Courtesy of CityArchRiver
At one time, crowds flocked to the block just west of the Old Courthouse, where the Senate Theater screened black-and-white movie series and newsreels. As the theater’s popularity waned, however, city leaders reimagined the site as part of a grand parkway—what came to be known as the Gateway Mall. They unveiled the plan in 1960, the same year that former Olympian Harry Kiener willed the city $200,000 (the equivalent of $1.64 million today) to erect a monument “in the form of a fountain to have as its motif ‘athletics.’”
Lithuanian sculptor William Zorach’s resulting 14-foot bronze statue—simply titled “Runner” and modeled after a young Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein (now leader of New York’s Central Synagogue)—arose in 1965 as construction workers were wrapping up work on the nearby Busch Stadium and Eero Saarinen’s 630-foot masterpiece. “Runner” quickly became a favorite stop before Cardinals games, with local and tourists alike imitating the statue’s pose.
Two decades later, in 1987, the Morton D. May Amphitheater (named for an art collector and heir to the May Department Stores) replaced a surface parking lot at the western edge of Kiener Plaza. Over the years, the site hosted concerts, festivals, protests…
“We wanted to have a place where families driving to St. Louis could stop to let the kids out to unwind,” says landscape architect Nate Trevethan. “Children are thought of as primary users just as much as adults.”
Yet the 1.9-acre park never quite reached its full potential. “The two halves did not communicate well,” says Ryan McClure, communications director for CityArchRiver, which is overseeing the $380 million overhaul of the Arch grounds and adjacent Gateway Mall. “From producing events there in the past, we learned that people are using either one half or the other.”
And so, just as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial undergoes a dramatic transformation, Kiener Plaza recently underwent a $19 million makeover. Designed by landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the reimagined park is set to open this month.
It will include far more child-friendly features than the previous incarnation, including a playground, a woodland garden, and interactive water features, somewhat similar to Citygarden.
“We wanted to have a place where families driving to St. Louis could stop to let the kids out to unwind,” says landscape architect Nate Trevethan. “Children are thought of as primary users just as much as adults.”
There will also be a bike parking grove, a sidewalk linking to the new Park Over the Highway, and shaded footpaths, with a mix of 15 tree species, mostly native and including flowering trees such as cherry. Café-style seating will cater to the 90,000 downtown workers who might crave sunshine during their lunch, as well as downtown residents and visitors.
With more greenspace than before, the park will also include a large lawn that can be used for picnics during the day or concerts and alfresco movies by night. The idea: to make the park an event space unto itself, not simply a link between the Arch and downtown.
“We wanted to create a comfortable gathering place,” says Trevethan, “where everyone from a small group to a Cardinals rally could come.”
And looking over it all: “Runner,” striking that perpetual pose, forever striding forward.
