A timber pedestrian bridge is scheduled to open next summer connecting a small paved park at the north end of the historic Brooklyn Heights Promenade with the new Brooklyn Bridge Park, according to an article at popularmechanics.com by Joe Bargmann.
It has been designed by "Ted Zoli, the MacArthur Genius Award-winning structural engineer," the article said, "who is among the nation's foremost experts on "terror-proofing" bridges and other infrastructure. After 9/11, he developed a composite material now used in construction and bridge retrofitting to protect against damage from explosives. That's some pretty heavy stuff (meaning the work, not the composite material). So it comes as something of a surprise that Zoli's vision of new sustainable design is grounded in an old-fashioned material: He sees a great future in building long-lasting, rot-resistant bridges out of wood."
The 396-foot-long Squibb Park Bridge received $4.9 million in city funding last July, the article said and will have two main spans of 120 feet each.
The new Brooklyn Bridge Park is an 85-acre waterfront park designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates featuring sweeping views of New York Harbor and the Manhattan skyline.
The article said that "Zoli's design is expected to receive approval today in a hearing before the New York City Design Commission, according to park president Regina Myer."
"It's a thing of beauty in itself," Myer says, "and it provides important connectivity to Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is now somewhat isolated because of the barrier formed by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway," according to the article.
"Getting around that barrier," the article said, "required some design creativity. From Squibb Park, the bridge will zigzag gracefully through a clutch of tall oaks, between buildings and over a street, descending 30 feet in elevation from its starting point to its endpoint in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Supported by poured-concrete pillars and suspended by steel cables, the primary construction material will be 6- and 10-inch-diameter pieces of Robinia pseudoacacia, or black locust, a tree found widely in the Southeast but also prevalent in forests of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Black locust is extremely rot-resistant, durable and sustainable, Zoli says. The rough-sawn decking and wooden structural posts will have a natural finish that changes color and even warps slightly with exposure to the elements, a desired effect."
"In the case of Brooklyn Bridge Park," the article continued, "black locust isn't just an excellent building material - black locust fence posts are also a prominent feature of the park's landscape. 'The overall idea was to create a bridge that draws from the language of Brooklyn Bridge Park,' says Zoli, who is vice president of HNTB Corporation, an architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Kansas City, Mo. 'I was very taken by the idea of the Robinia fence posts and the wire range fencing [in Brooklyn Bridge Park, and re-imagining these components as part of the footbridge.'"
It has been designed by "Ted Zoli, the MacArthur Genius Award-winning structural engineer," the article said, "who is among the nation's foremost experts on "terror-proofing" bridges and other infrastructure. After 9/11, he developed a composite material now used in construction and bridge retrofitting to protect against damage from explosives. That's some pretty heavy stuff (meaning the work, not the composite material). So it comes as something of a surprise that Zoli's vision of new sustainable design is grounded in an old-fashioned material: He sees a great future in building long-lasting, rot-resistant bridges out of wood."
The 396-foot-long Squibb Park Bridge received $4.9 million in city funding last July, the article said and will have two main spans of 120 feet each.
The new Brooklyn Bridge Park is an 85-acre waterfront park designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates featuring sweeping views of New York Harbor and the Manhattan skyline.
The article said that "Zoli's design is expected to receive approval today in a hearing before the New York City Design Commission, according to park president Regina Myer."
"It's a thing of beauty in itself," Myer says, "and it provides important connectivity to Brooklyn Bridge Park, which is now somewhat isolated because of the barrier formed by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway," according to the article.
"Getting around that barrier," the article said, "required some design creativity. From Squibb Park, the bridge will zigzag gracefully through a clutch of tall oaks, between buildings and over a street, descending 30 feet in elevation from its starting point to its endpoint in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Supported by poured-concrete pillars and suspended by steel cables, the primary construction material will be 6- and 10-inch-diameter pieces of Robinia pseudoacacia, or black locust, a tree found widely in the Southeast but also prevalent in forests of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Black locust is extremely rot-resistant, durable and sustainable, Zoli says. The rough-sawn decking and wooden structural posts will have a natural finish that changes color and even warps slightly with exposure to the elements, a desired effect."
"In the case of Brooklyn Bridge Park," the article continued, "black locust isn't just an excellent building material - black locust fence posts are also a prominent feature of the park's landscape. 'The overall idea was to create a bridge that draws from the language of Brooklyn Bridge Park,' says Zoli, who is vice president of HNTB Corporation, an architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Kansas City, Mo. 'I was very taken by the idea of the Robinia fence posts and the wire range fencing [in Brooklyn Bridge Park, and re-imagining these components as part of the footbridge.'"
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
6sqft delivers the latest on real estate, architecture, and design, straight from New York City.
