City to River - St. Louis, USA
City to River is a non-governmental volunteer advocacy organization that was founded in 2009 to advocate for improved connections between the City of St. Louis and the Mississippi River. Although the City of St. Louis was founded at the heart of the fourth longest river system in the world, for over a century, the city has turned its back to its riverfront. City to River was galvanized by the confluence of three major events: a new General Management Plan for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (site of Eero Saarinen's iconic Gateway Arch), an upcoming design competition for the memorial, and the construction of a new bridge that would re-route a national interstate highway north of the downtown area.
City to river has strongly advocated removing the soon to be superfluous highway infrastructure that separates the Arch from the downtown area and replacing it with an at-grade boulevard. Due to our efforts all 5 finalist teams in the international City Arch River design competition stated that highway removal was the best option for reconnection.
City to River is currently developing partnerships with local governance and planning organizations to advocate for stronger connections beyond the downtown area and is a vocal supporter of initiatives to create connections between the North Riverfront Trail and neighborhoods and redevelop a vacated railroad viaduct into the third elevated linear park in the world.
