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.

Continental Bridge to become living pedestrian bridge

The Continental Bridge is the bridge over the Trinity that will be right next to the yet to be finished Santiago Calatrava designed, Margaret Hunt Hill bridge. An anonymous donor gave 10 million dollars to transform the Continental Bridge into a pedestrian "Living Bridge." The donation was made in honor of Trinity Trust Foundation Chair, Mary McDermott Cook.

There hasn't been too much of an explanation about what a "Living Bridge" will look like. Here's hoping it will look something like the "The High Line" park in New York City.

Calatrava Bridge Update

Today the Trinity River Trust launched its new website to stir up interest in the Santiago Calatrava designed Margaret Ray Hunt Bridge over the Trinity. If you have 150 bucks to spare, you can go party on September 25th with Gubernatorial candidate Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, Mayor Tom Leppert, and Santiago Calatrava.

Oh and if you have a severe case of insomnia, you can watch this You Tube video of the steel for the bridge winding its way through Dallas to the building site.

A hodge podge of stuff today...

I thought about individual posts on these subjects, but let's face it, it is Monday and I am feeling a bit lazy. So in no particular order, things I have been reading up on today:

1. For those of you who live in a historical district and looking for economical ways to landscape your lawn, AstroTurf/fake grass is verboten.

2. The steel has arrived on what some have said is Dallas' bridge to nowhere, aka the Calatrava Bridge. You know what that means? It's time to party!

3. The winner of the Shroud of Statler Hotel competition to be announced sometime this week, with postings of all the submissions to be released by August 17th.

4. A conservation district for the Disney Streets may or may not be in the works. These streets are a host to a bevy of MCM homes.

5. Some opinions on the future Dallas Convention Center Hotel. DMN architecture critique and interview with 5G Studio Collaborative, which designed the hotel here.

and finally,

6. The contractor has been selected for the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park. Groundbreaking ceremony scheduled for September 14.

H/T to DO's Unfair Park and D Magazine's FrontBurner blogs.

Bad news for the Trinity River Project

Looks like the US Army Corps of Engineers has determined that the Trinity River levees are not up to snuff. So what does that mean? Well, if the city decides to continue with its plan to put in a "parkway"( tollway) between the levees and say there is a whole bunch of flooding, there might not be any federal funds to pay for clean up and damage. So we might not get that shiny new Calatrava bridge(s) and brand new park after all. Bummer.

The Dallas Observer's Unfair Park Blog has the entire report here, here, and here.

Calatrava in the house

Apparently Santiago Calatrava was in Big D last night (may still be here right now) and met with members of the Trinity Trust Foundation. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last few years, Calatrava designed the infamous bridges that are supposed to be the centerpiece of the Trinity River Project. You know, the project that might get built sometime before climate change wipes humans off the planet in the next couple hundred years.

The kids over at FrontBurner have all the juicy details here.

More about the Trinity Trust Foundation here.