Gateway Arch Museum and Visitor Center
Project Stats
- Location
St. Louis, Missouri
- Size
150,000 SF
- Role
Design Architect, Architect of Record
- Awards
2019 - The American Architecture Award
2019 - DOCOMOMO Modernism in America, Civic Award of Excellence
2019 - IALD Award of Excellence
2019 - Lumen Award of Excellence
2018 - AIA St. Louis Honor Award
2018 - Interior Design Best of Year Award for Large Museum
- Market
- Expertise
Connecting past and future
Located at the base of Eero Saarinen’s iconic Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the underground Gateway Arch Museum of Westward Expansion and Visitor Center suffered from a lack of visibility and was in need of a more relevant and contemporary design narrative. As part of the winning team for The City + The Arch + The River 2015 international design competition, Cooper Robertson and James Carpenter Design Associates, with Trivers Associates, designed an expanded and renovated museum and visitor center.
This renovation and expansion was one piece of a larger effort to transform the Gateway Arch National Park into a landscape that is beautiful, functional, and easily accessible — reconnected to both downtown St. Louis and the city’s Mississippi riverfront.
Protecting a legacy
The goal of the $380 million project was to beautify the arch grounds, redesign entrances and enlarge the underground visitor center. The new museum occupies a renovated underground space built concurrently with the arch as well as a 47,000 square foot addition to the west. The project also involved adding a new museum entrance that faces northwest and is integrated with MVVA’s redesigned pedestrian access between the arch and downtown St. Louis with a 280-foot-wide land bridge over the interstate.
The majority of the interior of the existing space was demolished and reconfigured into new galleries, public amenities, and museum staff offices. The original architectural elements of the public spaces were preserved, and their distinctive character highlighted with new lighting and other discrete interventions. The addition houses a new public lobby that also serves as a visitor center for the entire park as well as a great hall with monumental and animated elements that introduce visitors to the major themes to be explored in the galleries.
Designing an experience for all
The design is fully integrated into the National Register-listed landscape and respects Dan Kiley’s original park design. Universal Design standards of equal or equivalent use for all users and simple, intuitive environments were employed throughout. The new circular stainless steel and glass entrance mirrors the arch in its materiality and form: an arc laid on to the landscape and precisely inserted into the topography, allowing visitors to enter the building through the landscape rather than descending underground. As one enters, the luminous great hall is revealed with views deep into the underground museum’s monumentally scaled exhibits, elevating and enlivening the visitor experience.
This project was completed by Cooper Robertson prior to its acquisition by Corgan in November 2025.
