Building/Ground: Building along a Bridge

Source: wikipedia.org

Ponte Vecchio, Florence, Italy

The Ponte Vecchio ("Old Bridge") is a Medieval stone closed-spandrel segmental arch bridge over the Arno River, in Florence, Italy, noted for still having shops built along it, as was once common. Butchers initially occupied the shops; the present tenants are jewellers, art dealers and souvenir sellers.  -- Wikipedia

Source: wikipedia.org

Museum of Science, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, 1951

a Boston, Massachusetts landmark, located in Science Park, a plot of land spanning the Charles River. -- Wikipedia

Source: Michael Graves & Associates

Fargo-Moorhead project, Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota, USA, 1976 designed by Michael Graves & Associates

In honor of their 1975 centennial, Fargo, N.D., and Moorhead, Minn., decided to build a “heritage and cultural bridge” over the Red River, which separates the two cities. Organizers envisioned not only a vehicular bridge, but also a Red River Valley heritage interpretative center, an art museum, a concert hall, a public radio station, and offices. A task force selected Michael Graves, FAIA, to design the bridge in 1976, and his scheme won a P/A award in 1979.

More than 30 years later, what seems most significant about the project was not its form and aesthetic, but instead its hybrid, infrastructural nature. In an economy in which cities will need to do more with less, using infrastructure to help fund civic projects, leveraging support from two different states and municipalities, and turning a bridge into a major public gathering place all seem like ideas we can build on.  -- ARCHITECT Magazine

Source: stevenholl.com

Source: stevenholl.com

Pamphlet Architecture 7: Bridge of Houses, 1981 by Steven Holl

Throughout history bridges have been a focus of legends of every civilization. Esthetes, philosophers and poets have used the bridge as a transcendent form. In this Pamphlet Steven Holl documents two projects. The first, from a 1979 competition proposal for Melbourne, Australia, is in the form of an ideal speculation. The second proposal, sited on a disused elevated rail link the Chelsea Area of Manhattan, is more pragmatic and focuses on a mix of housing types.   -- architect's web site

Source: chicagotribune.com

Ohio highway cap at forefront of urban design trend; retail complex atop Columbus expressway offers model for Chicago

The innovative project, which opened in 2004, put Columbus at the forefront of a national trend: Covering sunken freeways with caps, decks, land bridges or lids, as they are called, and using the found space to reconnect neighborhoods that were torn apart by the national highway building binge of the 1950s and 1960s. -- Cityscape

A dream for parks over Chicago's expressway trench: Visionary, but probably a budget-buster -- Cityscape