St. Louis Science Center Guest Experience and Facility Reconfiguration Concept/Master Plan
Response to Request for Proposals
Guest Experience and Facility Reconfiguration
Concept/Master Plan
Prepared for: July 29, 2025
July 29, 2025
Lyn Gordon
St. Louis Science Center
5050 Oakland Avenue
St. Louis, Missouri 63110
Response to Request for Proposals - Guest Experience and Facility Reconfiguration Concept/Master Plan
Members of the Selection Committee,
Your belief in science as a means to improve lives, transform communities, and empower future generations aligns closely with our approach to architecture and design. We share the conviction that through connection to community and by leveraging our strengths with curiosity and engagement, we can go far.
As the St. Louis Science Center strives to enhance the guest experience aligned with your institutional goals, our team brings expertise in renewing and reinvigorating public experiences through thoughtful design. We have contributed to some of the most challenging, diverse, and compelling visitor experience enhancements for some of the region’s most highly regarded institutions.
To thrive, these institutions require increased and diversified attendance while successfully navigating multiple funding streams with effective space utilization and placing a high value on coveted donor dollars. We understand how to work creatively within non-profit schedules and budgets, which has led to the creation of meaningful, transformative work. Building upon history and looking beyond embodied constraints as opportunities, we will work with you to open new possibilities to bring an elevated guest experience to light.
Change, whether in policy, approach, or spatial design, can be challenging, but the process doesn’t have to be. Just as a kite needs tension to fly, a project soars when it embraces those challenges with curiosity, joy in problem-solving, integrity of purpose, and openness to every contributing idea.
Preparing minds, young and old, for curiosity, discovery, and exploration as you envision a sustainable and thriving future is the kind of work in which we excel because we know, and deeply believe, that it will make a lasting positive difference in people’s lives.
Best Regards, Trivers
Joel Fuoss, AIA, IIDA, LEED AP Principal
SLSC IS YOUR MUSEUM
01 firm background
Trivers was founded in St. Louis 50 years ago on values that still characterize the firm today: creating architecture of lasting positive consequence. In a city renowned for its historic architecture, we established a reputation for thoughtful design that responded to context. Our early focus on historic renovation and adaptive reuse rapidly grew to include ground up construction. Today, while continuing our commitment to St. Louis as an architecture, planning, urban design and interiors firm, we work for a range of clients across the country providing expertise in civic, education, hospitality, housing and workplace design services.
Creating designs that balance the complex interplay of people, environment and buildings is at the core of how we work. For us, balance is a both/and proposition. It’s not about sacrifice, it’s about reaching higher. We let the needs of the project define the process. We listen. As we create the vision, we consider what it will take to secure it every step of the way. Throughout, we include the creativity of the entire team – staff, collaborators, and our clients.
We keep a constant vigil on the goal. It’s not about being either an idealist or a number cruncher. It’s not about aesthetics or practicality, sustainability or profitability, community or individual user. It’s about all these things. As we work together to reach higher, we find the result is always more than the sum of its parts.
We entered this project with a wide range of ideas and lofty aspirations, and the Trivers team has matched our energy every step of the way while also helping to guide us through the process. As nonprofit organizations that are often stretched thin with our mission-based work, the support and flexibility from Trivers has been invaluable. They have demonstrated repeatedly a commitment to being excellent partners and we have developed high trust in their expertise, judgment, and alignment.
Architectural 27 (17 licensed) Interiors 4 Administration 3 Total 34
Awards
130+ Total Design Awards
30+ AIA Design Awards
Capacity
Trivers has a long and diverse history of working with non-profit entities, particularly here in St. Louis. At time of submission, we are currently working with 13 St. Louis non-profits on a myriad of project typologies. Each nonprofit is as unique as the population they are designed to serve. With our rich history of successfully collaborating with non-profits, we understand organizational missions and the need to achieve more with less. As we focus on innovative partnerships, we strategically structure our teams for the best fit for the project, client, and availability while uncovering the most effective, sustainable, and fiscally responsible solutions to fulfill an organization’s core objectives.
02 key personnel
EDUCATION
Master of Architecture, 2002
Washington University
Bachelor of Science, Architectural Studies, 2000
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
REGISTRATION
Registered Architect: MO, IL, MI, MN, OH, TX
LEED Accredited Professional
EDUCATION
Master of Architecture, 2005
University of Southern California
Bachelor of Arts, Architecture, 2000
Washington University
REGISTRATION
Registered Architect: MO
LEED Accredited Professional, BD+ C
SEED Certified Professional
JOEL FUOSS, AIA, IIDA, LEED AP
PRINCIPAL-IN-CHARGE, TRIVERS ($230/hour)
Joel believes that as members of our communities, we should never take more than we give. This mindset is the basis of Joel’s approach to architectural design and practice and his drive to improve our world and built environment. In his leadership role at Trivers, Joel consistently champions thoughtful, creative design solutions throughout every phase of the project. He has been pivotal in some of the firm’s most visible, complex projects including the Gateway Arch Museum, Adam Aronson Fine Arts Center at Laumeier Sculpture Park, the Art & Design Building Expansion and Renovation at Southern Illinois University and the University of Pikeville Health Professions Education Building, all of which were recognized with multiple design awards from the AIA.
