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Architects: BNIM
- Year: 2006
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Photographs: Farshid Assassi
Text description provided by the architects. Once located along the riverfront, the Pencoyd Railroad Bridge was built in 1892 and closed in 1970. Led by BNIM, the recipient of the 2011 AIA National Architecture Firm Award, this historic bridge was relocated in 2006 to a new home where it became part of a new pedestrian link spanning the railroad artery separating the revitalized Crossroads district from popular civic destinations to the south.
Challenges included extracting the bridge from it’s original location, transporting it in one-piece through downtown and developing a design that would accommodate it’s new use for pedestrians, rather than rail traffic. The final design threads a pedestrian walkway through the existing trusses, while elegantly expressing movement through massing and materiality.
The view of the bridge from any angle, day or night, introduces a dynamic element into the urban context. However, its most important attribute is its connectivity for the community, providing safe and easy pedestrian passage to the area’s vibrant commercial, civic, retail and residential destinations.
