Northern Avenue Bridge Fort Point Channel

Blackdog said:
stick n move said:
I did. As a vet I wanted to tie the bridge into the new Seaport Memorial. I went into greater detail in the proposal.

I made it similar to the Samuel Beckett bridge but I made the tower rigid with no tower support cables, 7 thick span cables to keep it airy, and a cut out to resemble the Irish harp. I put the peak right over the middle of fort point to fill that void in the skyline between downtown and the seaport. Overall Im happy with the proposal and I hope I can at least make it into the discussion with these other architects.

Before I knew how the competition worked I personally went into the BRA with this proposal in a binder printed out with the renders printed onto photo paper and met with the BRA director. He told me he did not want to look because architects from as far as Japan were going to be submitting and he did not want any bias, so instead we just talked for a while in his office. I was able to show it to a few other people who worked in different departments and they all seemed to like the idea. Im not an architect but I put a lot of time into getting this right and I hope it can at least be in the discussion. Overall it was definitely a cool experience meeting with them and designing the bridge in general and I encourage all of you guys to take a chance when things like this come up. The worst thing that can happen is you don't get selected. Best case scenario is you do. Even if its not chosen its good to have many different visions/ideas for people to choose from. Competition is good for the best results.

This I had already posted above but this is one of the angles I drew. Theres a few more in the actual proposal along with the picture of how it ties into the street/harbor walk/waterfront. I followed the grade of the Moakley bridge next door so it is definitely do-able.



Heres the link to the proposal:
http://dl.northernavebridge.org/submissions/pdfs/MA%20Fallen%20Vets%20Mem%20Bridgeposter.pdf
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This design is very simlar to the first design in the Globe. I dig it.

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Its even more similar to this one I did lol.

stick n move said:
This would clear out all of the pilings that are there now and would be at least as tall as the Moakley bridge right after it, creating a completely open waterway underneath. Best case scenario it would be taller than the rest of the bridges to leave room to grow in the future when the other bridges are replaced. As it stands now the northern ave bridge is lower than the rest of the bridges and does not allow boats into the channel that would otherwise be able to clear the rest of the bridges. It looks lower than it would be because I just drew it over the northern ave bridge. I didn't feel like editing out the bridge, but it would be higher in real life.





This would end right at the greenway. Imagine visitors walking down the greenway passing fanuel hall, the custom house tower, blackstone market, ...etc and then coming across this towards the end. It would be inviting so people would want to go check it out...thus crossing it and entering the seaport and discovering a whole different neighborhood with a brand new waterfront. I dont see how this could go wrong. I am going to submit this proposal to the BRA with a long description of why I think this is Boston's newest bridge/art piece.
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Page 5 has my original idea. The interesting part about this is that I printed off everything that I had been working on at the time including this above, and walked into the BRA offices and was able to meet face to face with the director. So hes well aware that this was my vision. I even explained why I moved on from this design because of space in the channel or on land it takes up. Thats why they had to make an island in their render. The fact that I didnt even make it as a finalist, yet one of my designs makes it into the preliminary designs years later is weird. Did they hope Id forget? At the time they awarded designs like the plus bridge that block the channel as winners of the public design comp, I get 0 recognition, then years later my idea is one of 4 to actually be built? Come on lol...


Im going to follow this close, because not only is this my vision, but theres a reason I moved on from this specific design to the one I submitted. Its better in every way (cheap, strong, double the span...etc). They said later the built design wont be from the winners... so it felt like they wanted inspiration. I hope if they do go with this that they try to work with me so the city can get the best design possible.

They could argue I was inspired by Santiago Caltrava, but he didnt invent cable stayed bridges, and he didnt submit a bridge here. I generally dislike his work, but it was more inspired by mirroring the Zakim but smaller and appropriate for a channel, theres only so many options for a small single sided cable stayed, so it is what it is. If they do end up going with this here it would be only right to include me, since Im on record as having the vision first. I dont want tons of credit or something crazy, I want the best design for the city, and I showed that I had the vision YEARS before in 2015. Plus like the vietnam memorial Maya Lin is credited from a public design comp and it sparked a career, if they do end up using my idea it would help a lot just to be credited if I pursue architecture further. Anyways well see what happens and if they even go with this idea.

Heres my submitted final vision which moved on further past this first iteration.

https://www.northernavebridge.org/post/143931770395/massachusetts-fallen-veterans-memorial-bridge
 
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Sorry about the floss joke. I didn't intend to dis your work.

The renderings with the tower leaning outward make more visual sense than those leaning in towards the mainland. The latter look too crowded and unintuitive.

Also, the ones with more closely spaced cables look more elegant than the sparser cables. A less stark, less bright whitish/beige color on the tower and superstructure would look better as well, IMO.
 
Yes he isnt my favorite architect ever, and though he didnt come up with the cable stayed bridge, he did come up with the cantilever spar cable stayed bridge. This allows you to make basically half of a cable stayed bridge for short spans. Its obviously a take on that, and he deserves credit for finding a way to make short cable stays. Since then many other architects have used this single pylon idea to build other bridges around the world, where they wanted a cable stayed bridge over a short span.

