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Sunrise...Saint Louis Riverfront

Posted by Ron (Saint Louis, United States) on 7 April 2008 in Cityscape & Urban and Portfolio.

The Gateway Arch rises 630 feet (192 m) above the city of Saint Louis. The Arch is a structure known as a catenary curve, and is constructed of stainless steel and concrete. The span of the Arch legs at ground level is 630 feet (192 m), the same as its height. It is the tallest national monument in the United States.

Eero Saarinen (born in Finland and educated at Yale University) had a chance to express his visionary philosophy when he entered the 1947 architectural competition for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. This was his first opportunity to establish himself as an independent architect, and he set out to design a monument not only to Thomas Jefferson and the nation, but also to the modern age. For him, "The major concern ...was to create a monument which would have lasting significance and would be a landmark of our time... Neither an obelisk nor a rectangular box nor a dome seemed right on this site or for this purpose. But here, at the edge of the Mississippi River, a great arch did seem right."

He carefully studied the site and its surroundings to ensure that the design encompassed the whole environment. His opinion was that, "...all parts of an architectural composition must be parts of the same form-world." The Arch was to rise majestically from a small forest set on the edge of the great river. Saarinen considered it to be perfect in its form and its symbolism.
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Canon EOS 40D
1/400 second
F/11.0
ISO 100
17 mm

gatewayarch