Extreme makeover: Arch edition

Pictured at left: Skyler and I stand on the riverboat dock below the Arch about six years ago.

I just finished reading an article in the Post-Dispatch about a competition for making over the St. Louis riverfront and Arch grounds.
There are five different design companies vying for the redesign job. The idea is to make people want to go to the riverfront and Arch and stay a while.
Most of the design ideas were, to say the least, out of the box. One features glass-enclosed gondolas soaring over the river from the Missouri side to the Illinois side. At least two include outdoor live entertainment venues – one is floating. Another wants to remove a viewing area on the Illinois side and build something else. It’s a viewing area that just opened last year. And it had cost $5 million to build.
I think it’s wonderful that the city seems serious about changes. The Arch area definitely needs improvement. And if we’re pondering it, we might as well think really really big.
But I have to wonder if all their imaginative ideas are really necessary. Do we really need another outdoor entertainment venue? There’s no word of who would be entertaining at the proposed venues. I guess it would just be there in case someone wanted to entertain outside in a public venue. And glass gondolas soaring over the river? Really? Basically it’s the same concept as going up to the Arch, except you’re going to the other side of the river.
So here are my suggestions for improving the riverfront – for making it a place tourists will enjoy, and that locals will want to visit too.
First, the design companies all got one thing right. We gotta connect the Arch grounds with the rest of the city. It’s crazy that you can’t walk from the Arch to Kiener Plaza, the Old Courthouse, the hotels, etc.
So my proposal is pretty much the same as the designers: Put a cap over the highway, which would allow people to go from the Arch grounds, to all the stuff in the city.
In my plan, the cap would be pretty big. I envision something that would extend north to allow people to walk from the Dome after a football game to Laclede’s Landing for a drink.
An outdoor ice rink when weather permits would be fun too. At least one of the designs included that. Picturesque lakes with water-spouting sculptures and fountains would be nice also.
I would also like to see some outdoor vendors, selling food and souvenirs. What’s a tourist attraction if you can’t buy a hotdog and a cheap T-shirt from outdoor vendors? People who wanted to run vending businesses would have to apply, and meet stringent regulations.
Now, I’ll turn my attention to the museum under the Arch. It’s a total redo.
For starters, it needs light. Sure it’s underground, but does it have to look like you’re walking into a bomb shelter? My plan would add skylights to the museum, and people walking on the ground above would be able to walk on those skylights and see into the museum from above. Cool.
And take all the dead stuffed animals out of there. Ditto for the creepy talking animatronic historic people. Instead, put in interactive displays that show people what westward expansion was like.
Let people prepare for the expedition with Lewis and Clark. Show people what we did and didn't know about the land before Lewis and Clark journeyed west.
Bring in a couple of Conestoga wagons that people can get in and pretend to drive. Put up displays of what all people would need to take on their journey, and let them figure out how to get it all into the wagon. Show them how treacherous making the westward journey was by giving each person a card with the name of an actual settler on it. At the end of the display, the visitor finds out how their settler fared, and if the person even survived the journey.
Next, you gotta address food. Currently the museum has no restaurant. Get hungry while you’re visiting the Arch? You can leave the museum and hike to Laclede’s Landing, or you can go to the riverfront and eat stale cheese-covered nachos from a little snack bar. Ridiculous. The museum begs for a restaurant and/or a sandwich place.
I’m a fan of the riverboats, so I wouldn’t change much of that, except to make it more of a learning experience – include more history information during the ride.
Yes, compared with the grand ideas the design companies came up with, mine are simplistic. But very often, simple is best.