The 2010 competition will consider the relationship between urban environment's and the river's edge, specifically the relationship of the City of St. Louis to the Mississippi River. Since 1967, Eero Saarinen's majestic Gateway Arch has commanded St. Louis, occupying the banks of the Mississippi. Commemorating Thomas Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana Territory, the Arch stands on the grounds of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and symbolizes American settlement westward, hence why it is called the 'Gateway to the West.'

While the Mississippi was, indeed, a threshold to Western American settlement, the river itself has always been, and remains, the 'gateway' to the Gulf of Mexico - and thus, by sea, to the rest of the world. What might then be an equivalent to the Gateway to the West for the north-south axis of America? Not in the form of a singular monument, but in the complex ways in which the cities of St. Louis and East St. Louis can respond to and interact with their majestic river.

To address this question, the selected site for the 2010 Steedman Competition encompasses a large, complex territory, from the confluence of the rivers to the north to the bridge crossings south of the Gateway Arch. Thus, an urban design and a landscape design sensibility are required in addition to that of an architect. Considerations of infrastructure, topographic transformation, environmental stewardship, and built form must be creatively intertwined on behalf of enlarging the range of human uses and experiences at the boundaries of city and river.

Cities seeking to increase the qualities inherent to urban living, rescue land from industrial obsolescence, or provide an alternative to peripheral sprawl turn to their waterfronts more than ever, and for a broader array of reasons. Along these waterfronts, it seems possible to accommodate the changing needs of today's urban dweller, as modern societies continue their millennial shift from industrial-based economies (and their spatial demands) to service- and lifestyle-based economies and their requirements.