Going deep on the history of an American monument

Because this was an internal project, we’re providing an overview rather than case study.

This is the Gateway Arch’s story—told in words and pictures as a beautiful, info-packed, five-color, 24×36 inch poster. Love the Arch? Know someone who loves the Arch? You’re going to love this.

October 28, 2015 marked the 50th anniversary of the “topping out” of the Gateway Arch. On a sunny fall day in 1965 a custom-built climbing derrick placed a final 10-ton triangle of stainless steel at the top of this huge, shining arch. The St. Louis Metropolitan Fire Department had to hose down the unlikely structure with cool water—it had expanded five inches in the sun’s heat and the last piece wouldn’t fit, apparently confirming many skeptics’ warnings that architect Eero Saarinen’s most famous project was doomed to fail.

But, with cold water coaxing the hot steel to relax, and 450 tons of hydraulic pressure convincing the north and the south legs to part, three decades of competition, controversy, and construction met 630 feet above the Mississippi River and became the incredible, fantastic, majestic Gateway Arch.

Here’s more on the making of this collectible poster.