St. Louis Reconnects With the Gateway Arch and Its Pioneer Spirit

St. Louis Reconnects With the Gateway Arch and Its Pioneer Spirit
ST. LOUIS — In a year that placed monuments at the center of civic strife, a $380 million project to expand the grounds
and visitor center at the Gateway Arch, the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, is bringing people together in this Mississippi River city.
Key features include the Park Over the Highway, a $38.5 million pedestrian plaza
that crosses over Interstate 44, as well as Kiener Plaza and Luther Ely Smith Square, both remodeled at a cost of $34.2 million.
“It’s a measure of how this city feels about its global icon,” said Eric Moraczewski, executive director of the Gateway Arch Park Foundation,
which led the capital campaign, producing the largest amount in private gifts for a National Park Service unit in history.
“The arch, our greatest symbol, was a subpar visitor experience,” said William O. DeWitt III, the president of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team
and a member of the Gateway Arch Park Foundation board.
The $17.5 million open space hosts regular outdoor events, among them concerts organized by the Gateway Arch Foundation
and the city’s National Blues Museum, which opened just blocks away last year
The project to beautify the arch grounds, redesign entrances and enlarge the underground visitor center drew such robust public support here
that voters approved a 2013 local ballot proposition to finance the restoration with $85 million in sales tax revenue.