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Approach, Transition, Touchdown: The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge ProjectPost an Event »

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Electric Works

October 21 - November 24, 2011

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http://www.sfelectricworks.com/
(415) 626-5496

1360 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94103

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Approach, Transition, Touchdown: The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Project

Original Bridge

Opening reception: Friday, Oct. 21, 6-8 p.m. Coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the opening of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Electric Works is pleased to announce Approach, Transition, Touchdown: The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Project by Hughen/Starkweather. The reception is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 21 from 6-8 p.m. at Electric Works, 130 8th Street, San Francisco and is free and open to the public. Hughen/Starkweather create collaborative artworks that explore the layers, complexities and patterns that comprise a specific place using both current and historic information - photographs, maps and data - to research a location. The resulting artworks map unique forms and patterns derived from built systems and natural movements of a place. Approach, Transition, Touchdown is a new series of prints and drawings focusing on the historic and current construction of the Bay Bridge. Over the course of two years, the artists were given access to architectural and engineering drawings, maps and diagrams, photographs of ongoing construction, as well as on-site visits by boat and on foot during various phases of construction. (Particularly notable was a vertiginous trip via steel construction elevator to the scaffolding at the top of the new tower.) They met with engineers, architects and designers involved with the project who explained the immense complexities and intricacies of the design and construction. THE BRIDGE This November marks the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Bay Bridge in 1936. At the time, many believed it would be impossible to build the bridge because of high winds, muddy depths, strong waters and varying soils. There had been discussion of building a bridge between San Francisco and Oakland since the 1870s, but the process was delayed due to many factors. Once completed in 1936, it was the longest bridge in the world. Fast forward to 1989, when the Loma Prieta earthquake collapsed a section of the east span and initiated seismic upgrades and eventually an entirely new design for the East Span. The project has passed through four governors, political hurdles and extensive design reviews. When the new bridge opens in 2013, it will be the most complex engineering feat in the history of California. The new structure, which begins at the Yerba Buena Island, will be the largest self-anchored suspension bridge in the world, with a single tower rising 525 feet into the air and transitioning to a graceful skyway that touches down in Oakland. Whereas the current bridge is double-decked, the replacement will feature side-by-side decks and a 15.5-foot-wide bicycle and pedestrian path running along the eastbound deck.

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