Above: The Gateway Arch and Busch Stadium near their completion in 1966. Both became an identifying force for St. Louis and a flash point for revitalizing downtown. PRIDE of St. Louis names the top five construction projects of the 20th Century. By Ed Abbett At the turn of the 20th century, the St. Louis skyline mirrored other large cities of its day. There was no signature monument to distinguish it. The roads leading out of St. Louis amounted to wagon trails that followed the paths blazed by pioneers. They consisted of dirt on a dry day and mud on a rainy day. Air travel was nonexistent — a trip to Europe took two weeks by rail and boat. Only one bridge linked Missouri and Illinois roads in St. Louis. To get to St. Charles, people rode a ferry. Sports franchises were not the identifying force they are today. In the past hundred years, the metropolitan area has changed dramatically, thanks in large measure to the men and women of the St. Louis construction industry. There has never been a century of building like this one. To honor the monumental achievements of its members, the nation’s first and oldest construction labor-management organization, PRIDE of St. Louis, has named the Top Five Construction Projects of the 20th Century. PRIDE’s criterion was impact on the St. Louis area. Eliminate any one of the Top Five and life in St. Louis would be very different. The projects selected are also extremely complex — reflecting quality construction that could only be completed by a highly skilled work force. Three of the projects have sustained major inventions that became staples in the 20th Century — the automobile and the airplane. Two of the projects helped create a community identity unparalleled in the world. Together, PRIDE’s Top Five Construction Projects of the 20th Century show how St. Louis’ progress over the past 100 years has depended on the construction industry. The Gateway Arch Turn on any national television broadcast of the St. Louis area and the first image seen is the Gateway Arch — The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Symbolizing the gateway to the west, the Arch has given St. Louis one of the most recognizable skylines in America, if not the world. It ignited the revitalization of downtown St. Louis while forever tying the city’s historic place in the settlement of a continent with the building of a nation. The Arch is not only a historic achievement, but an engineering and construction marvel symbolizing construction ingenuity, safety and productivity. Designed by architect Eero Saarinen, it took four years to build at a cost of $14 million. It was assembled much like the pyramids of ancient Egypt — piece by piece — using stainless steel instead of bedrock. Despite the inherent dangers of building the 630-foot-tall monument using two creeper cranes that literally inched up each leg, there were no fatalities. The entire structure weighs 16,678 tons and sways less than 18 inches in a 150 mile-per-hour wind. It is visited by almost four million people a year. Above: First Interstate Project In 1956, I-70 in St. Charles County became the nation’s first construction project for the interstate highway system. Pictured above are (left to right) Dan Cane, Cameron, Joyce & Co.; Chick Sayles, Alpha Portland Cement; John Latham, Charles Tevis, both of the Missouri Highway Department; Jack Gammon and Tinch Gammon, both of Cameron, Joyce & Co. The Interstate Highway System At the dawn of the 20th century, dim traces of Indian pathways and pioneer trade routes were strung together to form what amounted to dirt roads of commerce leading to and from St. Louis. These “wagon roads” followed the topography, sticking close to watersheds and streams. Rain and wagon wheels gouged out deep ruts. Paving consisted of dragging a log behind a team of horses to smooth the road. Henry Ford changed all that with the mass production of affordable automobiles. According to the Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT), there were 640 automobiles in Missouri in 1903. By 1940, there were almost a million. Missouri was pulled out of the mud and dirt because motorists demanded it. The result was a revolution of road building following World War I. Dirt was replaced with gravel and later asphalt and concrete. Above: The St. Louis construction industry has been called on to build and rebuild roads throughout the century. This segment of I-70 in downtown St. Louis was rebuilt in the mid-1990s. World War II sparked a second revolution in road building after Gen. Dwight Eisenhower took one look at the quick movement of armored vehicles on the German Autobahn. The first construction for Eisenhower’s vision of a coast-to-coast interstate began in St. Louis in 1956. Appropriately, the work that had begun on I-70 in St. Charles followed the Missouri River across the state, just as Lewis and Clark did more than 150 years earlier. As the commuter-friendly interstates around St. Louis grew, housing and development followed. The area’s superior interstate layout has made St. Louis an unbeatable location for transportation-dependent companies — employers of up to 18,000 in the area. Above: Humble beginnings. Dedication ceremonies for the opening of Lambert Field’s first large-scale terminal building in 1933. At that time, Lambert’s runways consisted of an open field with planes taxiing to the concrete apron in front of the terminal. The only two buildings still standing are the U.S. Army barracks in the far back and the structure in the upper right hand corner. Lambert-St. Louis International Airport Orville and Wilbur Wright had little idea of the revolution in travel they were starting when Orville flew for a mere 12 seconds at Kitty Hawk, N.C. in 1903. Like the automobile, the rapid development of aircraft necessitated a construction project here to create and sustain a whole new industry — one that would make St. Louis an international city. Around the time of that historic flight, Lambert Field was a balloon launch location called Kinloch Park. In 1920, it became known as Lambert Field when Major Albert Lambert purchased 550 acres of land. At his own expense, he developed the airfield by clearing, grading, and draining the land and erecting hangars — the first of many construction projects at Lambert. By 1928, the airfield was a base for passenger and freight service for the city of St. Louis, which had purchased Lambert that year, making it the first municipally-owned airport in the country.    