From Forest Park Forever Press Release
February 13, 2025 – The nonprofit conservancy Forest Park Forever and the City of St. Louis have unveiled a community-driven, world-class design to restore Steinberg Rink and transform its 22.5-acre surroundings into the Glade, a new all-season destination that will improve access to eastern Forest Park and invite community members to the previously winter-centric amenity through all 12 months of the year.
Nearly 70 years old, the rink and building are in need of extensive repairs, with several aging systems, including the ice refrigeration and the building’s HVAC needing complete replacement. The building also experiences frequent leaks from the rooftop, which does not serve its purpose as a terrace. The Forest Park Master Plan, approved by the City of St. Louis in 1995 to guide projects in the Park, challenged Park stewards to dream bigger, by imagining a recreational amenity that operates in all seasons.
The first steps to address this goal included a feasibility study in 2018, while three phases of community engagement have helped project leaders consider what would draw community members to the site in all seasons. With that public input, a recent amendment to the Master Plan suggested creating a cohesive space that knits together built and natural spaces around the site.
Park leaders and supporters have taken this opportunity to revitalize not only the rink and pavilion but also to imagine the Glade, an iconic, inviting space that will harmonize the rink and its surroundings. Forest Park Forever is leading a $100 million fundraising campaign, Imagine the Glade, to make this bold vision a reality, with generous lead gifts raising over 60% toward that goal and enabling the project to get underway now. Construction is set to begin in March 2025 and take 20 months to complete. Fundraising began two years ago and will continue through the reopening of the site in fall 2026.
Welcoming to All: Building Upon the Steinberg Vision
Steinberg opened in 1957 with a lead gift from Etta Steinberg, who amid the segregation of that period, stipulated that the new facility must be open to people of all races and backgrounds. Throughout the redesign process, City and Forest Park Forever leaders and a world-class design team have built upon that original intent; when listening to the community and exploring design options, they have been guided by this vision statement:
“To reimagine the Steinberg area as a place for all-season fun that is equitably, environmentally, and economically sustainable and inspires a variety of structured and unstructured activities that are welcoming to all.”
“Our design team and our community supporters have taken that welcoming, inclusive vision to heart and come up with a design that will invite all in our community to explore Forest Park,” said Larry Thomas, who was chair of the Forest Park Forever Board of Directors when the project was conceived and who has served on its design and fundraising subcommittees throughout the process.
“The history of our nonprofit conservancy’s public-private partnership with the City includes not only restoring iconic destinations and landscapes, but also transforming them in ways that anticipate how future visitors will use the Park,” said Lesley Hoffarth, Forest Park Forever President and Executive Director. “Like Art Hill, Emerson Grand Basin, the World’s Fair Pavilion, the Anne O’C. Albrecht Nature Playscape and Nicholas J. Booker Basketball Courts before it, the Glade will continue Park improvements while creating new ways for the community to gather and enjoy green spaces like never before.”
“Etta Steinberg’s gift to the City of St. Louis and Forest Park back in 1957 created one of several features that make Forest Park so unique and enjoyable,” said Greg Hayes, Director of Parks, Recreation, and Forestry. “With skating now surrounded by so much more, the Glade will be yet another reason why Forest Park is among the best city parks in the country.”
The project will also breathe additional life into eastern Forest Park, an area that is underutilized by the Park’s 15.5 million annual visitors.
“These 22.5 acres border the City’s most densely populated neighborhood and its largest employer, just north of the Brickline Greenway’s future entrance to the Park,” said John Kemper, Chair of the Forest Park Forever Board of Directors. “With so much activity around this location, the Glade will strengthen community connections and introduce more visitors to the best that St. Louis has to offer.”
The Glade Project Features
The Glade harmonizes the natural and built spaces in the 22.5 acres surrounding Steinberg, from the Taylor Kindle River to Kingshighway, providing opportunities for year-round activity.
The Glade encompasses 22.5 acres, east to west from Kingshighway to the recently extended Taylor Kindle River, and north to south from Klein Prairie to the recently improved Jefferson Lake. The design includes indoor and outdoor spaces, active and passive recreation, permanent structures and green landscapes in a way that invites visitors to enjoy Forest Park’s unique blend of nature and built environment for relaxation and fun.
