There has been a bit of press of late about the Colorado River Bridge, whose arch is about to become connected, high above the Black Canyon. It is being built to take pressure off the Hoover Dam road and once completed will make the canyon even more picturesque (if you like modern architecture, that is!).
Having said that, the pictures of the bridge in contsruction are equally impressive and a few are showcased here, showing the varying stages of the project as well as a bit of information sourced about the work:
So, there we have it - It should be a sight to behold when finished. It still amazes me just what a monumental job the original dam was and more information on that can be found via the link below.
Finally, don't forget to explore the blog for more articles on architecture or check out one of the blog's most popular posts, discussing unusual bridges and bridge building games:
When the famous old street Cowgate caught fire on 7 December 2000, it looked as though Edinburgh good lose a good chunk of its old town. Although the fire was controlled, there is now a sizable hole to the west of South Bridge and it hasn't seen much change since the fire. Big boards advertise the redevelopment, but this project seems to be little more than a website - but I thought it was worth checking out.
I have to admit I was disappointed with what seems to be on its way - I remember seeing some early plans of the redevelopment and being unsure, but was hoping things might have changed since then. One of the photo-realistic drawings they show barely even features the new building, so I've faded out the bits that are there already and what's left is a relatively standard looking stone facade - nothing to write home about really.
I was hoping the main development might cheer me up a bit, but the scene they paint seems so generic that I can't really get that enthusiastic. You can just imagine the cafe being a Starbucks or Costa Coffee - there somehow doesn't seem much room for anything fresh - although the developers have to make money so maybe that's just the way of the world. I just hope the good people of Edinburgh make the space their own!
There seems to be a trend in Edinburgh in recent years to build relatively uninteresting stone buildings, as if the one rule is "make it out of stone" (this is a good rule, but needs company!). First the parliament managed to choose a stone that was identical in appearance to concrete and then the old midlothian council site has been redeveloped with a really quite boring building - OK, the old one was worse, but that's no excuse not to make the new one brilliant.
I find architect's drawings quite inspiring, so maybe everything looks better at the planning stage - although I think there are hints of what's to come in the plans of the Cowgate work:
Maybe council planners will come to their senses soon - it's not a big catastrophe and Edinburgh has done well to keep such a large amount of its great buildings, but I just hope people realise that if they need replacing, the replacement should be great also! The site can be seen in the map below, and it pretty much looks exactly the same today:
Having grown up in Norwich, I was interested to hear that there's a scaled-down replica of the Catholic Cathedral near Lettefrack, Ireland. It looks a bit different as obviously not everything could be scaled down, but it's a pretty good effort - made in the local green Connemara stone:
And for comparison, here's the real deal - with a bit of wikipedia info added in as it's fair to say the Catholic Cathedral is the lesser-known of Norwich's seats of worship:
Its cathedral-based fame is surpassed by the Church of England Cathedral, a Norman Gothic masterpiece, built from 1096-1145 and the second tallest cathedral in the England, at 315 feet. It's a good job no-one tried scaling it down though, as the famous cloisters would lose some of their charm if you had to crawl through them:
I'd seen a few blog posts on 'crazy bridges' but they often seemed to focus on the same structures and were of the big-money, hugely publicised type. I was hoping to do a little post on some interesting bridges that were much less known but I could a big distracted on the way and it morphed into this post.
Now, I'll start the post with a few of the bridges I found and then move on to some bridge building games - they might even make good reference material (or not) - click to go to more info (external):
Duluth Aerial Bridge, Minnesota, USA.
Unknown Bridge in China - "Bridge to Heaven"
Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge, Brazil
Langwaki Sky Bridge, Malaysia
You see, whilst researching I found a link to a game called Bridge Builder - a free download that pitted your engineering wits against a watery span and some money to buy steel. It's a relatively simple game, but is good fun - and would also make a great teaching tool!
Once you've designed your bridge, you can test it without any additional stress and then follow it up with the big test - running a train across it...often ending in disaster:
Feel free to grab the game for yourself and visit their website. As I say, it's free, so go crazy!
It seems a fair few people have played this game at length, with many online help pages available and a large number of youtube videos as well. Often these are showing off slightly crazy bridge designs, so I thought I'd share one here:
Finally, this youtubing guided me to a couple more Bridge Building games with considerably better graphics: Bridge It and Pontifex - both made by Chronic Logic Games. Here's a little video showing what can be done (in this case using Bridge It):
I was inspired by the illumination of York Minster in 2005 (I saw it at the time, but was reminded of it via a photo today!) to trawl the internet for some other examples of buildings being illuminated for art's sake. Unsuprisingly, there are quite a few examples - I've assembled a small collection here. I'll stick a few references at the end, but otherwise just enjoy the show! :)
Some pretty amazing pictures, I'm sure you'll agree - These illumations seem to happen pretty often (especially at Christmas time) so keep your eye open for a similar show near you!
I recently stumbled upon a few of photos I'd been meaning to post a while ago. The first three are different shots of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Cičncies - a stunning building in Valencia. The last photo is a brilliant photo of an altostratus cloud, not that I've seen one like that before! [The first photo can be clicked on to enlarge.]
Recently, I was looking at a site in Edinburgh that was being regenerated (in fact, at the moment a lot of our open spaces are being 'redeveloped') and it made me think about how the public can get involved in such schemes.
Let's be honest, generally these things seem to occur with only the smallest amount of public involvement. Of course, I'm sure the council would disagree, but that's generally how the public feel.
The main problem is that Joe Public is unlikely to be a trained architect, so submitting ideas is difficult. Now, with the aid of Google Earth as a base map and Google SketchUp as an urban design tool, the public could submit ideas and changes to planned schemes, with relative ease.
Google SketchUp is a free program that allows design in a 3D environment, with simple links to Google Earth, allowing designs to be placed in the current built reality of any city.
The image above shows my creation of a simple skyscraper that has been placed in a city (Boulder, USA) and a few snapshots taken. Every element of this building is editable and this was a VERY simple example to show you what can be done.
Now, go and practice and give the council a shock at the publics urban design skills!
The Colorado River Bridge - which at its highest point will reach almost 900 feet (274m) above the river at its highest point - is being built to take the pressure off the narrow, winding road that runs across the Depression-era dam. 
