The Vermont Street Pedestrian Bridge is a 416 foot span connecting two distinct San Diego neighborhoods over a busy thoroughfare. The north end of the bridge connects to a community comprised of quiet streets and California Craftsman style bungalows built early in the 20th century. Deep canyons surround the neighborhood, giving it sense of separation from the more hectic urban center directly to the south. The south end of the bridge connects to an urban shopping, restaurant and condominum district. It is a high density area with substantial bus and car traffic.
The art treatment of the bridge includes laser cut, steel panels featuring quotations and icons, and a concrete treatment of sandblasted patterns and the definition of the word "bridge" along its length. The south landing at Uptown District is designed with a strong rectangular geometry, while the north landing at Vermont Street includes the more natural or oriental elements found in the Craftsman style.
Templates were created to sandblast the concrete surface of the bridge, creating areas of pattern and text in exposed aggregate that effects a transition between the two communities. Starting at the north landing, the concrete treatment draws from the California craftsman period by repeating the large river rock patterns in the pillars. Accordingly the landing uses the metaphor of the dry stream bed as a guiding visual principle. The oriental influence on the California Crafts movement reasserts itself in the serenity of raked and textured concrete echoing the style of a Japanese Zen garden.
As the pedestrian moves south along the bridge closer to the Uptown district, s/he will begin to notice a change in the patterns of exposed aggregate in the concrete. The transition from the early craft movement to present post modern architecture is be revealed in the change from organic shapes that replicate the forms of nature, to a series of hard edged geometric shapes that speak to contemporary post modern design.
The literal definition of the word, “Bridge” in all of it’s various meanings is etched into the concrete along the edges of the span. For 400 feet walkers read and discover a literal transcription that becomes quite lyrical in this new context.
The elements of discovery, history, time and place are articulated by using historical texts, icons, pictographs and the metaphors of "bridge" and "walking" in steel on the railing sections along the span. These designs and texts have been laser cut into stainless steel, backed with a cobalt blue translucent Plexiglas and bolted to the top portion of the railings. The quotations used range from historical figures such as Pythagoras and Lao Tsu to writers and thinkers such as Audre Lorde and Eleanor Roosevelt to important local figures such as Irving Gill and Dr. Suess.
A sense of discovery, history and place are the unifying aesthetic metaphors in the bridge, the point at which the two communities meet as they make their way along their respective journeys.
The Vermont Street Bridge is the recipient of several awards for design and planning in 1995 including the American Institute of Architects’ “Orchid Award,” and the American Planners’ Association “Award of Excellence” (both locally and statewide). The Bridge was featured in Art In America’s annual review of public art in the United States.
