Urban bridge building: emblematic of the area's wider renewal, this bridge near the World Trade Center site is a striking addition to a ravaged public realm.

Although plans for rebuilding the World Trade Center site are still evolving (p22), the protracted business of clearing up and making the overall area habitable and usable continues. A new pedestrian bridge at Rector Street was the first infrastructural element to be constructed since the events of 11 September. Spanning the busy thoroughfare of West Street, around four blocks south of the WTC site, the temporary bridge reconnects residents of Battery Park City and the business district of the World Financial Center. West Street is currently the access route for all emergency vehicles as well as demolition and construction traffic in and out of the WTC site. This was a major factor in the coordinating and building of the bridge, along with the requirements of various federal, state and city agencies. The structure had to be capable of supporting loads generated by 4000 people per hour, provide shelter from the elements and offer views out to the surrounding area.

Despite the prosaic nature of brief and site, architects Sharples Holden Pasquarelli (SHoP) have transformed what could have been a dull, utilitarian structure into a striking addition to the ravaged public realm. Supported at four points along its length, the 230ft (70m) long bridge streaks lightly over the rumbling highway below. A prefabricated galvanized steel box truss forms the bridge deck and another steel roof truss forms the roof. Sides are partially clad in 7ft (2.1 m) long steel planks, so that pedestrians have intermittent views out through the perforated walls of the corrugated metal carapace as they cross. An inner skin of wire mesh prevents access to the outside. At night, light percolates out through the slatted sides and bridge deck, emphasizing a sense of movement. From a distance, the bridge resembles a huge caterpillar suspended above the road.

The formal invention and pleasure in the use of materials echoes another earlier SHoP project for a temporary installation at New York's fashionable P. S. I Art Centre. Entitled 'Dunescape', it combined digital modelling and craft skills to create a curvaceous dune-like form made entirely out of cedar frames. Clearly the bridge is a less frivolous proposition, but is treated with the same degree of ingenuity and concern for the tectonic. Detailing is robustly and legibly expressed, echoing the temporary site and construction structures that have become an inescapable part of the Lower Manhattan landscape. In an area wrought by unimaginable devastation, the bridge is just one part of a wider and ongoing process of recovery.

Architect

Sharples Holden Pasquarelli (SHOP), New York

Project team

William Sharples, Coren Sharples, Christopher Sharples. Kimberly J. Holden, Gregg A. Pasquarelli, Jonathan Mallie, Jennifer Conway, Takeshi Matsumoto, Keith Kaseman

Structural engineer

Buro Happold

Urban design/planning

The Sam Schwartz Company

Photographs

Karen Ludlam