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Roughly 25 people each year jump to their deaths from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, which prompted city leaders to authorize a plan to erect a kind of suicide-prevention stainless steel cable netting twenty feet below the bridge's deck. The netting, which is painted gray to blend in with... View full entry
A glass-bottomed bridge in China that was heralded as a record-breaker when it opened just 13 days ago has closed.
Officials said the government was planning urgent maintenance work in the area and the bridge closed on Friday, with a re-opening time to be announced. [...]
He said there had been no accidents and the bridge was not cracked or broken. [...]
The bridge can accommodate 8,000 visitors a day but the spokesman told CNN that 10 times as many people wanted access daily.
— bbc.com
Yibada reports that the bridge upgrades were going as scheduled and that the attraction was set to re-open to the public this week.Previously in the Archinect news:World's longest and highest glass bridge opens in ChinaChina announces world's longest and highest glass bridge View full entry
It's touted as the "world's highest and longest" glass-bottom bridge, elegantly stretched between two mountain peaks in central China's Hunan province.
And as of this weekend, it's open to visitors. Now, one can walk the 470-yard length of the glass bridge, which is positioned a vertigo-inducing 328 yards above the ground, as China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
The bridge is located in the Zhangjiajie National Forest [...].
— npr.org
Related stories in the Archinect news:China announces world's longest and highest glass bridgeChina opens 590-foot-high glass-bottom bridgeNow THAT's a skywalk! Jin Mao Tower to open world's highest fenceless, all transparent walkway in ShanghaiChinese glass-bottom walkway cracks below tourists... View full entry
Now after escalating complaints, New York City transportation officials said on Monday that something would finally be done to solve the riddle of what they call “Times Square in the Sky.”...That something — if the crossing can take it — could be building a new path to alleviate congestion
But...any expansion of the promenade would most likely be complicated. “I have to tell you, every time we touch this 133-year-old bridge, it tends to be costly and complex.”
— The New York Times
The New York Times states that Aecom will begin a seven-month $370,000 engineering study this month to analyze how much weight the bridge can carry and explore expansion options.More on Archinect:The NYC that could have been – 'Never Built New York' to be released this fallCall it the Brooklyn... View full entry
Missing L.A.’s iconic, historic 6th Street Bridge? Never fear – soon you may be able to keep a piece of it for yourself.
At “Rock Day L.A.,” an Aug. 13 event [...], officials will be handing out around 1,000 pieces of the demolished bridge for anyone to take home [...]
Demolition crews have been steadily dismantling the bridge since February, after an alkali silica reaction in the concrete, known as “concrete cancer,” forced the city to move forward with a plan to replace it.
— scpr.org
Previously in the Archinect news: LA mayor Eric Garcetti slow-jams 101 freeway closure announcementTake a look at "6," an experimental documentary that memorializes the recently-demolished Sixth Street Viaduct in LAA final hurrah for L.A.'s Sixth Street ViaductHNTB, Maltzan, AC Martin win 6th... View full entry
It's rare that spectacle and nuance combine effortlessly, but an exception can be made for the lithe sculptural form of the San Shan Bridge. The bridge, which translated into English means "three mountains," will serve as a shapely conduit between Beijing and the river valleys of Zhangjiakou... View full entry
“The Garden Bridge is a land grab,” says Michael Ball of Thames Central Open Spaces. “That is, a major piece of public space and amenity – the South Bank, the River Thames, and the views across central London – would be sequestered for private interests, albeit cloaked in some appearance of charity and beneficence. When I saw Pier 55 I realised it was an even more blatant example of the same idea.” — The Guardian
In this piece design critic par excellence Alexandra Lange analyzes two similar Thomas Heatherwick designed-projects, London's Garden Bridge and New York's Pier 55, in the hopes of discovering why one seems to be resonating with the public while the other has inspired satiric contests to replace... View full entry
Sitting atop Lake Washington, the new State Route 520 is now the longest floating bridge in the world—beating its predecessor, the old State Route 520, by 130 feet [...].
This new bridge has stronger pontoons than the last one, and can withstand more buffeting from wind and waves. It also has a stormwater collection system, bus lanes in both directions, a path for bikes and pedestrians, and the capacity to someday accommodate a light rail system.
