MarketStEl, I agree 100% but the bridge pictured is quite different than what is needed for South/Spruce Street. The required span is probably 3 or 4 city blocks, quite high in parts, and the amount of traffic is huge. I like the deco design of the bridge pictured and I assume you were only using it as an example.

IMHO, spend the money on a beautiful bridge that future Philadelphians will be proud of and won't mind maintaining. Most Parisians don't bitch about the price of repairing bridges across the Seine because, though expensive, many are works of art. We already have enough highway overpasses. We need something that will compliment the new park, the link between Center City and University City, and the vistas of the skyline, Franklin Field, etc.

I agree with phillyaggie and MarketStEl. Yes, an icon would be more expensive to create, but an icon is precisely what is lacking among the many Center City Schuylkill crossings. The Spring Garden, Chestnut, and Walnut bridges--among others--where works of art before they were demolished for Sure Kill on-ramps.

The city center is gravitating towards the Schuylkill. With skyscrapers on either side of it, then, bridges of remarkable beauty should be considered a necessity--even if they do cost more to build and maintain.

Calatrava's Trinity River bridges, another example of us being OWN3D by Dallas:

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This, this, this, and this are my new favorite things.

These two, not so much.

1. Chestnut Street Bridge

2. Spring Garden / Callowhill Street Suspension Bridge

3. Wernwag Bridge

4. Girard Avenue Bridge



I wonder if there's a forum for more of these old pictures somewhere on PB...

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This, this, this, and this are my new favorite things.

These two, not so much.

Yep! I've posted those pics here in the past, since I'm "from" Dallas, I suppose. Can you imagine even one such span between Center City and University City? Specially with stuff like Cira South coming along in a couple years...


Unfortunately for Dallas, the average Joe doesn't care much about this stuff. Mayor Laura Miller, the last mayor before the current guy, caught a lot of flak for championing these bridges. She got a lot of their money from local super-rich families, and those families will get the naming rights on two of the 3 bridges, I believe. In the end though, the city will realize that getting these bridges commissioned and built will be a HUGE positive for the city as it tries to make the river, flowing just south of downtown, the new center of town. And the river over which those Calatrava bridges are soon to be built hasn't ever been used by the city as its center piece...it is trying to change that by encouraging mixed-use development and by building a new river park.

But before that, they allowed building a county prison and court-house complex on the river bank! A prison! lol

So no, Dallas doesn't have Philly beat...not yet. But Dallas is moving in the right direction...and its speeding along FAST. While Philly, I'm afraid, is still snoozing along.

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New term of the day 1/24:
Electile Dysfunction: The inability to become aroused over any of the choices for President put forth by either of only parties in the 2008 election year.
http://www.votenader.org/index.html


5/22, because i'm feeling punny:
As the great Jedi English teacher was quoted in saying, "metaphors be with you."

What MarketStEl posted is an elegant old bridge design. Nothing wrong with it, if a city can pull it off and build one in a tasteful manner...nothing something that obviously looks faux-old. You know, lot of Palladian motifs, etc. Dallas has two sports buildings that were designed to look faux-old...the Ballpark in Arlington and the AA Center. I don't care much for either.

I was thinking more about building something avant-garde, similar to those Calatrava bridges across the Trinity. It surely would be a jarring contrast/juxtaposition to what's already there upriver.

__________________
New term of the day 1/24:
Electile Dysfunction: The inability to become aroused over any of the choices for President put forth by either of only parties in the 2008 election year.
http://www.votenader.org/index.html


5/22, because i'm feeling punny:
As the great Jedi English teacher was quoted in saying, "metaphors be with you."

If we want to talk about a local architect to replace the South Street Bridge, why not talk about H2L2? Check out their website. Like Calatrava, they have some impressive designs:

Discovery Bridge, Columbus, Ohio

Ped Bridge in New York

Bridge in Rochester.

Rochester and Columbus are beating us, for crying out loud! The Schuylkill--especially with Penn Connects development--deserves more than just a bunch of bland interstate bridges; it deserves architecture!

__________________
This, this, this, and this are my new favorite things.

These two, not so much.

I love the mini-suspension bridge. How awesome would it be if we could get a mini-suspension bridge at South St?