I know, the year is hardly a quarter over. But I’m pretty confident in declaring this the Passerelle of 2012. Not just because it’s previously been Passerelle of the Month – here and here. Not just because it’s a Calatrava – and a unique one at that:
.
By Ian Harding. Many more images on Flickriver here.
This bridge is worth celebrating because it actually got built, at a cost of $25 million (and probably more), in the face of political and popular criticism, in a city like Calgary – vigilant in the face of anything that looks expensive and unnecessary if paid for with tax dollars. It had a stormy conception and a delayed gestation – but its birth has been a celebration.
Calgarians have had years to debate the cost and the design, and months to photograph from afar as it sat across the river.
But Saturday, nearly 1 ½ years after the target due date, they had a chance to experience it up close – and roughly 2,000 did at Saturday afternoon’s festival-like opening. …
Mayor Naheed Nenshi admitted in a speech that he’s questioned the predictions the bridge would get 5,000 daily crossings. But he said the crowd could well prove him wrong, and he urged people to get beyond the controversy.
“No one can deny that the bridge is a feat of engineering, a feat of architecture, and, it must be said, a feat of beauty,” the mayor said.
Hear him for yourself, and the comments of other happy Calgarians as they celebrate the opening of a landmark which, in addition to promoting active transportation, will help rebrand their city as a place prepared to pay for good design and public amenity:
.
And kudos to Ald. Druh Farrell, who had the vision and took the heat.
It’s a bit oddly placed across the river (there is a pedestrian bridge just a few blocks away) but I can’t wait to try it out! It is certainly striking, and it looks a lot better now that it’s finished!
I wonder if the multi-use path leading up to the bridge is now finished as well?
A few blocks = a 10-minute detour if you’re walking!
The bathways are done, but the landscaping around it isn’t.
Fair comment – cheers.
It should look sweet with the fresh landscaping & new paths in the spring.
Some landscaping around the bathways would be nice for a bit of privacy 🙂
Copenhagen built a longer bicycle bridge (Bryggebroen) for 1/3rd the cost. Celebrity architects add tremendous costs!
http://www.dw.dk/uk/projects/bryggebroen
the lack of piers in the water and a design with height restrictions (due to nearby heli-pad) makes the Peace bridge more expensive to construct. your comparison is really apples to oranges.
I would iterate that the Peace Bridge is also covered, and structurally self-supporting. The clear span has a tremendous amount of engineering built in to the elegant, complex architecture. Moreover, in the context of Calgary’s extraordinarily bland downtown architecture and urban design, it’s like a small chilli pepper seed placed on a tall plate of mashed potatoes. It stands out, and points to the future.
Moreover, the taboid press made a giant straw man about the $25M cost. But compared to what? It’s 1/2 of one percent of the cost of the ring road they’re building, 1/10th the cost of a one-kilometre 10-lane sunken freeway known as the Glenmore Cut, and probably will be 1/1,000th the cost of all the asphalt and traffic sound barriers to be built over the life of the bridge. Commissioning two or three such bridges still won’t equal the cost of one typical suburban interchange. Do far more expensive road projects receive similar levels of criticism on costs?
Calgary needs all the inspiration possible to wean itself from its car addiction, and emphasizing pedestrian infrastructure through elegant pedestrian bridges like this one is one way to do this.
Well done!