2012: Transforming the Bridge | 12178

Team: Adam Mekies

Location: Ames, Iowa

Overview: The Cleveland Flats currently lie bland, unused in many regards, and without a hierarchy to their organization. The Veterans Memorial Bridge crosses over both the flats and the Cayahoga River bridging between the city heart and its extremities. The bridge and the flats below currently occupy the same area but float separate of each other and the rest of their Cleveland surroundings.

Urban Inspiration is the process of breathing a constant flow of new life, energy, people, and ideas into the flats by use of the Veterans Memorial Bridge. The bridge becomes encased in a complex circulation corridor and in this way becomes the trachea for the district funneling the flow of people in an out of the living organism.

The flats themselves inflate, vertically engulfing the bridge and become a dynamic living organism of linked communities with common interests and goals. Each community is composed of both short term pod, and traditional long term living, and thrives on the young, entrepreneurial minds who travel through, create, and network within the district.