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The Gateway Mall Master Plan, unveiled in October, 2007 and formally adopted by the City of St. Louis in July, 2009, provides the impetus and framework for an ambitious and far-reaching effort to reconstruct, restore, enhance and beautify the Gateway Mall. The Gateway Mall is a 22-acre park that spans 1.2 miles east to west in the middle of downtown St. Louis.

The new design calls for dramatically changing the existing disjointed collection of green spaces and roadways to create a cohesive, environmentally friendly green space in the heart of downtown. The Plan provides for a range of spaces offering informal and formal activities.

Funding and constructing the Master Plan recommendations—implementing the ideas—will be the true measure of the Plan’s success. Key to implementation will be the establishment of a governance structure that provides both public oversight and private stewardship and fundraising.

As envisioned in the Master Plan, governance will consist of two bodies—the Gateway Mall Conservancy, to govern the overall planning, funding and execution efforts of the Mall Master Plan, and the Gateway Mall Advisory Board, which will serve as a review body for the City of St. Louis to ensure that implementation of the projects within the Mall are consistent with the Master Plan as adopted by the City Planning Commission.

The Gateway Mall Master Plan provides the City of St. Louis with a comprehensive vision for transforming downtown’s central park into an outstanding open space that defines the heart and soul of St. Louis. Building on this long range vision, the plan creates an overall design framework to guide future individual proposals within the Mall, directing implementation and long term management.

Cities across the United States and around the world are increasingly investing in their public realm. These substantial efforts focus on beautifying and improving the functionality of streets and open spaces. When successfully realized, these projects can become more than the sum of their parts and result in an improved public realm, a cornerstone for true city building, attracting increased amounts of people and investment.

Downtown St. Louis’ reinvestment in its public realm is underway, and great strides have been made. The 1999 Downtown Plan identified the Gateway Mall, the Riverfront, and the Gateway Arch Connector as three crucial open space elements vital to the revitalization of downtown, and a key piece of this puzzle — the Gateway Mall—is now being addressed in the realization of this Master Plan.

The Master Plan strives to attract visitors and energy from River to Arch to Mall to reinvent this underused green space. The Plan outlines a roadmap to remedy the challenges facing the Mall and to build upon the areas of opportunity that already exist. The Mall will play an active role in the daily life of the City and the Region, comprising varied landscapes, programming and permanent venues to attract and amaze. Here, the Region will come to celebrate and remember.

To view the full Gateway Mall Master Plan, click here.