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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Downtown - a Core of Discovery

Have you ever heard the phrase "there's nothing to do downtown"?

The National Park Service's answer to this is the Downtown "Core of Discovery".


With the ongoing City Arch River 2015 design competition, it's great to see the NPS express its dedication towards connecting the Arch to downtown in the meantime.

Each attraction has a nice informational page that will certainly be of use to tourists if this website is well-advertised. I particularly like the Flickr photo pools for each listed attraction. My favorite part, though, is the downtown architecture tour.


It's a 20-stop architectural smorgasbord. The tour covers the greatest hits (the Wainwright Building), the modern marvels (the Zinc building), house museums (the Campbell House), and more.


It might seem like a small step on the part of the NPS, but clearly much thought has gone into the design of this site and the marketing of our downtown. I applaud this effort and am excited that I'll be here in person to witness the more radical interventions that will be proposed this fall as a part of the Archgrounds International Design Competition.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

very nice. now, if we can just get that online tour translated into physical signage a la DC's walking tours, i'll be a happy camper.

Anonymous said...

Agreed, Adam.

I would have liked to have seen Raeder Place on this virtual tour also.

Eric Thoelke said...

We're very glad that you like the Core of Discovery site and tours. The site is actually sponsored by Metro, with the NPS and the Jefferson National Parks Association as presenting partners. Lots more to come on the site! Keep checking back.

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