What it lacks are the physical connections that could make circulating around the city on foot a pleasure, even a joy.
Boston bridge architect Miguel Rosales aims to change all that -- and he's in a good position to do so. Over the past few years, the city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and Case Western Reserve University all chose him to design pedestrian bridges that could transform significant portions of the lakefront and University Circle.
During a visit earlier this week, Rosales released new images and provided updates on all three projects, which combine structural innovation with elegant artistic form.
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| The North Coast Harbor Bridge shown in the open position. |
View full sizeRosales + PartnersThe North Coast Harbor Bridge shown in the open position.• Cleveland is ready to start construction in the summer of 2012 on a $5.5 million Rosales drawbridge at North Coast Harbor, with two sections that will extend 71 feet high when open. Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration rejected plans for a more innovative curved jackknife bridge that would have been 145 feet high when open, enough to require changes to the flight path and runway configuration at nearby Burke Lakefront Airport. Construction will take roughly 18 months, Rosales said.
• Cuyahoga County officials began evaluating three distinct proposals for a pedestrian bridge leading to Wendy Park at Whiskey Island on the Lake Erie shoreline from the north end of the Willow Street Bridge. The county wants to refine cost estimates before involving the public in selecting a design, and it hopes to offer the project for construction bids in late 2012, said Paul Alsenas, director of the county's planning commission.
• Case Western Reserve University agreed to make public for the first time images of a spectacular S-shaped pedestrian bridge Rosales has conceived as a link between the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Temple Tifereth Israel, which CWRU is renovating as a performing-arts center. The span would carry pedestrians and cyclists, as well as security guards on Segways and maintenance crews with service carts, and would traverse Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and touch ground at East 105th Street.
All three bridge proposals share a common sensibility. They aim for a sleek, bony elegance entirely different from the heavy-duty, rivet-and-girder look associated with the highway and railroad bridges that date from Cleveland's industrial heyday in the 19th- and 20th centuries.
The bridges also reflect changing attitudes toward public space in Cleveland. For decades, developers, nonprofit institutions and public agencies have concentrated on building isolated attractions, from museums to sporting venues, while investing little in the spaces around them.
Now, a new civic ethos is emerging in favor of beautifying parks and streetscapes, and making it easier and more enjoyable to explore the city by bike or on foot.
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Viewed from any angle, even below, the pedestrian bridge planned by Miguel Rosales for University Circle would be a stunning work of structural art - and a huge point of pride for the city. |
Rosales, a youthful-looking 50-year-old native of Guatemala who helped design the highly acclaimed Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston, is becoming a key player in the new movement.
"He's a great designer," said Robert Brown, director of the City Planning Commission. "We're very fortunate we're engaged with him on a number of projects now."
View full sizeRosales + PartnersViewed from any angle, even below, the pedestrian bridge planned by Miguel Rosales for University Circle would be a stunning work of structural art - and a huge point of pride for the city.
Rosales is partnering with the engineering firm of Schlaich Bergermann and the Cleveland office of Wilbur Smith Associates on the North Coast Harbor project and with Schlaich and the Cleveland office of the engineering firm of DLZ Ohio on the Whiskey Island project. At University Circle, he's working with the landscape architecture firms of Siteworks, from Charlottesville, Va., and James McKnight Associates of Cleveland.
Of all three projects discussed by Rosales, the CWRU bridge is the most dramatic.
It calls for a long, slender span with curving sections that would be supported by two inward-leaning diagonal masts anchored by cables. The masts, in turn, would support a harplike array of diagonal cables attached to the inboard side of each section of curving walkway.
The bridge would leap over the valley created by Doan Brook and Rockefeller Park, which now divides University Circle from the Hough neighborhood to the west, which is where CWRU plans to build its West Campus on roughly 15 acres of mostly vacant land immediately north of the temple. An additional section could extend back across MLK Jr. Dr. to link the art museum to the Judson Manor apartment tower.
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| The suspension bridge option for the Whiskey Island bridge. |
The university has received highly positive responses to the design.
"They are pretty stunning," Stephen Campbell, the school's vice president for campus planning and facilities, said of the plans.
Chris Ronayne, director of University Circle Inc., said the pedestrian connection was of "paramount importance."
Renderings suggest that the bridge itself could become a hugely popular attraction on its own, regardless of its function as a pedestrian connector.
View full sizeRosales + PARTNERSThe suspension bridge option for the Whiskey Island bridge.
Curving bridges supported by cables exist in Europe, and Rosales designed a curving, $4.5 million pedestrian bridge over the Reedy River in Greenville, S.C. The span became so much of an attraction that it spurred $100 million in residential and office development in a blighted part of town.
Rosales said the CWRU bridge would cost roughly $7.5 million, although the university wants to obtain more detailed cost estimates before it proceeds. It has begun raising money for the project but is not ready to commit to construction, Campbell said.
The North Coast Harbor bridge, which is closest to realization, will be funded by $4.5 million in federal money, plus $1 million in matching funds from the city. The bridge is intended to connect Voinovich Park at the north end of E. 9th Street to the finger pier extending from the west side of the harbor, just north of the Great Lakes Science Center. When closed, the bridge will create a loop trail around the harbor, making it far more pedestrian-friendly.
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| The Fink truss option for the Whiskey Island bridge. |
The bridge to Wendy Park at Whiskey Island is intended to create a safe shortcut for pedestrians and cyclists as an alternative to the current access road extending east from Edgewater Park, Alsenas said. Wendy Park, acquired by the county in 2004, attracts more than 180,000 visitors a year for boating, picnics, volleyball and family reunions.
The three versions suggested by Rosales include a traditional-looking suspension bridge; a "Fink truss," in which the span is supported on masts extending upward from the bridge deck and held in place with diagonal cables; and a low-profile truss with continuous curving top beams, or chords, designed to rise the highest like a wave where structural forces are the greatest.
Alsenas said he conducted seven meetings over two days with officials from the city, the county, the Greater Cleveland Metroparks and property owners including Carl Barricelli, president of Ontario Stone, the Whiskey Island business whose land would be traversed by the bridge.
Alsenas said the participants have asked Rosales for additional details on the proposals, including the costs, which average $4 million to $5 million. The planning process is being paid for by a $159,000 federal grant, plus $80,000 in private contributions.
"We're on our way, although obviously we have a lot of work to do," Alsenas said.
The House is scheduled to take up this $30.7 billion bill funding the Energy Department and other water projects for the upcoming fiscal year.
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