COLUMBUS, Ind. — Design firms and local architecture students are being asked to imagine a possible future for a bridge that was created as part of Columbus’s Front Door Project.
According to faculty member Britt Brewer, Indiana University’s J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program will host an architectural “charrette” to come up with possible concepts for the future of the red, double-arched bridge at the I-65 interchange with State Road 46. This local landmark could see changes sometime in the future due to highway work by the Indiana Department of Transportation.
INDOT is widening I-65 from four to six lanes from Indianapolis to Louisville, including a stretch across the four-lane signature bridge at Exit 68 in Columbus.
“The governor has set a goal to add travel lanes on I-65 all the way from border to border,” explained City Engineer/Executive Director of Public Works Dave Hayward. “The current construction brings the improvements to the interchange. So it is logical that the interchange will need to be widened soon.”
He added that while there is currently work going on south of the interchange, work on the interchange is not yet funded or scheduled, so any work on the arch bridge would be several years off or longer.
Brewer said that in looking at the future of the arch bridge, Mayor Jim Lienhoop and Hayward reached out to the architecture program, which offered to host the charrette session to brainstorm possible design solutions.
During this event, individuals from four design firms — Browning Day, BSA Life Structures, haptiK\B and Louis Joyner Architect LLC — will collaborate with students to form concepts. The four teams will have a few hours to design and develop their ideas before each giving a presentation at the session’s end.
Lienhoop and Hayward will open the event by framing the issue, and other professionals will inform the teams about aspects of the situation and answer their questions. These advisors include representatives from Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, Storrow Kinsella, the Columbus Indiana Architectural Archives, Strand Associates, Griffy Creek Studio LLC, and the architecture program.
The goal of the event, said Brewer, is to produce something that the city can take to its partners on the project, mainly as a way to foster discussion. None of the concepts will necessarily be implemented.
For the complete story, see Thursday’s Republic.
