The Bi-State Development Agency is more than just the transit authority for Greater St. Louis and East Illinois, building and maintaining the MetroLink and MetroBus system; it’s also an official partner of the National Park Service, and shares a deep commitment to delivering excellence to the visitor experience at Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. In addition to operating the Arch’s tram system Bi-State operates the Gateway Arch Riverboats and the customer service reservation center; manages group sales; creates visitor itineraries; provides tour guides for the Journey to the Top tram ride experience; and schedules the museum educational programming and interpretive programming at Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.  This multi-functional, tax-based government agency is dedicated to not only building a modern public transit system throughout the region but attracting tourism and commerce to the symbolic heart of the city.

The Challenges

Bi-State’s revenues are from federal, state and local sources and while The St. Louis Gateway Arch has its own budget, the economic downturn that affected much of the US over the past five years brought an ongoing focus on budgets as an agency priority. One bright spot though has been the region’s ongoing investment in the downtown St. Louis riverfront. With development underway for a new and improved park and the St. Louis Gateway Arch museum, Bi-State needed a website that reflected the iconic nature of the monument and advertised all the great attractions of the park, but they also had a budget and an aggressive timeline coinciding with the Arch’s 50th birthday. 

The Solution

Roundedcube proposed a site built in Kentico CMS. This cutting-edge content and experience management platform gives the Bi-State staff all the tools required to run a modern website at a real value. In conjunction with local design and branding firm Dovetail, Roundedcube developed a concept inspired by the dizzying majesty of the St. Louis Gateway Arch. The responsive website provides users a unique experience and puts important park and museum information at their fingertips. 

The Results 

This on-time, on-budget website at www.gatewayarch.com is an invaluable communications platform as the development of the St. Louis Gateway Arch grounds continues, the Museum plans for its grand re-opening and tourism to the landmark increases. With Bi-State’s investment in Kentico, they have a solid CMS platform that will continue to serve them, perhaps for the next 50 years, providing software updates and new and improved functionality for a fraction of the cost of other commercial .Net CMS.