• Gateway Arch Museum
• The Sheldon Concert Hall and Galleries
• Adam Aronson Fine Arts Center at Laumeier Sculpture Park
• The Audubon Center at Riverlands
• Washington University Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum Lower Level Galleries + Gallery Shop
• PBS Nine Renovation
• Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Art & Design Building Addition and Renovation
AMANDA TRUEMPER, AIA, LEED AP BD+C
PROJECT MANAGER, TRIVERS
($175/hour)
Leveraging nearly 25 years of experience, Amanda specializes in facility programming and branded environments paired with a passion for historic and adaptive reuse. Throughout her career she has worked on projects in the cultural, workplace, hospitality, mixed-use, retail, education, and mission-driven sectors while contributing to business development and strategic management initiatives. Her reputation for excellence is based on her creative vision, which she pairs with strong project coordination, clear communication, savvy decision making, and thoughtful mentorship. Amanda’s work has been honored with awards from the AIA, IIDA Gateway Chapter, Illuminating Engineering Society, and Landmarks Association of St. Louis.
• The Sheldon Concert Hall and Galleries
• PBS Nine Renovation
• Northside Movement Hub
• US Bank Plaza Repositioning
• 100 N. Broadway Atrium Transformation
• Trivers Office at The Victor
• Jubilee Wellness Center
Museum/exhibit spaces denoted in orange
EDUCATION
Master of Interior Architecture and Product Design, 2010 Kansas State University
REGISTRATION
Licensed Interior Designer LEED Green Associate
EDUCATION
Master of Science Mechanical Engineering, 1995 Missouri University of Science and Technology
Bachelor of Science Mechanical
Engineering, 1994 Missouri University of Science and Technology
REGISTRATION
Professional Engineer: Missouri, Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Virginia
SAM LANG, NCIDQ, LEED GA
INTERIOR DESIGNER, TRIVERS ($135/hour)
Sam is a Senior Interior Designer with nearly 15 years of experience in cultural, higher education, workplace and healthcare design. Sam is a licensed interior designer who has worked on award-winning projects such as the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and the Edward Jones office building. She is a member of CREW and a volunteer for Perennial St. Louis and Home Sweet Home.
• The Sheldon Concert Hall and Galleries
• Center of Creative Arts Expansion*
• Washington University Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts Renovation*
• Nestle Purina Conference and Exhibit Space*
• PBS Nine Renovation
• Maplewood Public Library Renovations
• Northside Movement Hub
• Jubilee Community Wellness Center
• John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse Building Design Standards
*project completed prior to joining Trivers
KEITH ESAREY, PE
MEP PRINCIPAL, MCCLURE ENGINEERING ($295/hour)
can offer 10% non-profit discount
Keith specializes in environmental systems for museums and archives, focusing on precise climate control. He partners with Midwest cultural institutions, including the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Missouri Historical Society, to design, analyze, and commission new and existing environmental systems, ensuring optimal preservation conditions.
• St. Louis Science Center McDonnell Planetarium Renovation
• St. Louis Science Center New Entry Planning and Programming, and Conceptual Design
• St. Louis Science Center Building Pressurization and Control Study, Implementation, and RCx
• St. Louis Science Center Stage Renovation
• PBS Nine Renovation Planning, Programming, and Design
• Steinberg Ice Skating Rink Renovation Planning, Programming, Design, and Construction
• Powell Hall Renovation and Expansion Planning, Programming, Design, and Construction
• St. Louis Art Museum Facility Study & Master Planning
• Missouri History Museum Master Planning
• Allen Memorial Art Museum Renovations Facility Assessment, Programming, Design, and Construction
Museum/exhibit spaces denoted in orange
03 capabilities
The Trivers team is well-versed in assisting with stakeholder engagement sessions and the creation of meaningful capital campaign materials. We are able to be your partner in shaping the SLSC vision, building consensus, and ultimately executing creative solutions through built projects. Through strategic partnering in this submission, we offer MEP engineering and cost estimating along with our internal architectural planning and interior design team.
Sustainability
Sustainability has always been the ultimate architectural value. Sustaining the environment because maximum efficiency is designed into a project, sustaining a building because it’s built of quality materials, sustaining operations, sustaining community and, ultimately, sustaining people.
Building reuse is a key sustainable principle and SLSC is a solid asset to leverage. Within the context of reuse and balancing new and existing systems with a mind to operational and life-cycle cost savings, sustainable strategies will be employed to improve energy performance above baseline EUI (Energy Use Intensity).
