Murphy/Jahn
Architect: Murphy/Jahn, Chicago—Helmut Jahn, Sam Scaccia, Philip Castillo Consulting Engineers: Alfred Benesch & Company, Chicago—Hossam M. Abdou, Muthiah Kasi Special Structural Engineer: Werner Sobek Ingenieure, Stuttgart, Germany—Werner Sobek Civil Engineer: Terra Engineering, Chicago MEP Engineer: Techknow Engineering, Chicago
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35th STREET | •
FINALIST• CHICAGO RIVER |
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FINALIST• NORTH AVENUE |
Architect's Statement
The design for the Lake Shore Drive Bridges is conceived as simple, elegant and unobtrusive elements connecting the City with the lakefront. Its goal is using technology as a means towards a minimal structure. The bridges are designed as a family utilizing the same structural concepts and details in order to create a memorable image as the "Chicago Bridge", connecting the City and the lakefront over Lake Shore Drive.
The four bridges over Lake Shore Drive are designed as simple concrete spans. Steel columns on pins are the visible means of support and become the recurring image on all the bridges. The details of the connections at the bridge and ground are minimal and elegant. Bridge and walking surfaces are integral and they are shaped to reflect the forces. Access to the bridges are sinuous ramps as extensions to the bridges configured as the urban condition requires. Stairs, as "clip-on" elements, provide alternative and quick access to the bridges.
Landscape is treated as a man-made, constructed element consisting of a series of tightly spaced cables at the ramps for the planting and growth of vines. The concept creates a "green " screen at each end of the bridge reinforcing the structural expression of the span and creating a progression from landscape to manscape to structure.
The necessary and required elements of lighting, drainage and pedestrian safety are integrated into the design in a manner that is unobtrusive to the structure. At night the bridge glows like a light-beam over the Drive.
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35th/41st/43rd Streets
All these bridges are similar since they only vary by how they meet the city grid. The planning has to consider the IC Rail right-of-way adjacent to Lake Shore Drive. Height requirements differ for the two right-of-ways. Two simple spans, of 160 feet each, bridge over each passage and are connected by a short span of 80 feet. Each span reads as an independent bridge with the means of support clearly visible. As in North Avenue, a ramp connects to the lakefront parks to the east. To the west, the ramps are integrated into the fabric of the City.
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Evaluation Committee comments
Like the 100 percent verticality
Position of bridge as it opens is compelling. Center point of rotation
is offshore allowing a portion of the bridge to move toward the water
as it opens--nice.
Architect's Statement
The most ambitious of the designs, the span over the Chicago River is
a bascule bridge operating on the principle of hydraulics. The result
is of simple and minimal technology since the traditional machinery associated
with operation is not required and the workings of the bride are visible.
The counterweight design is integral with the design resulting in an elegant
structure. The approach, landscape concept and span over Ogden Slip is
of the same structure and detail as the other Lake Shore Drive Bridges.
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Evaluation Committee comments:
It is a minimalist design which does not detract from the site.
The concrete span resembles a boat.
The “green” cables are creative and have winter appeal.
Architect's Statement
The design for North Avenue is the prototype for the bridges. It is a
simple span of approximately 192 feet over Lake Shore Drive and the adjacent
Cannon Drive. Ramps connect the bicycle path at the lakefront and the
walkways of Lincoln Park to the west.
