It’s a depressing time for massive public projects.
Recent news that the already-poor design of the New World Trade Center (don’t blame me, I voted for THINK) has to be compromised didn’t surprise me. It’s going to be difficult to build the largest penis on the planet smack dab in the middle of Lower Manhattan.
But what’s frustrated me even more is something that’s happening here in Atlanta. For those not in “the know,” Atlanta is a miserable city in which to drive. Very few direct routes exist and the circutous routes that DO exist are often the ONLY routes that exist. If you hit traffic on it, you are screwed. End of story. Since we have no grid to speak of, finding another street heading in your direction is a crap shoot. It may LOOK like it’s heading where you want to go, only it will inevitably turn directions and perhaps cross itself somewhere else. So more roads are needed, and not just highways, but surface streets. And so we get to the 17th Street Bridge.
Because of the giant scar of 20 lanes of Interstate running through downtown Atlanta, it’s hard to get from one side of downtown to the other. In fact, it’s sometimes nearly impossible and the city suffers because of it. The schism down the middle produced a schism in peoples’ psyches. We don’t consider the other side part of “our” downtown, which depends upon which side of downtown you’re from. One effort to alleviate this is to build more bridges across the Interstate, the first one coming from 17th Street and connecting East and West Midtown.
There was much discussion about this bridge. Since the vast majority of people coming to and from Atlanta pass through this section of road, many thought it would be appropriate to make the bridge something to remember: a defining characteristic of Atlanta.
Well, they got what they wished for. Eschewing world class architects who were interested in the project, they chose some local boy (I believe). The result:
Now there’s nothing wrong with this design besides the fact that it SUCKS ASS. I’ve never seen a more boring span. I’m not looking for Charles Bridge, here, but give me something. Does anyone else feel the same way?
The yellow beams have been run. You can check the progress here. And the yellow beams are intentional and will stay yellow. This is causing controversy. While the designers thought it “whimsical,” some City Council members and city residents are calling foul.
And so, as is typical of Atlanta, we end up with something very midling. If you’ve seen our torch platform from the Olympics, you get the idea. We rule our public projects be such strong committee approach, that seldom does anything truly great come to be. Something that was destined to shape the image of Atlanta and make a statement one remembers becomes a nothing.
9 responses so far ↓
1 amanda // May 22, 2003 at 8:44 am
yikes. that yellow is here to stay? i just assumed they were going to paint over it… that it was some kind of “default” beam color. i remember reading somewhere, perhaps on http://www.atlanticstation.com, that the 17th St. bridge was going to be a sort of “gateway to Atlanta”. my @ss.
2 trav // May 22, 2003 at 10:56 am
yellow. we’re getting a yellow bridge.
What a load of crap.
3 tim // May 22, 2003 at 10:59 am
I echo Amanda’s comments when I say WTF? That is the intended color? That is the most non-descript looking bridge I have ever seen. There is no character whatsoever, which I guess is pretty appropriate since the city of Atlanta has never had character or charm.
Ugh!
4 pumpinCAD // May 22, 2003 at 1:46 pm
the real slap in the face of Atlantans who care about design is that after Santiago Calatrava (who submitted a stunning bridge design and also designed the bridge and building expansion of the Milwaukee Art Museum) was turned down, Dallas hired him to design their new ‘gateway’ bridge. Our loss, Dallas’ gain. Never thought I’d be saying Dallas TX outclassed us…
5 scotty the body // May 22, 2003 at 5:37 pm
Well, the yellow is “whimsical!” Like Faerie dust!
But the thing is, if you’re going to blow our money on a totally boring, totally unremarkable piece of crap bridge, don’t tout it as “signature.” It’s insulting to the city of Atlanta.
I was unable to dig up a Calatrava design for the Dallas bridge, but I did see that he got a $230M contract to design a new symphony hall for Atlanta!
6 Chris // May 23, 2003 at 8:39 am
The ONLY good thing about this bridge is the suppsedly ample pedestrian and bicycle lanes.
There are a couple funny things to note in the photo:
– First off, what are those buildings in the background? Those don’t look familiar to me.
– Look at the lack of traffic on 75/85… this little traffic on the downtown connector during daylight? Right.
7 trav // May 23, 2003 at 2:59 pm
accurate portrayal of the final bridge form:
a) grimy, dingy yellow; occasional graffitti stains
b) bumper traffic on the connector below
c) no pedestrians in visible sight
d) hazy smog reducing visibility to 300 ft
e) huge Home Depot ad affixed to bridge, with neon and a gigantic screen broadcasting Falcons 24-7
8 scotty the body // May 28, 2003 at 12:05 pm
Trav… you nailed it…
Don’t forget that they’ll tear it down in 10 years to build a new one because the chasm that is the Connector will need to go double-decker.
9 thomas // Apr 5, 2004 at 3:07 pm
I’m a student and Gatech and I must say the bridge sucks and has sucked ever since the first beam came in on truck. I have seen the bridge go up day by day, and during each passing day it just gets worse. It’s yellow because yellow was the committee head’s favorite color. They rejected Calatrava’s design because they said it was too distracting.
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