Just like you now see twin pylon cable stayed bridges like the Zakim everywhere, theres only so many ways to skin a cat. If you need a very short cable stayed bridge the cantilever spar is it. I was just saying I didnt copy and paste one of his bridges, but its obviously inspired from his idea of how to make a single sided cable stay. The reason I went this way was to make a short complimentary bridge to the Zakim for the channel, and cantilever spar is the way to do it.
 
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Do you think maybe too many people have too many opinions about a bridge that about 100 people will use on a winter's day?

This whole thing is the definition of "Boston".
 
JohnAKeith said:
Do you think maybe too many people have too many opinions about a bridge that about 100 people will use on a winter's day?

This whole thing is the definition of "Boston".
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Remind me, which employers in the Seaport close up shop for the winter?
 
fattony said:
Remind me, which employers in the Seaport close up shop for the winter?
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Let's not forget Summer St Bridge, Congress St Bridge, and Seaport Blvd Bridge which all cross closer to South Station meaning most reasonable commuters will use those to get to work. In fact looking at a map this new bridge is more or less exclusively a leisure bridge. Don't get me wrong I'm excited for it but it definitely duplicates already viable walking options for anyone with a destination.
 
HelloBostonHi said:
In fact looking at a map this new bridge is more or less exclusively a leisure bridge.
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Well that's wrong. If you get out of the T at Dewey Sq. and work at Vertex, Goodwin Proctor, the ICA, BCG, Cengage, or MassMutual, to name a few, a bridge at Northern Avenue would in fact be your shortest walking route.
 
HelloBostonHi said:
In fact looking at a map this new bridge is more or less exclusively a leisure bridge.
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lexicon506 said:
Well that's wrong. If you get out of the T at Dewey Sq. and work at Vertex, Goodwin Proctor, the ICA, BCG, Cengage, or MassMutual, to name a few, a bridge at Northern Avenue would in fact be your shortest walking route.
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I'm with HelloBostonHi on this one.

The walking commute time from Dewey Square to those businesses you mentioned via a reconstructed Northern Avenue Bridge vs. walking over the existing Evelyn Moakley Bridge (Seaport Boulevard) amounts to 1 whole minute. We're talking about 250 measly feet. If those employers and the private sector believe $40 million to $150 million to replace the bridge is worth it to avoid walking 250 feet further along the Moakley Bridge instead, then let them invest in it. Otherwise, I think it's a non-essential waste of taxpayer dollars.
 
dshoost88 said:
If those employers and the private sector believe $40 million to $150 million to replace the bridge is worth it to avoid walking 250 feet further along the Moakley Bridge instead, then let them invest in it. Otherwise, I think it's a non-essential waste of taxpayer dollars.
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Umm ok whether or not you think it's worth the money is an entirely different argument.

The fact remains that point-to-point the Northern Ave. bridge would offer the shortest walking route from Dewey Sq. for thousands of Seaport workers. And I'd bet you an Encore Boston Harbor that a ton of people would use it both for commuting and for leisure.
 
Yeah, I don't see the bridge as a vital pedestrian link. It might make the walk from downtown to Fan Pier marginally faster, but that's it (and I work on Fan Pier). And while there are plenty of examples of attractive 19th-century infrastructure in Boston, the Northern Avenue Bridge isn't one of them, it looks like it was designed to be as cheap and functional as possible (kind of like the Moakley Bridge, in fact) and in its current decrepit state it's an outright eyesore. I'd be perfectly happy if it was torn down and not replaced.
 
lexicon506 said:
Umm ok whether or not you think it's worth the money is an entirely different argument.

The fact remains that point-to-point the Northern Ave. bridge would offer the shortest walking route from Dewey Sq. for thousands of Seaport workers. And I'd bet you an Encore Boston Harbor that a ton of people would use it both for commuting and for leisure.
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If you’re a Seaport worker concerned about getting from Dewey Square to Fan Pier as quickly as possible and that’s your only argument for constructing a multimillion dollar bridge literally 200 feet away from an existing bridge, my reply would be to take the damn silver line from South Station to Courthouse. I mean come on?!
 
dshoost88 said:
If you’re a Seaport worker concerned about getting from Dewey Square to Fan Pier as quickly as possible and that’s your only argument for constructing a multimillion dollar bridge literally 200 feet away from an existing bridge, my reply would be to take the damn silver line from South Station to Courthouse. I mean come on?!
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Isn't this whole argument kind of beside the point, though? The question seems to be whether a new bridge is necessary as (a) a calming park-like pedestrian space, potentially with trees, shops, etc or (b) a connector for buses, potentially opening for cars from time to time if one of the other bridges is closed. I don't think the justification for spending the money has been a walking route from Dewey Square to Fan Pier. It's not about how close to other bridges it is - it's more width for something to cross Fort Point Channel.
 
lexicon506 said:
Well that's wrong. If you get out of the T at Dewey Sq. and work at Vertex, Goodwin Proctor, the ICA, BCG, Cengage, or MassMutual, to name a few, a bridge at Northern Avenue would in fact be your shortest walking route.
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DING. DING. DING.

This would be the first path you access to the seaport when coming down from North Station (which my wife does along with hundreds of her Vertex co-workers).

Until we have the NSRL and people continue to walk/bike to work, this crossing is a huge deal.
 
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