Who is PRIDE? Every month, key players in the St. Louis construction industry meet as members of PRIDE. The PRIDE acronym defines its mission ? Productivity and Responsibility Increase Development and Employment. Their singular goal is sustaining solid communication among the diverse groups that build St. Louis. Leaders in the construction industry launched PRIDE in 1972 to confront the destabilizing effects of bickering within the construction industry that had exacted a toll on the area’s development. PRIDE forged a spirit of cooperation by joining labor and management in weekly discussions to identify stress points that might hurt construction progress. The result was a model for creating harmony from conflict to yield construction productivity, cost-effectiveness and work force training. Today, the PRIDE board of directors is led by three co-chairs representing the essential elements of any construction project ? the owner, the contractor and the building trades. Joseph W. Rinke represents the buyers of construction services, Robert P. Elsperman represents area construction contractors and Gerald T. Feldhaus represents the AFL-CIO building trades. The PRIDE board also includes representatives from 22 different AFL-CIO building trades as well as a diverse array of architectural, engineering and construction organizations: American Institute of Architects (AIA), St. Louis Chapter Associated General Contractors (AGC) of St. Louis Consulting Engineers Council of Missouri (CECMo) Construction Products Council (CPC) of St. Louis Council of Construction Employers (CCE) Flooring Industry Council Mechanical Contractors Association (MCA) of St. Louis National Association of Industrial & Office Parks National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), St. Louis Chapter Painting & Decorating Foundation (PDF) Plumbing Industry Council (PIC) St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO St. Louis Council of Construction Consumers (Business Roundtable) St. Louis Plastering Bureau Sheet Metal & Air-conditioning Contractors National Association (SMACNA), St. Louis Chapter Erectors and Riggers Association    By 1938, Lambert handled air traffic for 40,000 passengers with about 170,000 landings and take-offs. While World War II curtailed civilian air traffic, Lambert became a hub for aircraft construction when McDonnell Aircraft Corp. purchased land at Lambert for another vital construction project — aircraft factories. After the war, construction at Lambert began in earnest with Lambert’s main terminal, completed in 1956. The domed design became the forerunner of modern terminal building plans copied by both John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Located in the center of the region, Lambert’s gradual expansion has required careful design. The airport’s footprint is one of the smallest in the country for a major metropolitan area and yet Lambert efficiently handles an enormous amount of traffic. According to the Airport Council International, Lambert is the eighth busiest airport in North America for aircraft operations and 14th in total passengers — serving 27 million people a year. It has a $5.1 billion annual economic impact on the St. Louis region and employs 19,000. Lambert is also the hub of a major airline — TWA. The proposed expansion of Lambert will help sustain future economic growth in the St. Louis area. Above: The St. Louis area’s busiest bridge, the I-70 Blanchette Memorial Bridge, became one of the nation’s first “interstate bridges” in the 1950s. It handles more than 190,000 vehicles daily. Bridge Complexes In a community bisected by the two largest rivers in North America, the bridge complexes around the area function as a vital regional transportation link. At the turn of the 20th century, St. Louis had only one bridge for road traffic — the Eads Bridge. The remnants of the only other alternative to crossing a river can be found in the names of some of our streets today — Halls Ferry, Tesson Ferry and Lemay Ferry. The automobile made bridge-building a priority. Today, the bi-state economy is sustained by the highly trafficked Jefferson Barracks Bridge, Poplar Street Bridge, 270 Chain of Rocks Bridge, and Lewis and Clark Bridges linking Missouri and Illinois. The burgeoning opportunities in St. Charles County, Missouri’s fastest growing county, are dependent on the Daniel Boone Bridge (Highway 40/I-64), the Blanchette Memorial Bridge (I-70), the 370 Discovery Bridge and the Page Avenue extension bridge now under construction. Bridge building is among the most complex of construction jobs. With millions of gallons of water rushing by each minute, the start of any bridge project requires the building of cofferdams for building piers reaching deep into the river bed on foundations set 125 feet below the surface of the water. Bridge builders are constantly at the mercy of the ever-fluctuating channel. The oldest of today’s major bridge complexes is the Daniel Boone Bridge, built in 1935. As St. Charles County grew, it became necessary in 1988 to rehab the bridge and add a new section to handle east bound traffic. The Blanchette Memorial Bridge was one of the first interstate bridges built in the country, completed in 1958. In 1995, it became one of