Reimaging the Arch

By Charlotte Beard

The new Museum at the Gateway Arch opened on July 3. The opening was kicked off with a ribbon cutting ceremony by the new West Entrance followed by the opening to the public.

The museum changes are part of the overall City Arch River project. Tom Nagel, Communications Manager for Gateway Arch Park Foundation (formerly City Arch River Foundation), shared that the project was a collaboration with National Park Service, Great Rivers Greenway, Bi-State Development, Jefferson National Parks Association, and Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT). The project’s overall cost was $380 million.

“It comes from many different sources,” said Nagel. “This is a public-private partnership; a really unique way of achieving a new visitor experience, solving a lot of issues with infrastructure and reimagining the Arch for the future. It took a lot of partners and different funding sources.”

In the past, visitors would enter the museum at the legs of the Arch. Now they will enter a glass door entrance to an airconditioned lobby. There is an Explore St. Louis information desk with volunteers to provide information about things to do in the St. Louis region. Also, there is easy access to restrooms upon entering and the ticket counter to purchase tickets for the ride to the top of the Arch or a riverboat cruise. The museum visit is free.

“Once you walk down into the museum, the exhibits are totally renovated. It’s still about the westward expansion period with the United States but there is also a huge focus on St. Louis’ role. You’ll learn all about St. Louis’ history from its founding in 1764 to the completion of the Gateway Arch in 1965 – 201 years of history.”

The museum has also updated how it accommodates visitors of various abilities. They have incorporated a universal design element.

“The museum designers are thinking differently about how they create exhibits now,” stated Nagel. “Old museums might be objects in glass cases that you can’t touch and can only see, and it might have a caption that you can only see and read. The new museum…everything is designed with our universal design in mind. For many of our artifacts, you’ll see the real thing in the display case but outside the display case we’ll have tactile models where you can touch the artifacts. Things like tools that American Indians used, tools that fur trappers would have used. We have some interesting architectural things in the museum like a recreation of a French colonial house. You can walk into that house but next to it is a tactile model, so you can feel what the whole structure looks like. That’s for people who are blind or (have problem) seeing, but really learners of all ages want to touch and experience things using more than one sense.”

Nagel went on to explain the changes made to the original 1976 construction to better accommodate mobility.

“You can use any mobility device and get around very easily. Also, the way things are displayed (have been) lowered so people who are using wheelchairs or even just children that are a little short, are able to read and interact with everything in the museum,” Nagel said.

Beyond the museum, the whole park has been redesigned with accessibility in mind. One of the signature pieces is the Park Over the Highway which is an extension of Luther Ely Smith Square. Before when people came to the Arch from downtown they had to cross over Memorial Drive twice with the highway trench in between. Now they can go right into the new museum and into the entrance.

“On the east side of Gateway Arch National Park there used to be just a grand staircase in the middle and stairs on the side and now we’ve added ramps on either side of the grand staircase and on either side of the overlook stairs. So, four ramps—two on either side of the Arch that go to and from the river. There’s access throughout the park now,” Nagel said. The universal design theme continues to the Arch itself. “One of the great examples of universal design in the museum is the Keystone exhibit. Picture going to the top of the Arch. You (must) walk down two flights of stairs and then the pod is very small so it’s not for everyone – 630 feet in the air. So, if you are afraid of heights (or) claustrophobic you might not want to do it. It’s also not accessible to people that use wheelchairs. So, directly underneath the Keystone in the museum, in the tram lobby, we built a two-scale replica of the piece at the top and we’ve installed a webcam at the top of the Arch. Down in the replica of the Arch you get a live feed of what the view is that day from the top. So, now everyone can get that experience of being at the top even if it’s not accessible to them, afraid to go, or they don’t have time to go all the way to the top. Going to the top is so much a part of the symbolism of the Arch – the thrill of being up there. When you’re there you think about the engineers that built it and all the innovation that the Arch represents,” Nagel said.

Because of the overall reimaging of Gateway Arch National Park, the Gateway Arch Park Foundation is working to “activate” the park by hosting various events. Visit www.archpark.org/events/summersocial for information about this Thursday’s free July 5 event at Kiener Plaza featuring a sampling of events and activities the foundation hosts throughout the year.