Upgraded features include a reconstructed ice rink and the systems that create and maintain the ice, improved skating access, event and party spaces and ground floor café. Completely new amenities include rooftop diningand passive spaces overlooking the Park; a second-floor “community living room” indoor public gathering space; ADA-accessible entry from Kingshighway; a first-floor bar; a flexible rink to host programming and events outside of ice skating season; an accessible water cascade, splash pad and fountains, shade structures and gathering spaces to offer cooling during the warmest seasons; and an expansive community lawn for activity between the rink and the recently extended Taylor Kindle River.
Sustainability
The design of the new building and surrounding grounds has incorporated a number of sustainability strategies:
- A geothermal wellfield will be used to heat the Steinberg pavilion. This geothermal system is environmentally sustainable by capturing and storing heat generated by building cooling. The geothermal wellfield relies on the subterranean environment as a heat sink, making it very energy efficient, thereby significantly reducing overall operating costs and eliminating carbon emissions from traditional natural gas-fired heating equipment.
- The building will be highly energy-efficient, reducing annual energy use by an estimated 50% compared to a typical building. The design optimizes passive building strategies; including high performance glazing, well-insulated wall and roof assemblies; an airtight building enclosure; a dedicated heat recovery ventilation system; and interior lighting that is responsive to daylight availability and occupancy of spaces.
- The ice refrigeration system has been designed for energy and operating cost efficiency by reusing the heat it extracts from the ice in the refrigeration process as a heat source for Steinberg’s water heater and to melt the shavings collected by the ice resurfacer during ice resurfacing.
- The landscape plays an equally important role in environmental sustainability and regeneration: Over 150 trees will be added to the site, making a total of over 400 trees across the Glade, including its parking lot, increasing aesthetics and shade. Tree species selection is guided by the expertise of Forest Park Forever and the St. Louis Forestry Division on which trees thrive in this region and within Forest Park.
Learn more about these and other project features and see additional renderings at: forestparkforever.org/theglade.
Project Timeline
- Construction will begin immediately following the conclusion of the current winter ice skating season in March. It is expected to take 20 months to complete, reopening for ice skating in Fall 2026.
- Steinberg will be closed for the 2025-26 ice skating season, so the next few weeks are the final opportunity to skate at Steinberg until fall 2026 and the last chance to experience Steinberg in its current state.
Project Team & Management
This project has been led by the City of St. Louis and Forest Park Forever, with management support from H3 Studio Inc. The world-class design team includes design architect Snow Kreilich Architects, which was part of the design team behind St. Louis CITY SC’s Energizer Park; landscape architect Hoerr Schaudt; and St. Louis-based Christner Architects, the architect of record. BSI Constructors is the construction manager.
Public Input & Engagement
The Glade is a vision that reflects our community. Between 2019 and 2024, three phases of community engagement were held, garnering input from over 6,000 community members about why they visit or don’t currently visit Steinberg, what amenities would draw them to a reimagined space in all four seasons, and whether the developing designs for the Glade addressed those community interests. St. Louis firm Vector Communications led these engagements and community outreach, with a mix of stakeholder and small group interviews, online surveys and community open houses across the City of St. Louis and the bi-state metropolitan area.
The project was also developed in consultation with the Forest Park Advisory Board, whose role is to provide ongoing citizen input into the implementation of the Forest Park Master Plan. Members of this public advisory board unanimously voted in favor of the design at its “Step 9” – the final step – meeting held on Jan. 30, 2025. Subsequently, the Director of Parks, Recreation and Forestry approved this exciting project to move forward.
What We Heard from the Community
Public engagement for the project yielded the following top requests:
- Keep the rink at its current size
- Upgrade all facilities
- Offer more and better dining options
- Offer programming
- Provide more warming areas
When presented with designs to invite all-season activity, respondents overwhelmingly reported that features like the splash pad, improved dining, rooftop terrace and activity areas would draw them to the Glade.