Linda Mack: A fleeting opportunity for beauty

Will the new I-35W bridge be a nondescript span like the one that failed on Aug. 1, or will it be a soaring, memorable structure?

With the process of selecting a design-build team barreling along, the stage seems set for a good design, though not necessarily a great one.

On Thursday, the Minnesota Department of Transportation sent out its request for proposals to the five teams shortlisted for the contract. The RFP -- a hefty, three-part document -- lists the complex requirements for the bridge design, including what it calls visual quality. The teams are to submit their proposals by Sept. 10, and a selection is to be made by the end of September.

MnDOT is understandably eager to hire a team and begin the design process so that the bridge can be completed by late 2008. But the desire for speed and efficiency may be closing off an unprecedented opportunity for a compelling design.

Minneapolis real-estate consultant Peter Kitchak, who assisted with the Guthrie Theater's new riverfront complex, has contacted Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, the world's preeminent bridge designer, to assess his interest in the project. Kitchak reports that Calatrava, who has designed dozens of breathtaking bridges, is interested and is confident that the bridge can be built on time and below the budgeted $250 million.

But here's the rub: With the five teams already assembled and the tightly regulated bid process underway, the chance to involve Calatrava may already have dissolved, unless he can be added to one of the existing teams.

Fortunately, Calatrava is not the only architect who could rise to the occasion presented by this gateway across the Mississippi River, although he is the most exciting. All five shortlisted teams include experienced designers with impressive structures on their résumés--bridges like the long-span Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Bridge, the Carquinez Bridge north of San Francisco (which is a 3,464-foot suspension bridge) or the mastlike Cooper River Bridge in Charleston, S.C. (which several of the teams claim as their project).

What's unclear is whether the designers are the best available, and whether they will they be asked to design a beautiful bridge here.

There are two requirements for greatness. One is a team capable of producing it. The other is a client insisting on it.

At this point, no document spells out the importance of a design that lifts the spirits -- a structure that marries architecture and engineering to shout "bridge."

The most-important document, the request for proposals, does call for a harmonious design, and MnDOT has assembled a "Visual Quality Advisory Team" to advise it and the design-build team on aesthetic matters. The group includes representatives of the city, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, the National Park Service, the State Historic Preservation Office, the Federal Highway Administration, Friends of the Mississippi River, and MnDOT's cultural resources, landscape architecture and bridge departments. It is an impressive group of knowledgeable people familiar with the river valley.

Will this visual-quality team be empowered to set a high aesthetic standard for the bridge? As the design-build teams are interviewed, will the public as well as the designated agencies have the chance to assess the ability of the teams to deliver a visually compelling bridge?

The "visual quality requirements" ask the designers to consider the bridge's location on the Mississippi River and within the historic river valley. It calls for design solutions that "create visual harmony with the natural environment, visual order with the community setting, and design coherence within the highway corridor."

A design sensitive to its context is a start, but not necessarily a call to greatness. The Wabasha Bridge in St. Paul, for instance, is harmonious with its setting but hardly breathtaking.

Kevin Western, head of MnDOT's visual-quality team, articulated a more-qualitative goal: "We need to do this right. We want to do something that, when we look back, we can be proud of."

As the five teams prepare their responses to these requirements, they need to know that this community yearns for a bridge as visually powerful as it is structurally safe. And they need to bring on the most-talented designers in the world. This unsought chance for a lasting landmark must be seized.

Linda Mack, former architecture critic for the Star Tribune, is a freelance writer and design consultant.