170th Street Pedestrian Bridge

Rather than moving forward with restoring the original connection however, the team, along with the City, approached the conceptual planning phase with an openness to new ideas. They  reviewed basic assumptions on the connection’s use by the public, and the key stakeholders. An engagement plan, reflecting the City’s accelerated timeline was created, and supported development and evaluation of multiple options for the crossing location.

A new bridge crossing location and form were selected based on a number of guiding principles established by the team and the City. From a structural perspective a shallow superstructure was identified as important, to minimize user effort experience in using the crossing. Preliminary engineering guided the design to an elegant combination of modern engineering standards with aesthetic sensibility, presenting a remarkable improvement over its predecessor, while incorporating the openness of the original abutments as a distinct design element.