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Location:St. Louis, MO
Architect:Eero Saarinen
Year Built:1965
Fact:The Gateway Arch was legendary architect Eero Saarinen's first major commission.

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Gateway Arch
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Gateway Arch

The Gateway Arch was legendary architect Eero Saarinen's first major commission. Developed with the assistance of structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel, the Arch is constructed of a stainless steel skin covering reinforced concrete nearer the base and carbon steel and rebar higher up. The arch won the AIA's Twenty-five Year Award in 1990. Saarinen was awarded the Gold Medal posthumously in 1962.

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The arch is such a powerful symbol in an abstract way of why the country expanded to the west, in the way that it straddles and marks the line between the sky and the earth and draws our attention to the Big Sky country that lies beyond. The idea that there was ample opportunity to claim land and transform their lives in that way.

Donna Robertson, FAIA
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I put the arch in the genre of these kind of huge iconographic structures, which are great works of engineering and architecture at the same time, throw it in with the Eiffel Tower, and the Ferris Wheel and the St. Louis Arch.

Lou Saur, FAIA
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