Full Review: PWP-Foster+Partners-Civitas Arch Grounds Competition Design

This is the first of five full reviews of the Framing a Modern Masterpiece: City + Arch + River design competition submissions. Each review focuses specifically at treatment of Kiener Plaza, the Old Courthouse, I-70/Memorial Drive, the Museum of Westward Expansion, the Old Cathedral, the Arch grounds north and south ends, the riverfront, cross-river connections and the east side as well as overall feasibility and overall excitement. Each of the five final design full narratives can be viewed on nextSTL here. Join the discussion in the nextSTL Forum.
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PWP-Foster+Partners-Civitas

Kiener Plaza
The “spiral theater” is a nice design, promising shade and an interesting place to sit for lunch, visit with friends, picnic or take in a performance. It is an improvement over the current amphitheater? Maybe not by much, but I like the natural setting proposed. The wave fountain would likely be a hit judging by the popularity of water features (see City Garden).

The addition of sculpture in the re-imagined plaza’s passive space is welcome too, but it’s odd that a Dallas, TX park is noted as an “outdoor sculpture precedent.” (SEE City Garden) The “wave fountain precedent” cites Portland, OR, but the images are nearly identical to the current Kiener Plaza fountain. Did PWP visit St. Louis? Were they self-conscious of appearing “local” and felt the need to cite far away and lesser examples?