term project

barry onouye endowed chair design studio
Paolo Desideri, ABDR Architetti Associati / Professor, «Roma Tre» campus, University of Rome

marion street pedestrian bridge

The main studio problem is to design a replacement for the current Marion Street Pedestrian Bridge that provides a connection between the Colman Dock Ferry Terminal and First Avenue in downtown Seattle. This terminal services car and pedestrian traffic from Seattle to Bainbridge Island and Bremerton. The replacement of the bridge is tied to the redevelopment of the Seattle Waterfront by the Office of the Waterfront of the City of Seattle. The design for the waterfront was the result of a public competition in 2010, which was won by James Corner Field Operations. The opportunity to redesign the Seattle waterfront is a direct consequence of the larger infrastructural project for the removal of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and its replacement by an underground tunnel and the related rebuilding of the waterfront seawall. The need for a new pedestrian bridge at Marion Street is due to the fact that the current bridge is structurally connected to the soon-to-be-removed viaduct. The replacement of the Marion Street bridge is a $16.5 million project slated to begin construction in 2018. It is currently in the design phase following a call for proposals during the fall of 2014. The City of Seattle has expressed its desire for this new bridge to be an iconic element that reflects the larger project of remaking the Seattle waterfront.

While the current project for the Marion Street Pedestrian bridge and related redesign of the Seattle Waterfront provide a context for our project, this studio will establish its own goals at an urban and architectural level. These goals include viewing the project as a place of connection between various movements and flows as well as a place of rest and outlook from which the city and waterfront can be experienced and viewed. Each student will need to respond to both the existing and proposed urban situation. In particular, the potential of pedestrian, bike and other flows of traffic into and through the site and of the many other related public activities, both planned and unplanned, should be carefully considered. This piece of urban infrastructure will thus be viewed as more than just a conduit that provides passage for pedestrians and cyclists from the ferry terminal to the city and back. It will be seen as a generator of activity, sponsoring a combination of places that speak of various forms of occupation of space in an urban context—of action and movement as well as repose.

The specific site is Marion Street between First Avenue and the Colman Dock Ferry Terminal. Projects will need to work within the existing Waterfront Plan, but can propose to modify, adjust or even remake some aspects of that plan to serve their individual goals. Among the many issues to consider is at what point or in what ways does the pedestrian and bike flow to and from the Ferry terminal relate to the at-grade condition. More broadly speaking, in considering various forms of urban infrastructure in Seattle and elsewhere, the most powerful examples are those that transcend the basic goal of providing support for various kinds of urban movements and/or the provision of basic functions or services. The challenge is to think about how an infrastructural element in an urban context can also be a framework for other activities and functions—even those that can sometimes be quite fleeting. The new pedestrian route therefore is not only an architectural issue, not only a structural design issue, not only an environmental issue but also an urban design issue: a way to redefine the public space in the city, in that specific site, and a way to generate a new space in the city.

course resources

essays: 
Jon Binnie, Tim Edensor, Julian Holloway, Steve Millington and Craig Young, "Mundane mobilities, banal travels." Social and Cultural Geography 8:2 (April 2007): 165-174.
Anthony Raynsford, "Swarm of the Metropolis: Passenger Circulation at Grand Central Terminal and the Ideology of the Crowd." Journal of Architectural Education 50, 1 (September 1996): 2-14.
John Urry, "Pavements and Paths." In Mobilities, 63-89. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2007.

documents: 
Lynn Porter, "Wanted: 'A great new bridge' for Seattle's new waterfront." Daily Journal of Commerce, August 27, 2014. Online at: https://www.djc.com/news/ae/12069237.html
Seattle Design Commission, "Seattle Multimodal Terminal at Colman Dock Project," February 6, 2014.
See also: http://waterfrontseattle.org/documents

We also propose the following case studies as examples of the integration of structure and urban space:
James Corner Field Operations with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, High Line Park, New York, NY, 2005-2011.
Arup, Foster and Partners and Sir Anthony Caro, Millennium Bridge, London, England, 1996-2000.
Sergio Musmeci, Basento Bridge, Potenza, Italy, 1967-76.
Boris Podrecca, Urban redefinition, Via Mazzini, Verona, Italy, 1999.
Insula Architettura, Francesco Cellini and Fabio Brancaleoni, Ponte degli Annibaldi, Rome, Italy, 2000.

general site considerations

The program for the Marion Street Pedestrian Bridge is to provide a connection from the Colman Dock Ferry Terminal to First Avenue at Marion Street. This terminal handles an average of over 12,500 foot passengers/day to and from Bainbridge Island and Bremerton. Although not all foot passengers use the current bridge, there is a large flow of pedestrians and bicycles, particularly during the early morning and late afternoon weekday rush hour.

The bridge was originally built in response to the existing site condition in which the height of the pedestrian deck at the Colman Dock Terminal is close to the grade level at First Avenue and Marion Street. It is worth noting that the Colman Dock Ferry Terminal is also being reconstructed by NBBJ with input from the Seattle Design Commission as noted in the above document.

In responding to the site area, students should consider flow of foot passengers and bicycles to and from the ferry terminal to various possible destinations. These include connections to the grade in front of the terminal and to the revised Alaskan Way as well as Western Avenue and First Avenue. They should also take into account possible connections or overlaps between the bus, car, bike and pedestrian flows and activities that are part of the Seattle Waterfront plan as well as the existing buildings around the site.

Seattle Waterfront Concept Plan, July 2012. [http://waterfrontseattle.org/]