Calatrava's dislike of ramps.

Source: pegasusnews.com via Donna on Pinterest

Santiago Calatrava, the designer of "Large Marge" aka the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, isn't too enamored of all the ramps built to access the bridge from Woodall Rodgers and I-35. According to him we didn't need all the ramps for the cars to get onto the bridge from these freeways.  In an interview with James Russell from Bloomberg News:

“I told them they didn’t need all those ramps,” Calatrava said when I spoke to him in his Park Avenue townhouse office after I returned to Manhattan. He said they could instead have sold the land next to the bridge and earned money on developments that feature bridge and parkland views."

I'm not a fan of the mess of ramps either.  In fact, the worst part of my commute is the quarter mile drive from Central Expressway to I-35 on Woodall Rodgers.  Depending on the traffic, I can spend up to 30 minutes on Woodall Rodgers so I have had plenty of time to stare at those ramps.  They are clunky swaths of concrete that do not integrate seamlessly with our fancy bridge.  It is like wearing orthopedic shoes with an elegant ball gown.  The shoes may get you from point a to point b.  But it isn't going to happen in a pretty way.  However, Calatrava wasn't hired to design the on ramps, only the bridge.  He may have been willing to design the on-ramps, but the likelihood was that the City of Dallas couldn't afford it.

Read more about James Russell's review of the bridge here.  H/T to D Magazine's Front Burner blog where I first read the article.

If this bridge could talk...

D magazine's Zac Crain imagines a conversation between himself and the soon to be opened and Santiago Calatrava designed Margaret Hunt Hill bridge.

Read the "interview" here.

Dallas' CityDesign Studio plan for West Dallas

So maybe that Calatrava designed bridge to nowhere (aka Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge) may not be a bridge to nowhere after all.

So who is CityDesign Studio and what do they have planned for the other side of the Trinity River where the bridge ends? From the CityDesign Studio website:

"The Dallas CityDesign Studio was formed in October of 2009 through a grant to the City from the Trinity Trust Foundation, funded by a generous gift from Deedie and Rusty Rose, to focus on neighborhoods and development along the Trinity."

CityDesign Studio recently had a presentation where they presented a proposal for the development of the area of West Dallas that adjoins the Trinity River and Calatrava bridge. The proposal includes pedestrian friendly streets and "mixed-use developments", in addition to development of public spaces (hope that means parks!). This presentation and proposal is interesting because it seeks to bring some much needed development to the area. It will interesting in the future to see how this shapes up and how that area will springboard off the development already there; i.e. the Belmont Hotel.

Read more about CityDesign Studio's proposal here.

Dallas Observer's Unfair Park blog has a review of the presentation meeting here.

Hear Joan Davidow's, former director and curator of the Dallas Contemporary, commentary for KERA 90.1 here.

Architectural Webcams in Dallas

Bored one night and looking for something do on the internet? Want a mid-work break?

Check out the webcams for two of Dallas' architectural projects:

1. You can watch the construction of the Calatrava Bridge (aka, Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge or bridge to nowhere) here.

2. Or you can check in on the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park progress and the traffic scene here.