“St. Louis Gateway Arch” Photographer: Jason Lusk.
St. Louis, Gateway City, is known by its iconic arch. Designed by Eero Saarinen, the 192 meter (630 feet) is the world’s tallest arch. St. Louis is the gateway to the western United states, opened by explorers Lewis and Clark, who traveled the Mississippi River on which St. Louis stands. On March 28, 1934, Congress proposed a federal commission to develop the iconic memorial, the design chosen by competition. An unusual process, subject to legal challenges, was instituted to acquire the 82-acre site. Similarly, the Eiffel Tower, iconic monument of Paris, was the result of a competition won by Gustave Eiffel. What is the role of iconic monuments, and public art, in the world’s great cities?
Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