We realize we have a responsibility as individuals and as a profession to deepen our commitment to sustainability as a major part of all of our work. Trivers is an eight-year signatory to the AIA 2030 Commitment to reduce carbon emissions generated by the built environment of our buildings and is dedicated to repurposing millions of square feet of underperforming buildings for reuse. In 2023, Trivers also signed the AIA Architecture and Design Materials Pledge to ensure all products are selected to prioritize social, economic, and environmental health.
Current Non-Profit Clients
• American Cancer Society
• Arch City Defenders
• DOORWAYS
• Family Care Health Centers
• Gateway Arch Park Foundation
• Jubilee Development Services
• KIPP Charter School
• Lift for Life Academy
• PBS Nine
• Promise Community Homes
• Saint Patrick Center
• The Sheldon
• Tower Grove Park
lambert airport
design charrette
pbs nine
04 similar projects
gateway arch museum
As an iconic monument of public art, the Gateway Arch is instilled with meaning and beauty of one of the most identifiable objects of American architecture. Typical of many rust belt cities, construction of the adjacent interstate highway had diminished and isolated the City from the monument and its associated riverfront. The design of the renovated accompanying Museum and entry addresses the pragmatic and aspirational shortcomings of the past.
The majority of the existing interior was reconfigured into new galleries, public amenities, and staff offices. The original architectural elements were preserved, and their distinctive character highlighted with new lighting and other discrete interventions. The addition houses a new free-access public lobby that also serves as a visitor center for the entire Park.
The new circular stainless steel and glass entrance refers to the monument in its materiality and form. An arc laid on to the landscape and precisely inserted into the original landscape design, allows visitors to enter the building through the landscape. As one enters, the luminous great hall is revealed with views deep into the underground Museum’s monumentally scaled exhibits. The design creates a coherent and memorable visit by integrating the Museum content with the monument itself. Based on Universal Design Standards that exceed the legal requirements of the ADA and federal-mandated ABAAS standards, the Museum creates fully accessible access for all ages and abilities.
This project demonstrates that thoughtful consideration of historic fabric coupled with a bold yet subtle intervention, can reinvigorate an American icon.
Size
113,000 SF renovation
45,500 SF addition
Budget and Schedule $108M, 2011-2024
Multiple phases
Awards
20+ including: AIA St. Louis, AIA Central States, Chicago Athenaeum, DOCOMOMO, BD+C, ENR, ACEC, WSJ, Arch. Digest
Reference Eric Moraczewski Former Executive Director Gateway Arch Park Foundation eric@nmblstrategies.com 202.570.5597
The project is simultaneously assertive and bold while being subtle and quiet. It transforms the relationship of the monument to both the park and greater city, while formally integrating with the original landscape design.
Kim Yao, Juror, AIA St. Louis
old courthouse
The Old Courthouse in St. Louis stands on land donated in 1823 for court use. The original 1833 courthouse was replaced by a larger Greek Revival structure, designed by Henry Singleton. Constructed in phases from 1839 to 1861, its cruciform plan features a central rotunda, four courtyards and an Italianate cast iron and copper dome, predating the U.S. Capitol’s. Historic trials held here include Dred Scott v. Sandford and Virginia Minor v. Happersett. The deteriorating building was vacated in 1930, became part of the National Park Service in 1940 and opened as a museum in 1943.
The National Park Service and Gateway Arch Park Foundation are united in their mission to enhance access to the Old Courthouse while preserving its historic integrity. With the second phase completed in early 2025, the building now boasts 70% improved staff access and 50% improved public access. New exhibits highlight the building’s architectural significance and its pivotal role in shaping U.S. history.
Design sensitivity was critical. Every element, from mechanical systems to signage and the placement of the building’s first elevator, was carefully planned to balance visitor experience with preservation. Phase 1 projects, completed while the museum remained open, included exterior ramps, interior accessibility and a temporary visitor center. Phase 2 introduced a full exhibit renovation, new elevator, updated mechanical systems, fire protection and window replacement.
For the first time since the National Park Service occupied the space in the 1940s, inclusive access to the second-floor rotunda and courtrooms is possible, transforming the visitor experience.
Size
87,000 SF
Budget and Schedule
$27M, 2014-2025 Multiple phases
Awards
Most Enhanced Award, Landmarks Association of St. Louis
Reference
Anna Leavey Former Director of Construction Gateway Arch Park Foundation anna@leaveyllc.com 314.322.9223
They have excelled at each phase of multiple projects because of their ability to work with multiple stakeholders, maintain clear communication both in verbal and graphic presentations to convey ideas, and are responsive to issues as they arise and address them in a timely manner.
