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In 1936, National Parks Service landscape architect Charles Peterson proposed the creation of a museum of American architecture as a part of the development of the newly authorized Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Its goal, he wrote, would be "to conserve for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, their heritage of architectural achievement." In the following years the Memorial was realized in the form of Eero Saarinen's Gateway Arch, but the museum of American architecture never materialized.

Meanwhile, the need for such a museum only increased. The passage of the urban renewal act of 1954 and the interstate highway bill of 1956, together with the cumulative effect of decades of urban disinvestment, contributed to the destruction of thousands of historic buildings around the country in the decades following World War II.

Larry Giles, among others, was aghast that such a large part of our heritage was being completely obliterated. Beginning in the early 1970s, he set out to recover and preserve significant artifacts from as many of these buildings as he could. By working with demolition contractors, neighborhoods, and preservationists, he was able to document and to save many building artifacts and, in numerous cases, entire building facades; in the process he amassed the largest private architectural collection in the United States.

Today, the Giles collection consists of more than 250,000 items; it includes more than 80,000 pieces of terra cotta, 30,000 ornamental bricks, and hundreds of examples of architectural stonework, sgraffito, metal, roofing tile, glass, and other types of building materials. The architectural library, one of the largest in private hands in the United States, contains over 25,000 original drawings, and 25,000 rare and out-of-print books, periodicals, trade catalogs, and original source material from many architectural material manufacturers.

In 2003, the St. Louis Building Arts Foundation (a non-profit foundation which controls the collection) and the Civic Entrepreneurs Organization proposed the investigation of the development of a national museum of architecture on the St. Louis waterfront.

A Policy and Programming Committee was formed to determine the mission and vision of such a museum and ultimately the programming for such a facility.

The committee consisted of leading museum curators, architects, educators, and preservationists. The committee met from January to August of 2004 and developed the following mission and vision statements.

Mission

The National Architectural Arts Center will promote public awareness and appreciation of architecture, urban design, and construction through its unparalleled collection, with an emphasis on conservation, education and related exhibits.

Vision

In the year 2020, the National Architectural Arts Center is internationally recognized as the nation's resource center for conservation architecture, urban design, and construction. With national and regional partners it leads the country in academic, vocational and professional education in historic preservation, architecture, development, planning and history. From a prize-winning facility on the banks of the Mississippi River -- in the heart of the nation, it tells the story of American architecture.

Based on these mission and vision statements, the committee developed the attached programming concept outlining the preservation of our heritage through collection, conservation, education, exhibitions, and support.

Back to the Policy and Programming Report