Well, this means next to nothing, but if those who spend their time on urbanSTL had their say, SOM-Hargreaves-BIG would be the winning Arch grounds design team. With 1,000 votes registered, the team almost doubled the votes of second place Wiess-Manfredi, 51.3% to 28.8%. Behnisch was the choice of 13.1% while PWP and MVVA garnered a little less enthusiasm. In three weeks we'll know if this gauge of opinion mirrors that of the jury or misses entirely.

(Click here to see full reviews, design team narratives, and presentation boards)

For five days in May, I found myself in New Orleans. I'd been there once before, in 1993 to see the Final Four in the Louisiana Superdome. I was 16 and to be honest, don't remember much outside the 15 hour drive to get there, an eye-opening midday walk down Bourbon Street and the basketball games. I'm now 33, have a deeper appreciation for architecture, culture and food - all of which play a big role in what makes a city. Obviously I'm not the only one who's changed in the past 17 years, New Orleans has changed and changed again since then.

I was determined to see New Orleans with eyes wide open. Fearing I might miss the essence of NOLA if I were to grab a random guidebook, I enlisted the help of Matt Mourning (Dotage St. Louis), a one-time NOLA resident and a guy with more love and knowledge of the city than anyone I know. Matt's excellent NOLA guide can be found below. To get the most out of the experience, my wife and I were determined to walk much of the city and eat at least four meals a day. It was a great experience, but to be honest, the visit left me wondering why St. Louis isn't as celebrated as NOLA.

The project to rebuild the Manchester Avenue streetscape has been in the works for nearly two years. In March 2009 it was announced that East-West Gateway had awarded $1.45M for lighting enhancements along the corridor and other funds had been allocated to create a better streetscape. The neighborhood and commercial strip have made remarkable strides over the past decade, but Manchester Avenue remained marked by broken sidewalks, poor lighting and signage, and accessibility issues.

While South Grand has received a lot of attention with its sewer pot experiment and the winning-over of the City streets department and local aldermen, Manchester has quietly begun to be transformed. Construction started several weeks ago and is quickly moving from east to west. Similar to South Grand, the project will reduce traffic lanes from four to two between Taylor and Sarah Avenues. For those of you into construction drawings, particulars of pedestrian lighting, street furniture, bike racks and more, check out the documents below (recently posted by the excellent Park Central Development/17th Ward blog).

{Saarinen, left and Kiley, right as depicted in a mural at the Arch grounds}

My assumption looking at the high-powered design teams vying to introduce the next century to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, was that each of the five finalists had followed the same formula, successfully recruiting the necessary components, accumulating the required artistry and expertise to make the final cut. There are historians-cultural and built, landscape architects, freshwater hydrologists, engineers-transportation and civil, and more.

Glancing at the previous projects of each reveals the shear capability of the remaining teams: Chrissy Field, Millennium Park, Ground Zero Memorial, Olympic Park and many other challenging and amazing projects. All in their own style, each team is something of a dream team looking to forever join their name with Saarinen and Kiley. However, one team, and one person specifically, is on a mission unlike the others.