A team of designers led by HNTB and local firms Michael Maltzan Architecture and AC Martin Partners has won the design competition for a new, $401-million 6th Street bridge over the Los Angeles River, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Friday morning.
The existing bridge, built in 1932 and designed, like many of the city’s most famous river spans, by city engineer Merrill Butler, is afflicted with a degenerative structural problem known as “concrete cancer” and needs to be replaced. The city’s Bureau of Engineering considered building a replica or a simple viaduct before switching gears and announcing a major design competition.
The winning design, easily the most ambitious of three finalists announced last month, calls for a repeating series of concrete arches that both refer to and exaggerate the Butler design as the bridge stretches from downtown Los Angeles on the west to Boyle Heights on the east, spanning the L.A. River and the 101 Freeway on its way.
With paths for pedestrians and cyclists, it's a sign of the city’s accelerating shift from car-dominated public-space design and puts an emphasis on connections both to the banks of the river and to proposed park space (included in the winning design) at the foot of the bridge.
