More on Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Winning the Arch Design Competition and What’s Next

The story that first broke here on urbanSTL.com has now been confirmed by the organizers of the Framing a Modern Masterpiece Arch grounds design competition. The team led by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates have won the competition and will now enter the planning phase of design. This Friday's event will now serve as the formal introduction of MVVA and a question and answer session.

It's appropriate and necessary to give immense credit to the CityArchRiver 2015 Foundation. They and they alone have made this competition and the coming improvements possible. As the organizing body of the design competition, the Foundation has (and will continue to) organize the dozens of agencies involved, as well as the City of St. Louis, Congressional delegations from both Missouri and Illinois and Federal interests. It's nearly impossible to overstate the complexity of the challenge, or to understate the accomplishments of the Foundation. They have stepped into a challenge that many have wholeheartedly attempted and ultimately failed to solve. In that respect, those interested in the betterment of St. Louis and specifically the Arch grounds should support and celebrate not only what's to come, but what has already been accomplished.