The 101 Bridge Pergolas is a pair of dynamic pedestrian bridge shade canopies over the 101 freeway designed by Didier Hess in collaboration with Ned Kahn to re-establish the connection between Downtown Los Angeles and El Pueblo.  

For Main St, we designed a dynamic trellis whose canopy created a standing wave in response to pedestrian movement and localized vehicular traffic. As a person walks along the base of the piece, it flexes in a see-saw fashion causing a regularly spaced series of columns to vibrate, which excites the canopy into a wave like motion.  The canopy, consisting of a series of armatures hung from a central spine, houses LED light strips which trace the canopy’s motion as it reaches maximum excitation

For Los Angeles St we designed a static cable net canopy which mimicked the shape of a cresting wave.  The canopy was populated by deep drawn aluminum nodes which housed programmable LED lights animated by seismic data averaged by a remote plc.  During the day, the cable net creates shade yet becomes a dynamically illuminated walkway at night.

Along both bridges custom formed concrete planters will grow native vines which will slowly crawl along the length of the bridge, providing an organic backdrop to the project, while helping to act as a sound attenuation barrier for the traffic below. 
 

Design Team: Didier Hess in collaboration w/ Ned Kahn

Position Held: Project Manager