DOORWAYS is an interfaith non-profit organization which provides housing and related services to improve quality of life and health outcomes for people affected by HIV/AIDS. In 2022, DOORWAYS opened their new 55,000 square foot campus and housing complex on North Jefferson Boulevard in the JeffVanderLou neighborhood. The new campus includes emergency housing capacity for up to 112 people per night, along with administrative offices for the organization's leadership.  Additional building phases are anticipated to begin construction in 2023. 

The Gateway Foundation, whose goal is to enrich St. Louis’ life and culture through tangible and durable art, provided DOORWAYS with a grant for the design and construction of a sculpture plaza at the entry to their new campus. The target sculpture, selected by the Gateway Foundation for this location, was created by Kehinde Wiley. Wiley is a celebrated artist renowned for his portrayals of disenfranchised and marginalized people juxtaposed against traditional symbols of power. The sculpture, a reduced-scale edition of  ‘Rumors of War’, is a response to the national conversation about civic representation and monuments to the Confederacy. ‘Rumors of War’ is based on an 1907 equestrian statue of  J.E.B. Stuart in Richmond Virginia, which was dismantled during protests in the summer of 2020.  In Kahinde Wiley’s reimagining, the horse remains, but the  Confederate rider has been replaced with a young Black man in contemporary clothing. The full-scale sculpture was displayed in Times Square in 2019 and has been located permanently at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA. 

DTLS was invited to design the sculpture plaza and plinth located directly in front of the new DOORWAYS campus. The design balances the need for sculpture visibility against the visual clutter of the wider urban context without obstructing views to the new building entry.  Multiple iterations explored the site’s possibilities, with early concepts drawing on historic inspiration, while others embraced a contemporary and minimalist approach. The final selection places the sculpture between a gently arcing accessible pathway and a streetside plaza. The plaza is defined by a half-circle of monolithic benches composed of locally-quarried stone which matches the honed panels of the sculpture plinth. Behind the sculpture is a soft background of native honey locust trees and a carpet of prairie dropseed.