Report of the Jury of Award from the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Competition, 1948 First Round
Record Unit 104 Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association Records, JEFF-9017
Today the Gateway Arch stands proudly as the monument representing westward expansion in St. Louis at Gateway Arch National Park, but when the park was created the form of the monument was far from certain. A previous Artifact of the Month discussed the competition booklet, which laid out the terms of the competition and the prizes to be awarded. This artifact ended the first round of the competition and named the five finalists who would go on to compete in the second round.
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association, the nonprofit agency responsible for the early development of the memorial idea, financed the architectural competition in 1947. George Howe, a well-known Philadelphia architect who was later the Chair of the Architecture Department at Yale, served as the advisor to the jury. The seven member jury included S. Herbert Hare, Fiske Kimball, Charles Nagel, Jr., Roland A. Wank, William W. Wurster, Louis La Beaume and Richard J. Neutra. George Howe was present for the deliberations, but did not have a vote.
The teams that entered the competition submitted two drawings of approximately 36”x48”- one drawing an elevation as the design would look as seen from the eastern shore of the Mississippi River across from the park, including a cross section. The other drawing was left to the discretion of the team members to present their concept as they saw fit to the jury.
After the announcement of the competition, 235 teams of architects, artists and designers stated their intention to compete, but only 172 actually sent in submissions. As each entry arrived in St. Louis it was assigned a chronological number used to keep the identities of the teams a secret. Before the jury convened, interns unpacked the drawings and arranged them on easels on the second floor of the Old Courthouse for the jury to view.
When the jury met to judge the first round entries, their focus was to find the right architect or team to take on this project – the vision of the entry was more important than the particulars of the design. After the initial assessment, they set aside 62 submissions as “ineligible for prizes” for various reasons. They proceeded to call out the numbers that were assigned to the drawings and vote for those they wanted to retain. Submissions having a no vote were removed – shockingly, including entries by George Matsumoto, Gyo Obata, Harrison and Abramovitz, Harry Weese, Mackey and Murphy and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.
The remaining entries were shuffled according to the number of votes received, and resulted in 41 contenders. Submissions with one vote included those by Louis Kahn and Charles and Ray Eames. Submissions with two votes included those by Walter Gropius, Aduchi Kazumi, Frederick Dunn, Raymond Maritz, Eliel Saarinen and Robert Elkington. Hugh Stubbins and Roger Bailey got three votes. At four votes, some of the finalists began to appear: T. Marshall Rainey, Wishmeyer and Lorenz, Percival Goodman, and Phillips and Eng. Harris Armstrong and Pilafan & Montana received five votes. Only Eero Saarinen and the Smith, Hinchman, Grylls and Yamasaki team got six votes.
The jury proceeded to cast ballots to narrow the field to five finalists. Somewhere in that process Smith, Hinchman, Grylls and Yamasaki dropped out of consideration and did not make it to the final round. The finalists were: #41 (Harris Armstrong), #144 (Eero Saarinen), #124 (Gordon Phillips and William Eng), #8 (T. Marshall Rainey) and #64 (William Breger, Caleb Hornbostel and George S. Lewis).
The records of the jury, also preserved in the Gateway Arch National Park Archives, indicate that the idea of second round anonymity was hotly debated. George Howe felt that perhaps the rules had been too strict mandating complete anonymity in the second round. He proposed the possibility of releasing the names of the five semi-finalists and their designs for publication as soon as possible after the judging, provided all the competitors agreed to this departure from the competition rules. Louis La Beaume felt strongly that the competition booklet had laid out clear rules and the jury was beholden to follow them, even if they personally felt that they were not the best choice. The jury decided to consult with a lawyer, who advised that the terms could not be modified without the unanimous consent of all parties concerned. La Beaume “still considered any attempt to modify the conditions of the program at this late hour unwise, and apt to result in unpleasant repercussions…”1 La Beaume stated that he would resign as a jury member if the terms of the question were modified to any degree. La Beaume won his point and the rest of the competition was conducted as indicated in the competition booklet.
The sealed envelopes revealing the names of the architects that accompanied each entry were opened only after the selection of the second stage finalists. The identity of the second stage competitors remained a secret known only to advisor George Howe and the President, the Treasurer, and the Chairman of the Competition Committee of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association.
The competition awarded significant prize money, $10,000, to each of the five finalists, which could help cover expenses to compete in the second round. In addition to their prize money, the finalists all received updated instructions and rules to revise their designs for the second round of the competition.
This jury’s report is a vital step in the chain of events that led to the creation of the Gateway Arch. The jury’s selections sharpened their focus and helped George Howe shape the second round guidance that would influence Eero Saarinen’s creation of the ultimate form of the memorial.
The new museum under the Gateway Arch contains touchable 3D representations of all five finalists’ second round designs. Reproduction photos of the drawings are available to view in the park library; please contact the park archivist for an appointment to view the originals.
] 1 Proceedings of the Jury of Award for the Architectural Competition, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Competition, Record Unit 104, Box 29, Folder 17, Gateway Arch National Park Archives.