Responsibility: Architectural Design and Visualization
The primary architectural feature of the bridge revolves around a highly curvaceous V-pier on the west side of the roadway that when viewed from Pacific Coast Highway below frames the cliffs and the Idaho Trail entrance to the bridge. When viewed coming up the California Incline the V-pier offers views of the Santa Monica Pier, beach, and Pacific Ocean. The smooth curves of the pier blend the bottom of the bridge superstructure into one continuous surface functioning to blur the boundary of where one starts and the other begins. Though born out of a performance criteria related to site constraints, the bridge’s spiraling form and sculptural V-pier are reminiscent of a nautilus shell and whale vertebrae facilitating its connection to the marine environment in which it is placed.