“Queen’s Gate 66”

Springfield, MO
Installed April 2026

Stainless Steel, Glass, LED lighting

Commissioned by the City of Springfield, Missouri—known as the “Queen City of the Ozarks”—Queen’s Gate 66 was created to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the historic Route 66 highway while extending its meaning forward into the future. At the center of the sculpture is the illuminated “corona,” a radiant form that reads simultaneously as both a crown and a rising or setting sun. Its colors are drawn from the shifting tones of sunrise and sunset, representing the passage of time across a century of travel, movement, and cultural exchange along Route 66. The sculpture itself is aligned east to west, following both the trajectory of the roadway and the movement of the sun across the horizon. The sunburst form ultimately resolves into a crown—an acknowledgment of Springfield’s identity as the “Queen City of the Ozarks”—and gives the sculpture its name. Two sweeping steel arches rise and intersect through the corona, passing one another in motion like travelers moving in opposite directions along the highway, continuously exchanging place, perspective, and story.

Queen's Gate was a collaboration between Amie Jacobsen and Jake Balcom, with each artist contributing equally to the development of the concept, design, fabrication and project management.