Anna Leavey
the sheldon
The Sheldon is a unique institution in the St. Louis cultural landscape, hosting a blend of music and visual arts. Located in the Grand Center arts district, it features a historic 700+ seat concert hall and an annex converted parking structure housing galleries, event spaces, and offices. Originally a 1920’s parking garage, the annex now serves as the public entrance to the concert hall but struggled with arrival experience, undersized lobbies, restrooms, limited vertical circulation, and poor wayfinding.
Trivers conducted a planning and conceptual study to address these challenges, enhance the art galleries’ presence, and improve wayfinding and visitor experience. The design reorganizes spaces by relocating gallery areas to the first-floor lobby, reconfiguring second-floor pre-function and support spaces, and introducing a new central communicating stair to connect the annex vertically. This creates a seamless flow from the lobby to the second-floor galleries, bar, and concert hall, visually and functionally connecting spaces.
The design strategy highlights original annex elements like concrete columns and polished concrete floors, creating a clean, simple aesthetic for the galleries while melding with a more refined material palette for the hospitality zones. Expanded restrooms and relocated bar functions further enhance the hospitality/pre-function areas, uniting the galleries with performance spaces. The redesigned secondfloor pre-function area becomes a “living room” for the Sheldon, integrating its concert hall, galleries, and event spaces. This transformation embodies the institution’s mission of “arts without borders,” fostering connection among artists, performers, and the public.
Completion: September 30, 2025
Size
20,000 SF
Budget and Schedule $11M, 2022-2025
Reference
Peter Palermo, Executive Director The Sheldon ppalermo@thesheldon.org 314.533.9900
It has been a pleasure to work alongside the team from Trivers. From the first meeting, they understood that The Sheldon is a beloved St. Louis space and our work to modernize our visitor experience had to work with – and not against- our 110 year old Concert Hall. This is a difficult design problem that they have handled expertly. They bring such joy and energy to the work that I find myself looking forward to our weekly meetings – building things is fun!
Peter Palermo
PHASE 1 existing plans (demolition scope)
PHASE 1 proposed plans
PHASE 2 existing plans (demolition scope)
PHASE 2 proposed plans
05 approach
We believe that buildings can and should make a meaningful difference in their communities. Working with existing structures is at the core of what we do; where others see limitations, we see possibilities. We dig deep for solutions to hard problems, aligning well with big thinkers to move forward.
This is an opportunity to reimagine your guest experience to reflect the future SLSC. We extract that desire, that vision and manifest it through the design iterations and feasibility of budget to envision a building that enhances the guest experience and amplifies science.
Our integrated listening process yields solutions as unique as you are. It starts at the beginning, understanding what you’re truly saying, surfacing underlying themes to which goals are clearly stated and prioritized. We want initial concepts formed collectively and iterated through stakeholder meetings, designs, model representations, precedent studies, and a myriad of other tools to bring your vision to life in tandem together with your exhibit designer.
Trust is built through the process, working together hand in hand with architects, engineers and the SLSC team to find solutions to complex problems. As the project moves through the process, it is tested with the realities of funding, evaluated with the onset goals to truly achieve the project’s original purpose. We do not “VE”, but use this step to create core project clarity. Clarity to what is essential for your purpose to succeed and remove what doesn’t support that mission.
From submission to design and beyond, our entire team presented to you remains committed to your project throughout. We are here in St. Louis, led by individuals that have personal stakes in this firm and the community in which we work. We are an ambassador to your mission as community-centered projects take patience, attention, and trust. To that end, by deepening the understanding of yourselves and your SLSC community, we will be there at every step to help you flourish.
“
Trivers, our illustrative architects, never have we felt so heard. They listened to our team to understand our needs and the type of environment that we wanted to create here and they simply knocked it out of the park. We love our new home and we hope our clients will too. ”
Opal Jones
CEO, DOORWAYS
mildred lane kemper art museum
the audubon center at riverlands
adam aronson fine arts center at laumeier sculpture park
While LEED, Well Building, and/or Fitwel best practices will be incorporated in proposed design solutions, full certification is not included in Base Services but can be provided by Trivers as a Supplemental Service if desired.
Rates of Compensation
The following represents Trivers’ 2025 hourly service rates:
• Principal $230.00
• Senior Project Manager $175.00
• Project Manager $135.00
• Senior Project Architect $135.00
• Project Architect $130.00
• Senior Project Designer $125.00
• Project Designer $120.00
• Senior Interior Designer $135.00
• Interior Designer $130.00
“Every day, as I witness the experience our visitors are having, as well as what they walk away with in terms of new knowledge about the river and its wildlife, I am deeply grateful for the incredible design elements of our building. The building practically pours our visitors into the landscape, and that has served our goals of education and conservation of these beautiful, special places.
Patricia Hagen, PhD Former Executive Director, The Audubon Center at Riverlands
Joel Fuoss, AIA, IIDA, LEED AP Principal jfuoss@trivers.com
