The City has unveiled the design for Peace Bridge which will be Calgary's newest pedestrian bridge into the downtown core. The bridge will be built over the Bow River west of Prince's Island Park - connecting the Hillhurst-Sunnyside and Eau Claire areas. Copyrighted images of the design are available from The City's website.Peace Bridge was designed by award-winning architect Santiago Calatrava, who was selected as a result of his past design work and The City's desire to create a unique landmark while meeting the functional needs and environmental goals for the project. Santiago Calatrava LLC Architects
and Engineers will be working with local firm Stantec to design, engineer and manage the construction of the bridge. The construction, environmental review and landscaping work will be issued for competitive tender.As with any City project, the environmental impact played a key role in the design of the bridge. To reduce impacts on the Bow River, the bridge is designed as a single span structure - without any piers in the river.
There's no doubt that there's a need for an additional bridge into the downtown core: more than 13,000 pedestrians and cyclists cross the Bow River into the downtown core every day. If these commuters were in cars rather than on the pathways, The City would need two additional lanes of traffic during the morning commute.
Upon completion, the new bridge is expected to handle 5,000 pedestrians and cyclists daily, which is 1.3 million people a year. By 2025, more than 60,000 additional employees are forecast to be working in the downtown core with the number of Calgarians living in the downtown core expected to double to 60,000.
Funding to build the bridge comes from the
Province's Municipal Sustainability Initiative, which is a 10-year funding commitment to enable municipalities to meet the demands of growth.
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Bloody impressive!
ReplyDeletelooks very impressive...I hope the City will stick to its guns in light of all the squeeky wheels complaining about it but don't make a fuss about the 100 million dollar interchanges popping up all over the place...
ReplyDeleteThis is a step in the right direction. The bridge looks amazing, 22M is a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of the City of Calgary's budget.
ReplyDeleteWell done.
It looks ridiculous. It is definitely not something that fits in with the CURRENT dynamic of Calgary. It is way too futuristic and will stick out like a sore thumb. I guess if thats the publicity they want then go for it.
ReplyDeleteI kinda like it, and I'm sure it makes sense financially, but to me, it looks like a giant chinese finger trap.
ReplyDeleteI could have designed a giant Chinese finger trap for half that.
ReplyDeleteI am a big fan of Santiago Calatrava's work and I love the look from the inside. However, I have to say from the outside it is not nearly as bold and does in fact look like a giant chinese finger trap.
ReplyDeleteWhen, exactly, WILL we have some futuristic architecture if not now? It's the 21st century. Should we have done the 14th St and Crowchild Bridges in the 19th century style of the Centre St. Bridge?
ReplyDeleteI can't help but think all the "controversy" about spending $24M on pedestrians and cyclists comes from car drivers that won't be using it...but do drive over a $50M, a $75M, and a $100M interchange every day on the way to work. All of those went in as "necessities", of course, because they're for cars.
Also, they're butt-ugly, which is of course a GOOD thing, a cost-saving. On Bizarro planet. Nobody wants to build ugly private homes, ugly malls, ugly office buildings; they want to have some pride in their possessions, and for business, they want to attract renters. But when it comes to public works, ugly is suddenly a virtue.