Bridge Design Competition: Crossing the Drive
International Design Competition sponsored by the Chicago Architectural Club 2006
a collaboration with Kyle Knudsen and Chris Vant Hoff
Chicago, IL
The bridges across the drive are conceived of as site objects which enhance the experience of place. The image of the bridges is that of a rectangular truss shrouded within a mist, thus using water imagery to connect two currently disconnected water elements, Lake Michigan and Buckingham Fountain. The proposal draws from existing conditions, uniting two disjointed spaces without being constrained by or replicating the rigid formality of the existing Beaux Arts landscape design. The original east-west axis of Daniel Burnham’s plan for Chicago is enhanced in the proposal: Two pedestrian bridges cross a slightly sunken Lake Shore Drive on each side of the east-west axis, the axis emphasized by becoming a framed void.
