OVERVIEW
WELCOME
The West End Bridge is a gateway to the city, framing Pittsburgh's great skyline. It crosses the Ohio River approximately one mile below Point State Park, which marks the union of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers. From the downtown approach, the West End Bridge serves as the portal to the Ohio River, the Gateway to the West.
Today, the beauty, power and strength of the West End Bridge make it a prominent historic landmark in the overall riverfront landscape and in the Pittsburgh region. The views both upstream and downstream are dramatic. The bridge links the north and south shorelines, and serves as a major traffic artery. However, pedestrian access to the bridge, the shores, the riverfront trail network and the water is limited. Pedestrians must travel across open lots and several lanes of traffic to reach the steep staircases and barren walkways that lead onto the bridge. A narrow pathway, located immediately adjacent to multiple lanes of heavy, fast moving vehicular traffic make the experience of the crossing harrowing and arduous.
The West End Pedestrian Bridge Competition invites entrants to envision a new pedestrian crossing, anchored to the existing West End Bridge, creating new connections to both land and water. We ask entrants to consider creative approaches for connecting pedestrian, cyclists, boaters and other users of all ages to both shores of the river. We encourage proposals for water landings that will celebrate arrival by boat and give park users an opportunity to connect directly with the river. We ask entrants to consider the importance of bringing the bridge into the everyday experience of residents and visitors alike by exploring and enhancing the connections to neighboring communities.
Engineers, architects, landscape architects, designers, planners, artists, industrial designers, and others are invited to create visionary proposals for this important landmark. We seek a design for a structure that will connect the citizens of our region, visually and physically, to the spectacular topography that surrounds the Confluence basin. We seek a design that will honor the character of this bridge, described in the National Historic Register as "one of the most beautiful and graceful bridges in Pittsburgh." We seek a design that will draw on our city’s rich heritage of engineering and innovation to create a new landmark for Pittsburgh that is as much about our future as it is about our past. And, finally, we seek a structure that will highlight the rivers as our most valuable natural resource and help reinvent the Confluence waters as a center for recreation, commerce and community life.
When realized, the West End Pedestrian Bridge will provide both a destination and a connection, bringing residents and visitors alike to look out at and reflect on the exhilarating views of our hills, valleys and skyline and celebrate the city of Pittsburgh.
Lisa Schroeder
Executive Director, Riverlife Task Force
CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Sponsor
The Riverlife Task Force is a non-profit corporation that seeks public and private funds to accomplish its goals. Riverlife was established in 1999 to create a vision and master plan for Pittsburgh’s riverfronts. The Task Force is dedicated to the development of Three Rivers Park, an urban riverfront park at the confluence of the three rivers - the Allegheny, the Monongahela, and the Ohio - in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The West End Pedestrian Bridge Competition is also supported by a generous grant from Alcoa Foundation.
Competition Advisor
JonesKroloff is a New Orleans, LA based design consultancy that assists and advises public and private organizations on architect selections and design related issues. The partnership has organized numerous national and international design competitions.
Acknowledgements
The Riverlife Task Force greatly acknowledges the generous support of Alcoa Foundation, a global resource that actively invests in improving the quality of life in the countries around the world where Alcoa operates. The Foundation's grants address global and local needs in various areas of excellence.
Additional thanks: PennDOT District 11, The City of Pittsburgh Department of City Planning and Department of Real Estate, and the West End Pedestrian Bridge Steering Committee.
COMPETITION STRUCTURE
This is a two-stage, hybrid design competition.
Stage I is comprised of two portions, an international design competition and an invited Requeest for Qualifications process. This document is the brief for the design competition that is open to Architects, Landscape Architects, Urban Designers, Engineers, Industrial Designers, Artists, and Students around the world. Entrants may submit as individuals or as a part of a team.
At the end of Stage I the competition entries will be juried and the top three to five schemes will be awarded $1,000. The exact number selected will depend on the quality of the submissions. These entrants from the Stage I Open Design Competition will advance to Stage II. The firms selected through this process will be announced at the same time as the finalists in the open design competition.
Midway through Stage I a Request for Qualification (RFQ) will be issued to a number of architectural and engineering practices with relevant project experience in their portfolio. An independent committee will review the portfolios submitted and select a limited number of firms to participate in Stage II of the competition.
Stage II is a limited competition comprised of only the selected Stage I Open Design Competition winners and the firms selected under the RFQ process. At this point each entrant will be provided with additional information about the site and program and will be asked to develop a more advanced pedestrian bridge design proposal. Entrants from the Stage I Open Design Competition will be required to assemble professional teams to complete their entries. Each Stage II team will have 30 days to develop their submission. Teams will be invited to participate in a site visit and information session in Pittsburgh. Each Stage II team will receive a $15,000 stipend to offset the cost of travel and of developing their submission.
At the end of Stage II, the Competition Jury will reconvene and identify the competition’s winner. Cash prizes will be awarded to first, second and third placeholders in the amounts of $7,500, $5,000, and $2,500 respectively. Further, the Riverlife Task Force and the appropriate public agencies may enter into negotiations with the top-ranked firm for design services for the new pedestrian bridge, access ways, and water landings as the project moves forward.
SCHEDULE
Stage I
| Competition Announced | October 31, 2005 |
| Registration Period | October 31 to December 30, 2005 |
| Question and Answer Period | October 31 to January 6, 2006 |
| Submission Deadline | January 31, 2006 |
| Public Exhibition of Entries | February 7 to 9, 2006 |
| Jury | Mid February 2006 |
| Notification of Winners | February 20, 2006 |
JURY
Jurors
Carol Brown, founding president, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh, PA pgharts.org
Kathleen M. Buechel, president and treasurer, Alcoa Foundation, Pittsburgh, PA alcoa.com
Winka Dubbeldam, architect, Archi-Tectonics, New York, NY archi-tectonics.com
Alex Krieger, urban designer and architect, Chan Krieger Associates, Cambridge, MA chankrieger.com
Les Robertson, structural engineer, Leslie E. Robertson Associates, R.L.L.P, New York, NY lera.com
Ken Smith, landscape architect, Ken Smith Landscape Architect, New York, NY
Bill Strickland, president and CEO, Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, Pittsburgh, PA manchesterguild.org
Jury Process
Information regarding jury process and selection criteria is available to registered entrants via the competition brief.
AWARDS
Additional information regarding awards is available to registered entrants via the competition brief.