It was an expensive undertaking because of the innovative technology required for construction and structural stability, and not everyone found beauty in this sleek, modernist version of an arch that looks like it might topple over in a stiff wind.īut like so many grand urban gestures, the Gateway Arch has become more than just a symbol of St. When first designed and built, the arch was not universally loved. The AIA further observed that the arch has contributed to revitalizing a decaying area of downtown St. The AIA awards jury called the arch "a symbolic bridge between east and west, past and future, engineering and art" and noted that it "embodies the boundless optimism of a growing nation." Shaped as an inverted catenary curve, the stainless steel arch rises 630 feet above the banks of the Mississippi River to commemorate "the vision of Thomas Jefferson for his Louisiana Purchase and the ensuing mass migration of pioneers who settled the western wilderness." Four other projects by Saarinen, including Dulles International Airport, have won the Twenty-Five Year Award. Designed by Eero Saarinen, it was completed in 1964, 17 years after Saarinen won the commission. However, this year's winner is a symbolic structure, the St. Winning projects are usually civic, institutional or commercial buildings - the first Twenty-Five Year Award recipient was New York City's Rockefeller Center. Each year since 1969, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has given an award to a project built 25 to 35 years earlier that "exemplifies a design of enduring significance that has withstood the test of time."
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