San Francisco’s Bay Bridge is undergoing some serious construction that will leave an ugly casualty behind: the old eastern half of the bridge span. Last year, Rael San Fratello Architects proposed that the obsolete span be converted into the Bay Line, a High Line Park for San Francisco. Not to be outdone, a class of graduate students at UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design have come up with other design fantasies for the aging eyesore.
Project by David Dana
The student proposals include features like gardens, housing, hotels, shops, landscaped paths, and even farms. Of course, it’s unlikely that any of these plans — including the Bay Line — will come to fruition. That’s because the old span is seismically unstable, and would require years of maintenance to be a viable host to the proposed structures. Still, it’s fun to think about ways that we can turn outdated pieces of the urban landscape into things of beauty.
+ Berkeley College of Environmental Design
Lead project by Lan Hu
I love the idea of incorporating gardens into the futuristic Bay Bridge design!
Eyesore! Ha! Outdated structures are beautiful. Hello Acropolis. Hello Forum. I say let it be.
Isn’t this being abandoned because it is structurally unsound and too costly to repair? These plans for housing and gardens are pretty but don’t take into account the real reasons this structure is not going to be used as designed any more. Gardens, walking around, sure… but housing? Seems silly.