Free Bridge and the Rivanna Waterfront , Charlottesville, Virginia 1990


W. Jude LeBlanc in association with Ellen Dunham-Jones

With the banks the bridge brings to the stream the one and the other expanse of the landscape lying behind them. It brings stream and bank and land into each other's neighborhood. The bridge gathers the earth as landscape around the stream. —Martin Heidegger

The city of Charlottesville, Virginia is small in urban demographers' terms. It still has a lively downtown, an exceptionally rich architectural heritage and approximately 45,000 residents. It offers a surprisingly sophistocated urbanity in the midst of a lush natural environment. But development is rampant and there is a need to consciously protect and enhance this delicate balance. Our design of the bridge and surroundings at the eastern entrance to the city seeks to insure Charlottesville's identification with its cultural and natural setting.

In response to the city's rapid and projected growth, the state has proposed to widen Route 250, the major east-west thoroughfare into and through the city. Where 250 crosses the Rivanna River, the border between the city and county, "Free Bridge" will be re-built seven lanes wide instead of its current three.

The construction of the new, wider bridge at this notoriously congested intersection will bring increased development pressures to this environmentally sensitive and urbanistically significant site. At the same time, it presents a unique opportunity to guide that development such that the city gains; a proper gateway at its eastern entrance, (a proposal first suggested in an urban design study of the entire city by Carr Lynch Planners with Warren Boeschenstein in 1986); an awareness and access to its waterfront that it presently lacks; and an ecologically sound approach to the development of its waterfront.

Presently zoned industrial, the Charlottesville side of the river is loosely built up with light industry. A neighborhood of modest homes climbs the hill rising from the river. The county side of the river is generally more rural in character, with the exception of a densely built-up strip of fast-food outlets, car dealerships, and a large shopping center along Route 250. The commercial character of 250 is so dominant and the river is so overgrown that few travelers notice the river let alone consider its recreational and aesthetic potential.

The city and county have begun to recognize this and have accepted a jointly sponsored plan to connect the three parks on the river with jogging trails on both sides of the water. The bridge is an important link in this chain.

Our proposal ties into this system and further encourages pedestrian activity through generous sidewalks - well-screened from traffic, occasional benches, banner poles, a fishing platform and twin ramps down to the jogging trails and a public space at the water's edge. The rapms, banner poles, the river itself, and a proposed pair of commercial buildings on the county side establish serial thresholds marking and celebrating one's entry into the city. The bridge is designed both as a gateway into the city and down to the water. New buildings are proposed facing the water around the bridge. The bridge becomes one centerpiece of a larger grand public outdoor room carved out of the verdant riverbanks. Once down the ramps, the river itself becomes central.

We call for intense development of the waterfront in the immediate proximity of the bridge. (Conceivably twenty years from now it could be much denser than shown - we have concentrated only on those sites presently available, and to a scale currently feasable). This development is to be matched by equally intense conservation of the rest of the Rivanna corridor through Charlottesville. We call for re-zoning the industrial borders of the river residential, and encourage buildings to face rather than back onto the river.

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ARCHITECTURE


Casita Garcia

Ellis House

Twentieth Century Veterans Memorial

Iceland House

Baton Rouge Cimetiere

Two More Scupper Houses

Dogtrot Scupper House

Shotgun Scupper House

Wall-Highway

Wall-Mask

Wall-Perimeter

Public Space In The New American City

Free Bridge

Goldstein Studio

Another Glass House Competition

Louisiana House

Origlio/Vanderbilt Condominium