Washington and Memorial / Oxford Circus

What makes a great intersection? 

Is it the people?

Is it the bikes?

Is it the buses?

Perhaps it's the buildings.

These pictures seem to demonstrate that London's Oxford Circus is a great intersection, while Washington and Memorial in St. Louis is not.

Let's start with Laclede's Island. .... I mean Laclede's Landing... It's a remote, but fun, place full of historical buildings and great views.

Although adjacent to the arch, a large parking garage and Ead's Bridge make something of a uncrossable wall to the south. The interstate blocks it off from the rest of the city to the west. The corner by our sad intersection looks like this,

This has been a parking lot for 50 years. Historic! You would think it'd be a nice place for a hotel or a corner-hugging building. Who would put up a building to hug a highway though?  At least you can get from that corner to the arch if you run across Ead's Bridge.  You can also walk under it and walk around the horrible parking garage.

The landscaping on the arch grounds clearly indicates that Washington and Memorial is supposed to be one of the main gateways between the city and the park.

Despite the effect of the award winning landscape, most residents and tourists have no idea what to do when they reach the corner of the park.  They simply turn around, or go to the parking garage. 

Without the interstate, the arch sidewalks would dump people onto Washington Avenue and the loft district beyond.  As it is, Washington Avenue has a clear dead end before it reaches the arch grounds.

Connecting Washington Avenue to the arch grounds would take a miracle, or at least an international design competition with a multi-million dollar budget... 

Oh right, we have one of those.  It's all about connections, 'healing the urban fabric,' and enchancing the original design...  The original design sends people to Washington Avenue, so hopefully that intersection does get enhanced. 

Before the competition ever started, there was this idea of an expensive three block lid across I-70 at Market and Chestnut.  How would this small lid (in reality a tunnel) address the problem at the corners?    It wouldn't help at all!  It's just not sensible.

Thanksfully that was the idea before the competition, and now most people seem to be seeing the bigger picture.

This is bigger than the competition's parameters.  The elevated section of the interstate is on both sides of the competition boundaries.  This is bigger than any international design team's five-year project.  This is something that everyone in the region needs to be active in.  We citizens need to make saving this intersection a long term investment in the future of the landmark from which we draw our identity.  The Gateway Arch should connect us to the city, not to a moat of concrete.  


Thank goodness there's help.  City to River has a vision that will change everything.  They want to remove the interstate and make Memorial an at-grade boulevard.  They'd like to trim it down and add new real estate parcels for development (perhaps two corner hugging buildings at Wash Ave?)  They project $1.1 billion in new real estate investments once the highway is gone.

This new 1.4 mile boulevard will also bring together the regions plans for Bus Rapid Transit

It is critical to the success of the BRT system that there be a good transfer from bus to light rail at the Landing MetroLink Station, which is inside Ead's Bridge at Washington and Memorial.  It's not so hard to imagine Bus Rapid Tranist on Memorial Drive and regular buses on Washington Avenue, with Madison County Transit buses coming over Ead's Bridge.  They could all come together at one beautiful intersection.

Maybe it would look like Oxford Circus,

At any rate, it would be better than this,

Please watch these videos of Oxford Circus, and imagine what you'd like downtown St. Louis to look like.  After you come to the same conclusions as me (the interstate has to go), then go to City to River's website to find out what you can do.