Redesigned Forest Park Entrance Will Improve Mobility, Invite Visitors to Top Urban Park

The design includes a decorative steel armature spanning Lagoon Drive announcing “Forest Park, est. 1876” to visitors and passersby at the busy intersection with Skinker Boulevard, a major north-south thoroughfare that borders WashU’s Danforth campus.

A rendering of park benches surrounded by plantings at the proposed garden nodes is in the foreground, with the arched entrance way in the background.

New garden nodes on the north and south sides of the entrance will provide resting and meetings spaces for visitors, while plantings managed by Forest Park Forever will both create a transition into the Park and form a buffer with the Probstein Golf Course.

Forest Park Forever and the City of St. Louis are enhancing access and adding amenities at one of Forest Park’s busiest entrances. Plans for the intersection of Lagoon Drive and Skinker Boulevard call for improved visibility for pedestrians and drivers, additional seating and plantings and an inviting plaza to enjoy the Musicians Memorial and Fountain, which was originally dedicated 100 years ago.

This privately funded project is one of three Forest Park entrances that will be getting improvements over the next few years. The Forest Park Master Plan approved by the City of St. Louis in 1995 recommended highly visible and inviting markers at all Forest Park entrances. In 2017, a redesign for the Wells Drive entrance at Skinker was completed with repaved street, a limestone “Forest Park” entry marker, new sidewalks and benches, safer pedestrian crossings, additional free street parking, and upgraded LED lighting.

The plans unveiled for the Lagoon entrance, reviewed and supported by the Forest Park Advisory Board at its meeting on Thursday, Dec. 18, will include a variety of visual and structural enhancements that reflect the character of this entrance to the Park while inviting visitors into one of the country’s best urban parks:

  • Additional signage and traffic calming measures will improve flow and safety for pedestrians and vehicles.

  • A well-defined stone and steel archway will clearly distinguish the Park from the surrounding urban environment and WashU campus and invite visitors to enter.

  • Seating areas on the north and south sides of Lagoon Drive will serve as resting and meeting places with new landscaping and wayfinding signage.

  • Wide pedestrian pathways flanking the archway will welcome and direct pedestrians to sidewalks on the north and south sides of Lagoon Drive.

  • The new sidewalk on the heavily pedestrian-trafficked north side of Lagoon Drive will stretch from Skinker Boulevard to a crosswalk just west of the entrance to the Norman K. Probstein Golf Courses.

  • A newly accessible and completely redesigned setting for the Musicians Memorial and Fountain—reoriented to invite pedestrians to linger—includes seating, lighting and extensive landscaping, creating the perception of a smaller park within the Park.

  • New trees—117 total—will instantly transform the space after the May 16 tornado destroyed most trees at this intersection.

A rendering of the Musicians Memorial and Fountain features a pool of water with three vertical streams of water and a relief monument in the background. The site is surrounded by benches and plantings.

The project also includes a path and seating area connecting to a restored Musicians Memorial and Fountain, which was dedicated in 1925.

Some of the new trees, including dawn redwoods, will continue to create a more forested, insulated space in the years and decades to come. 

“This is a dynamic urban intersection with vibrant activity on all four corners,” said Andy Newman, trustee of the Eric P & Evelyn E. Newman Foundation, which is the lead donor for this project. “It’s only fitting that this entrance provide a sense of place that was previously missing – announcing to local and international visitors alike that they have arrived at Forest Park, and inviting them to explore a civic asset that means so much to St. Louis.”

SWT Design of St. Louis is the lead designer on the project. Construction at the Lagoon entrance will begin early in 2026 and is expected to conclude by the end of that year.

Concurrently, plans are underway to improve two other entrances to Forest Park. One is part of the Union and Lindell Boulevards double bridge reconstruction. The other is the Hospital Drive entrance from Kingshighway, where Jefferson Lake recently received major improvements and a restored Steinberg Rink will reopen in 2026 as part of the 22.5-acre Glade.

Capital Projects, AnnouncementsDominik Jansky