Building a Cultural Amenity

I have been following the debate over the re-construction of the 35W bridge and would like to bring some very important issues within the context of city building to your attention, in hopes that they will be considered during this critical planning and design phase.

As is often the case with such a large project as a bridge, enormous attention is paid to the political, financial and scheduling aspects of getting the project built, while the burden of design decisions are frequently marginalized, with the final product often mediocre.

We as a state must recognize the value of infrastructure in articulating the hopes and dreams of our community. Bridges in particular, because of their unique construction and location within the landscape, have come to symbolize these sentiments as well as contribute to the identity of a city and become destinations in and of themselves. The Goldengate Bridge in San Francisco, the Bach de Roda Bridge in Barcelona, Spain and the new Millau Bridge in the Languedoc region of France, are all optimistic, lasting testaments to a community’s pride, hope for the future and investment in innovation.

Minnesotans have a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the crossing of the Mississippi River, one of the world’s three greatest rivers, commemorate the tragic collapse of the 35W bridge, and anticipate the needs of our growing and changing population in the next 50-100 years, all embodied within a bridge design.

Rather than making hasty, short-sighted decisions, bring all the stakeholders to the table, collectively evaluate the community needs and opportunities, both current and future, and demand the highest quality design for our bridge. Ideally, a design competition should be held to solicit the best ideas and create an open dialogue. At the very least, stakeholders should require landmark quality design as one of the selection criteria for the design/build firms under consideration. We only have one chance to get this right – do we really want just another highway bridge?

Cc: Mayor RT Rybak, City Council President Johnson, Congressman Jim Oberstar, Chairman Peter Bell, Governor Tim Pawlenty