— atlasobscura.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:Seattle builds village for the homelessSeattle's proposed 101-story 4/C Tower considered as too tall by the FAASusan Surface, the "humble pioneer" for socially responsible design View full entry
The daring concept proposes one cantilever on the Cornish mainland and another on the island fortress, where, legend has it, King Arthur was conceived. The two structures stretch out to each other across the void but do not quite meet. — theguardian.com
The victorious design was conceived by the Belgian company Ney & Partners Civil Engineers in partnership with British architects William Matthews Associates. View full entry
Final farewells were visible all over the 6th Street Viaduct on Wednesday. Spinning tire trails were burned onto the bridge's asphalt deck; declarations of love and poetry were scribbled onto its concrete railings and incomprehensible graffiti was blasted across its high metal arches...Demolition of the crumbling bridge is scheduled to begin this week and could take up to nine months to complete, as crews cart away more than 110,000 tons of concrete. — Los Angeles Times
"While I'm more aware that the closure will cause delays, believe me, it will be worth it in the long run,” Mayor Garcetti tells the L.A. Times. More on Archinect: Say goodbye to the Sixth Street Viaduct along the L.A. River at ForumFest 2015, Oct. 25 HNTB, Maltzan, AC Martin win 6th Street... View full entry
Why build a straightforward bridge for an unremarkable sum when the same bridge could be built as a circle for vast amounts of money?
A new bridge spanning (or circumnavigating) Laguna Garzón, a coastal lagoon in southeastern Uruguay, poses just that question. [...] At a glance, it’s the sort of ridiculousness that you might expect of a bridge in London.
In fact, there’s a perfectly good functional explanation for it.
— citylab.com
"The concept of the Puente Laguna Garzón was to transform a traditional vehicular crossing into an event that reduces the speed of the cars, to provide an opportunity to enjoy panoramic views of an amazing landscape and at the same time create a pedestrian place in the center," the architect... View full entry
In 1502, at the request of the Turkish sultan, Leonardo da Vinci came up with the design for a stone bridge that would cross the Golden Horn [...]. With a span of some 240 meters, it would have been the longest bridge in the world—if it had been built. Now, more than 500 years after the sultan rejected da Vinci’s design, a team of students and volunteers in the Finnish town of Juuka are in the process of constructing a scale model of the original drawing—out of ice. — history.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:Gaudí’s uncompleted masterpiece will finally be finished—in iceIceCave Iceland is a city in the glacierFrank Gehry designs "Icehenge" desk for Inland Steel in Chicago View full entry
Visitors to the garden bridge in London will be tracked by their mobile phone signals and supervised by staff with powers to take people’s names and addresses and confiscate and destroy banned items, including kites and musical instruments, according to a planning document. [...]
Caroline Pidgeon [...] said she feared the bridge was following “a worrying trend of the privatisation of public places, where the rights of private owners trump those of ordinary people”.
— theguardian.com
Previously on Archinect:London Garden Bridge wins new supporters with revised funding dealFurther legal setbacks for London Garden BridgeCheeky "A Folly for London" winners announced View full entry
The controversial and seemingly doomed plan for a garden bridge over the Thames in London could be resurrected after the group behind the project reached an agreement with council officials over the level of public funding. On Monday...a joint announcement by Lambeth...and the Garden Bridge Trust said negotiations would resume after a deal to limit the money Transport for London (TfL) would have to pay towards construction to £10m, from an original £30m. — The Guardian
Previously on Archinect:London's Garden Bridge endangered by public funding shortfallAs Garden Bridge procurement process is headed for review, London group claims that 30 new parks could be funded insteadSatirical “Folly for London” competition mocks Garden Bridge projectZaha Hadid, Piers... View full entry
The L.A. Forum for Architecture and Urban Design is partying along the Los Angeles River for ForumFest 2015, Bridge. Tunnel. Channel., happening at the Sixth Street Bridge tunnel on Sunday, October 25. ForumFest highlights the historic Sixth Street Viaduct as a signifier of change in the city. The... View full entry