Greater City: Providence video
The City and RIDOT today announced a design competition for the new Providence River Pedestrian Bridge which will replace the old Route 195. The schedule for the competion is quite aggresive, Requests for Qualifications are due by September 17th, finalists who will be invited to submit designs will be notified September 24th, and their designs will be due on October 29th.
When the designs are recieved they will go on display at City Hall for public input and then a jury will select the winning design at the end of November. RIDOT estimates it will take 18 months to transfer the winning design into engineering drawings and prepare for construction. All said, the new bridge should be well underway during 2013, which is the year the Iway project officially wraps up. If all goes according to plan, the bridge should be being built at the same time as the streetgrid is being rebuilt and the parks are being built on either bank of the river.
RIDOT Director Michael Lewis also announced that Bids for the removal of the old route 195 were being accepted starting this morning. The winning bid should be award this fall with demolition getting underway next year (I assume around March, start of construction season, as always, weather dependent).
Request for Qualifications
As part of the first phase of the design selection process, the City has issued a Request for Qualifications [.pdf] (RFQ). Interested parties are encouraged to submit a letter of interest, firm profile, a relevant and current project portfolio and appropriate references for review by the Pedestrian Bridge Design Competition Selection Committee. The informational package should be limited to 10 pages.Submission deadline
The qualifications package should be submitted electronically via email to planning@providenceri.com by September 17 at 4pm EST. Email submittals must have “Providence River Pedestrian Bridge Design Competition” in the subject line. Firms may also mail or hand deliver a CD to the Department of Planning and Development at 400 Westminster Street, Providence.Upon review, the Selection Committee, comprised of local architects, neighborhood residents, representatives from local universities, business owners and RIDOT and City staff, will invite up to 10 finalists to submit bridge designs. The finalists selected to participate in the competition will be evaluated based upon the following criteria:
- Design philosophy and approach to design
- Experience of key personnel
- Prior design experience with pedestrian bridge projects of similar scale and complexity
- Articulated understanding of the functional and operational needs of the proposed bridge
- Commitment to developing a proposed bridge design within the timeframes and constraints outlined in the RFQ
Thanks for the video!
Update from the city on the Pedestrian Bridge design competition:
And here’s that list of firms:
Heavens to Betsy that’s a lot of firms!
This is a great list. Let’s hope City Planning can make good choices beyond the firms we can all expect to make the list of 10. In particular, I’d root for out of towners like REX, Eric Owen Moss, and Office dA, and locals like Structures Workshop, Studio Providence, and Maia Small.
The city has announced the finalist who have been invited to submit designs for the new Providence River Pedestrian Bridge:
Sometime in November (if not sooner) the designs should be available for public viewing and comment at City Hall.