Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
The crucial connectivity between the city, the park, and the Mississippi River embankment has been established by bridging Interstate 44, a six lane wide highway trench in the landscape.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
The materiality of the new West Entry Plaza of the Museum embraces the visitor in an arc of sky and the surrounding landscape, reflected by the diffused scrim of stainless steel screen walls. The tilt of this reflection references the Arch itself, intuitively leading visitors from the Plaza exterior into the Museum’s glassed-in entry volumes.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
Beyond transforming, modernizing, and improving the Museum, the explicit project goal was to better integrate the new and original Museum with the National Park Service’s Gateway Arch landscape and improve connectivity between the Park, the Old Courthouse, and downtown St. Louis.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
Within this comprehensive project, the work of James Carpenter Design Associates (JCDA) has focused on leading the planning and design of the Museum’s new West Entry and public spaces.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
JCDA has applied its design approach to the entry sequence and the new main public spaces of the Museum Arrivals Hall, which lead down to and connect with renewed exhibitions and the renovated Saarinen museum below the Arch.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
The semi-circular, enclosed glass entry volume mediates the transition into the below-ground Museum Arrivals Hall, modulating brightness from outside to inside.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
The enclosed glass entry volume leads visitors on a gentle slope into the museum.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
Inside and out, the main axis of the entry is emphasized by its minimal structure, establishing an intimate visual link between the museum and the Old Courthouse.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
The materiality of the new West Entry Plaza of the Museum embraces the visitor in an arc of sky and the surrounding landscape, reflected by the diffused scrim of stainless steel screen walls.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
This clarity of circulation is maintained through the West Entry and Museum Arrivals Hall, where at the moment of entry, visitors can see down to the intermediate level mezzanine: an educational interpretive space enlivened by a large scale floor map of the Mississippi River and its tributaries.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
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Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
Looking further down into the new expansion, visitors see the beginning of the new exhibitions leading into the restored Saarinen Hall and the lifts that take the visitor to the top of the Arch.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
The below ground transition to the Saarinen Hall is unified by the luminous ceiling.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
The main escalator circulation is carved into both side walls of the new West Entry, flanked by open stairs connecting to the mezzanine and lower level.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
A combination of large planning moves and refined details emphasize a sense of light and sky throughout the museum circulation experience.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
View from the Old Courthouse at dusk.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
Stainless steel railings lead visitors up above the entry to create a Westward outlook. Integrated lighting maintains the screen and railing function day or night.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
With sensitive planning, innovative materiality, and refined details, every aspect of the Museum’s expansion is now animated by a meaningful vocabulary of light, as is typical of the JCDA approach
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
Day and night, the design’s sensitivity to light and landscape results in an intuitive, accessible visitor experience from the Park, the Courthouse, and from downtown St. Louis.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
Beyond expanding and modernizing the Museum at the Gateway Arch, JCDA has created a civic space that engages with the iconic presence of the monument itself, while directly supporting a new connection to and reciprocity with downtown St. Louis.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
Official Opening of the Renewed and Expanded Museum at the Gateway Arch
James Carpenter Design Associates
The Museum’s new sense of space and generosity that results from this responds to and references the revitalized landscape of the Arch grounds, as well as its significant new engagement with the city, river, and region.
Photo credit:
Nic Lehoux
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