverence for the beauty and significance of the existing site, while suggesting improvements and attractions in line with our competition goals."
MVVA will spend the next 90 days developing a construction budget and finalizing plans. The public will be able to track MVVA's progress with monthly Web updates.
>>See the full MVVA plan on the CityArchRiver site