Seven architecture faculty from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts are among five teams that have advanced to the design phase of “Framing a Modern Masterpiece | The City * The Arch * The River,” an international competition to reinvigorate the area around St. Louis’ iconic Gateway Arch.
At 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 28, representatives from all five teams will meet with the public to describe their groups, share examples of their prior work, and discuss how they plan to approach the competition’s goals as they begin developing their proposals.
The free event, titled “Meet the Design Teams,” is presented by the CityArchRiver 2015 Foundation and will take place downtown in the Roberts Orpheum Theatre, 416 N. 9th St. Sportscaster and St. Louis native Joe Buck will serve as moderator. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Public parking is available across the street.
For more information or to preregister, visit cityarchrivercompetition.org.
The five finalist teams are:
- Behnisch Team, led by Behnisch Architekten of Stuttgart, Germany, and Los Angeles.
- MVVA Team, led by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, New York.
- PWP Landscape Architecture, Foster + Partners and Civitas, of Berkeley, Calif.
- SOM, Hargreaves and BIG of Chicago.
- Weiss/Manfredi, Architecture/Site Design/Urbanism, of New York.
The Behnisch Team includes five Sam Fox School faculty: Christof Jantzen, the I-CARES Professor of Architecture; John Hoal, associate professor of architecture; Derek Hoeferlin, senior lecturer in architecture; Peter MacKeith, associate dean of the Sam Fox School and associate professor of architecture; and Eric Mumford, PhD, professor of architecture.
In addition, the PWP Team includes Dorothée Imbert, director of the new Master of Landscape Architecture program in the Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design.
Gina Hilberry, adjunct lecturer in architecture, is a member of the SOM team.
Two other WUSTL faculty also play significant roles in the competition. Gerald Early, PhD, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters and director of the African and African-American Studies Program and the Center for the Humanities, both in Arts & Sciences, is a member of the eight-person jury that will select the final design. Bruce Lindsey, dean of architecture and the E. Desmond Lee Professor for Community Collaboration, sits on a governance group established by the CityArchRiver 2015 Foundation.
The competition — which aims to improve connections and transitions between the 91-acre Arch grounds, downtown St. Louis and the Mississippi riverfront — was launched last December and initially drew 49 teams representing eight countries. Of those, nine teams were selected for the second round, with the five finalists announced earlier this month.
Teams will work throughout the spring and summer on design concepts, which then will be put on public exhibition beginning Aug. 17. The final jury pick will be announced Sept. 24. The project is scheduled for completion by Oct. 28, 2015 — the 50th anniversary of the completion of the Arch.
Members of the public are invited to share their thoughts, stories, photos and videos about the Arch with competition organizers, who will include them in a presentation to the competitors. Submissions can be posted to the Community Connections page of the competition website or to the City Arch River Facebook and Twitter accounts.