"ARC will engage the best and most innovative international, interdisciplinary design teams—comprised of landscape architects, architects, engineers, ecologists, and other experts—to create the next generation of wildlife crossing structures for North America’s roadways. This competition seeks specifically from its entries, innovation in feasible, buildable context-sensitive and compelling design solutions for safe, efficient, cost-effective, and ecologically responsive wildlife crossings. In doing so, it hopes to raise international awareness of a need to better reconcile the construction and maintenance of road networks with wildlife movement."
:: I-90 Bridge Crossing - image via The Metropolitan Field Guide
This made me think of a number of projects in the files I had saved to discuss the concept of 'Crossings' as a veg.itectural typology. There are plenty of interesting examples that fold greenery atop transportation corridors - somewhat different from the related typology that tucked building program under rooftop space. The idea of over/under vegetated separation isn't new, but has some interesting precedents:
:: image via makdreams
Via urbanism, a proposal in which: "Greenwich Street would be the “spine” of a more accessible neighborhood the Downtown Alliance calls Greenwich South. A vision of the future for an area would include green rooftops meant to be wildlife habitats."
This one reminded me of the never-realized but interesting (in terms of urbanism, if not design) version in Portland for capping the I-405 freeway:
:: image via mindspring
And the newest additions to the local versions of this including the Vancouver Land Bridge by Jones and Jones...
:: image via Jones & Jones
And the recent competition, won by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol + Allied Works for spanning Interstate 5 in Vancouver, Washington (more on this one later). While not the winning entry, the below image from Olin, Mayer/Reed, and Holst offer a better image of the spanning indicative of the project goals connecting west to east.
:: images via OregonLive
More recent examples come from Chicago and Los Angeles. The first by Perkins + Will offer a strategy for bridging over existing roadways in Chicago's downtown core. Via WAN: "This project serves as an example of how bridging over an existing highway can provide areas for new open space in downtown Chicago and serve as an urban catalyst for future growth. A series of inhabitable park bridges link either side of the expressway at mid-block to avoid disruption of existing entry ramps. Functions located within the bridges can provide new public or private facilities and link up with developable parcels on either side of the expressway."
:: images via WAN
Another recent project (via Designboom) that could provide some inspiration for these solutions are focused more on spanning highways for people and park-space in Los Angeles by Paris firm odile decq and benoit cornette architects.
:: images via Designboom
There are many examples of these shown on Vegitecture previously, which amounts to a full-fledged typology of form... sounds like another chapter is in order. The most visible versions of this include the new... the High Line (seen in a before pic here)...
:: image via Urban Greenery
...and the old... Halprin's Freeway Park in Seattle.
:: image via Great Buildings
Plus another subset of recent proposals such as the 'greenwrapped' Gardiner Expressway in Toronto, which aims to reclaim a section of elevated roadway for use as open space green corridors.
:: image via Treehugger
And for a more expansive idea - check out BLDGBLOG's post on 'Bypass Urbanism'.
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