the first bridges in the area to receive a seismic retrofit to protect the structure against the effects of earthquakes. According to MODOT, it also handles the highest volume of bridge traffic in the area — more than 190,000 vehicles daily. Our most modern bridge is the Clark Bridge, which spans the Mississippi River at Alton, Mo. A “cable stay” bridge, it is both aesthetically pleasing and allows for much longer spans with fewer piers in the river — giving a wider berth for river traffic below. Above: The state-of-the-art Kiel Center serves a dual purpose as a sports arena and a venue for a full range of arena programming including concerts, ice shows and family shows. The Downtown Sports Complexes The development of professional sports franchises in the 20th century made an indelible mark on St. Louis. They created the need for great theaters for athletic dramas that helped identify St. Louis with its professional sports teams and gain its status as one of the best sports towns in America. While two sports complexes, Sportsman Park and the Arena, have vanished, the exhilarating memories of pinnacle athletic accomplishments remain. In the second half of this century, the construction industry has been called on to build the stages for another generation of memories. The three downtown sports complexes not only sustain the city’s storied sports teams, but have attracted new franchises. When Busch Stadium opened in 1966, it ushered in a new era in the design and construction of sports stadiums. Busch was designed to be an aesthetically pleasing and cost-efficient multi-purpose stadium for baseball and football. The unique arched canopy reflected the form of the Gateway Arch. The stadium was also one of the first in the country to have lower seating supported on bridge trusses that could be moved along a railroad track to configure the stadium for football or baseball. Above: The first of 19 large roof trusses is lifted into place in 1994 to support the 10 million pound roof of the Trans World Dome. A year later it was home of the St. Louis Rams and attracting large scale convention and trade shows. More importantly, Busch Stadium became synonymous with what is now widely recognized as the best baseball town in America. The St. Louis Cardinals have produced six championship teams in Busch Stadium, including five World Series appearances and two world championships. And Busch Stadium became the epicenter of baseball’s revival last year during a magical Labor Day weekend when Mark McGwire eclipsed the most storied record in sports. As the entertainment and sports industry grew, so did the need for another first-class multipurpose facility. Since 1934, Kiel Auditorium served that purpose, but with limited seating of only 9,000. Across town, the aging Arena was living out its last years as the home of the St. Louis Blues who were looking to relocate. In 1994, the construction industry completed Kiel Center on the former site of Kiel Auditorium, giving the city the state-of-the-art facility it needed for the Blues and a full range of arena programming, including concerts, ice shows, family shows and other sporting events. Today, Kiel Center plays host to about 200 events a year with a seating capacity of 22,000. It is ranked as one of the top 10 arenas in the country bringing nearly two million guests to downtown St. Louis annually. The Trans World Dome proved to be the clincher in bringing the Rams football team to St. Louis in 1995, the year the dome was completed. The original purpose of the construction, though, was to achieve the city’s goal of doubling the size of the convention center to attract larger trade shows and conventions. As part of the convention center, the Trans World Dome helped attract a half million people to downtown St. Louis in 1998, according to the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission. It has also proved to be a highly desired venue for national sporting events. According to the St. Louis Sports Commission, the college basketball Midwest regionals held at the Trans World Dome last spring was the N.C.A.A.’s largest revenue producer, netting $3 million. The Trans World Dome is also a model of modern construction design. The 10-million-pound roof was assembled separately, but is not attached to the dome. Instead, it is secured by its tremendous weight resting on Teflon-coated plates so it will slide on the building and not collapse in on the structure in the event of an earthquake. The dome also has two lighting systems — one for sporting events and another that can be lowered to create a 50-foot ceiling for conventions and trade shows. Retractable lower stands expand usable floor space from 100,000 square feet to 165,000 square feet. It’s hard to imagine the next 100 years exceeding the 20th century’s capacity for building. And yet innovative ideas are already finding form in construction projects that will impact the next generation. MetroLink is just beginning to scratch its potential. The information age seemingly has unlimited possibilities to produce projects that enhance how people communicate and do business with one another. Keeping pace will be a constant challenge — one that the 60,000 St. Louisans now employed in the construction industry are ready to face as the best trained work force in the country. Ed Abbett is executive director of PRIDE of St. Louis, Inc.

December 1999 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cover Story THE TOP 20 OF THE 20th CENTURY Profile William Compton President & Chief Executive Officer Trans World Airlines - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.stlrcga.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - www.technologygateway.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - PROUD CENTURY OF BUILDING PROUD CENTURY OF BUILDING - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -