For years, Memorial Drive was a source of connection problems between the Gateway Mall and the Arch Grounds.

Imagined by the winners of the 2009 international design competition, Framing a Modern Masterpiece, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates corrected this issue by designing a "lid" to be placed over the depressed highway with a landscaped plaza acting as a median.

Various calls were made for placing a lid over the sunken highway, and designs were drawn up by the large, locally based firm HOK.

The Missouri Department of Transportation did several studies to research the impact of closing the road and diverting traffic along other routes.

So far, nothing has happened, but in 2009, MoDOT applied for stimulus funds for repairs on Memorial Drive which would keep it more or less as it is.