Winners named in Downtown Connector bridge design competition

• MAX NEISWANDER AND LUKE KVASNICKA
• Midtown’s 10th Street bridge reimagined by two Georgia Tech students

Two of the more unsightly bridges spanning the Downtown Connector could soon become a tad less unfriendly.

A coalition of civic and architecture groups has selected the designs to transform two bridges in Midtown and Downtown into places where people actually enjoy walking, biking, or just hanging out.

Created by Midtown Alliance, Central Atlanta Progress/Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, American Institute of Architects and the Architecture and Design Center, the Atlanta Bridgescape Competition pitted top designers against each other in an effort to revamp Atlanta’s “unfriendly” bridges, according to Jennifer Ball of CAP.

In Midtown, the winning design for 10th Street bridge was created by Max Neiswander and Luke Kvasnicka, two soon-to-be grad students who have lived together since their sophomore year at Georgia Tech. Their design, titled “(sin)uosity” — it’s a play on sine, the trigonometric function — would partially cover the 10th Street bridge in what looks like a sort of birdcage.

“Most nights, we’d come home, sit in the living room, and start spitballing ideas and sketching drafts,” Kvasnicka says. “We had a pretty similar aesthetic goal in mind and our skillsets really complement each other.”

• Roger DeWeese
• Canopy would cover parts of the Ralph McGill Boulevard and Courtland Street bridge

The winning design for Downtown’s Ralph McGill Boulevard and Courtland Street’s bridge, “Organic Canopy,” came from Roger DeWeese of Peachtree Architects. His concept sprawls atop the Downtown Connector like a spider web. DeWeese says his idea was inspired by childhood days spent admiring kudzu’s abilities to spread and envelop an area.

“It was really kind of based on the idea that kudzu covers and transforms the environment which it inhabits,” he says. “So many people in Atlanta spend a lot of time on the road that it seemed like a totally worthwhile project.”

Each architect or team was allotted a hypothetical budget of $3 million to enhance one of the existing structures. A panel of five architecture experts judged their proposals, according to Brian Carr, director of marketing and communications at Midtown Alliance.

“These technical experts made the final selection of the winning designs based on technical merit and feasibility,” he says.

Ball says the winning designs, once built, should welcome those previously fearful of the connector.

“We’re trying to make Midtown and Downtown places people will want to dwell,” she says. “...People now call I-75/85 the disconnector. It always seems to be in the way; it’s unfriendly and loud and underneath is dark and scary... It’s all about quality of life and the experience of your setting.”

Carr says the projects now await the results of a feasibility study before funds to build the designs will be raised. He says the study process should be complete by the end of the year. Ball says CAP/ADID has experience on raising cash for projects that are even larger than these.

“We have a pretty good handle on unit cost and a good track record of going out and raising funds for projects like this,” she says. “We’ll soon go with renderings to our budget partners to further the process.”