The Architect’s Eye: Meet Me in St. Louis

By Patrick Wilson

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From inside, the roof of Yamasaki’s Lambert–St. Louis International Airport appears to be in flight.

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The graceful poured-concrete arched structures at Lambert–St. Louis International Airport, designed by Minoru Yamasaki and completed in 1956, were precursors to the terminals at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport and Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

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The grounds surrounding Gateway Arch were designed by landscape architect Dan Kiley.

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From a certain angle, Eero Saarinen’s Gateway Arch looks like a traditional monument—say, the obelisk at the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

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Monumentally dynamic, Eero  Saarinen’s Gateway Arch changes appearance depending on the location from which it is viewed.

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The monument’s stainless-steel panels are sculptural and abstract when viewed up close.

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The arch appears as a continuous loop when reflected in the water.

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Throughout the day, the arch takes on the changing colors of light and sky.

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St. Louis’s Old Courthouse, site of the first two trials of the Dred Scott case.

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A statue of Lewis and Clark with the Gateway Arch.

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St. Louis is called the “Gateway to the West,” but it is also a gateway to commerce, the river, and much more.

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Several arches frame the Mississippi River, one ceremonial, the others functional.

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Bridges over the Mississippi.

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An interior arch at Union Station.

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Limestone-clad St. Louis Union Station, designed by Theo Link, is a national landmark.

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The grounds of the 1904 World’s Fair, also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

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The Meeting of the Waters, a fountain by Carl Milles.

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The Wainwright Building, designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan and completed in 1891, was an early steel-frame skyscraper.

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The Wainwright Building was constructed using a modern steel frame; the exterior is covered in traditional masonry.

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Gilbert’s design was influenced by the Roman Baths of Caracalla.

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Architect Cass Gilbert’s three-story building, designed for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and completed in 1904, eventually became the St. Louis Art Museum.

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An addition to the St. Louis Art Museum, designed by David Chipperfield, with landscape architecture by Michel Desvigne.

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Chipperfield’s glass wall celebrates Gilbert’s original neoclassical vision.