The organizers of the competition, the US National Park Service and the CityArchRiver2015 Foundation, set a goal for the participants: to connect the park with the surrounding area of the city and even more - with the opposite bank of the Mississippi River, where it goes, and the city of East St. Louis located there. Thus, a single recreational space will emerge, not only consolidating the central zone of St. Louis, but uniting two cities and even two states: along the Mississippi, this place runs the border between Missouri and Illinois.
Of the 49 teams that submitted applications, five were assigned to develop the project - the teams of Behnisch Architekten (H3 Studio, Buro Happold, Transsolar, Studio Arne Quinze, Gehl Architects, etc.), Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (Steven Holl Architects, Arup, and others), Peter Walker's bureau PWP Landscape Architecture (Foster + Partners, Civitas, Buro Happold, etc.), SOM (Hargreaves Associates, BIG, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, etc.) and Weiss / Manfredi (Beyer Blinder Belle, Atelier Ten, Arup, DIRT studio, etc.). The winner will be named on September 24, 2010: his project should be completed by 2015, when the famous memorial will be half a century old; the possibility of implementing the plan in less than 5 years will be an important criterion for the jury's decision.
All participants - although five teams brought together the world's leading architects and landscape architects, exhibition designers, sustainable development specialists, graphic designers, engineers, artists - explain their projects in approximately the same terms: they talk about the fusion of nature, architecture, culture, landscape and public sphere, about the importance of the contribution of residents and attention to their needs, about environmental friendliness, about the creation of a new system of connections, which will become a catalyst for social activity in the entire adjacent territory.
As for the real measures, all participants have chosen practically the same development paths. They remove the maximum of obstacles and boundaries between the river, park and city, at the same time emphasizing these zones as objects of value in themselves. In particular, it was proposed to move the entrance to the underground museum closer to the city center, block the highway that now cuts off the park from St. Louis, add paths for cyclists and pedestrians on bridges across the Mississippi, and on the other side, significantly expand the existing park, open it to the water. arrange a summer theater there, new reservoirs, exhibition spaces, etc.
The 192-meter-high Thomas Jefferson Arch and an adjacent park of about 37 hectares were opened in 1965: they are dedicated to the US purchase of French possessions in North America during Jefferson's presidency (1803): this acquisition doubled the territory of the country and marked the beginning of its expansion westward.
