OMA team move forward with interlocking bridge design in Washington

OMA (Office of Metropolitan Architecture), landscape architects OLIN, and structural engineers WRA have completed preliminary plans for the 11th Street Bridge Park in Washington, USA.

According to a press release from OMA, the plans were reviewed and approved by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) in early April. The Bridge Park also received positive feedback from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and is planning a presentation to the full Commission this Fall.

Since winning the international design competition together with landscape architects OLIN in 2014, OMA has been working with the District Department of Transportation, non-profit Building Bridges Across the River as well as multiple agencies and stakeholders to develop and improve the bridge design.

Aerial view of the bridge. Rendering. 11th Street Bridge Park by OMA team. Image courtesy of Luxigon / OMA

Made up of two interlocking runways that meet to create a series of covered outdoor spaces, the bridge park links two sides of the Anacostia river that are currently only connected by highway overpasses.

Like other bridge designs by OMA, the overpass creates habitable green spaces along the ground below the bridge while also creating new overlooks and usable spaces along the span of the bridge itself.

“At a time when we are paradoxically isolated from one another but united in a common cause, public spaces that we all share and that benefit health have become more important than ever. Our work has focused on creating a new civic space that engages with the Anacostia River and refining the program for the park to ensure it will be a place for everyone in DC.”

Jason Long, OMA Partner.

OMA has continued its collaboration with OLIN under the leadership of partner Hallie Boyce as they refine the program spaces as well as materiality and landscape design across the Bridge Park. OMA and OLIN have also been working closely with structural engineers WRA and Delon Hampton to advance the bridge structure and design.

Key stakeholders such as the Anacostia Watershed Society have worked together with the design team to refine the design of the major programmatic spaces at the Bridge Park, including the Exelon Environmental Education Center.

“This project would not have been possible without the efforts of key stakeholders and the community. Their comments and feedback truly shaped the bridge, from its overall design to its specific programs and features. It’s only fitting that a project of this size and importance has required such broad cooperation and collaboration.”

Yusef Ali Dennis, OMA Associate.

The 11th Street Bridge Park is slated to begin construction in 2021 and will create a communal gathering place to unite a long-divided city. As the NCPC report points out; “the park will increase community connectivity and create welcoming and vibrant spaces that enhance the user experience and foster civic and local uses."

This project will be the first public space in the nation’s capital that will make a bridge a destination—a park above the river—where access to green spaces can significantly encourage physical activity while building social capital.

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View of the bridge’s interlocking forms, which are topped by an observation platform. Rendering. 11th Street Bridge Park by OMA team. Image courtesy of Luxigon / OMA

View overlooking a retail pavilion located on one bank of the bridge. Rendering. 11th Street Bridge Park by OMA team. Image courtesy of Luxigon / OMAPark by OMA team. Image courtesy of Luxigon / OMA

Rendering. 11th Street Bridge Park by OMA team. Image courtesy of Luxigon / OMA

The park areas underneath and surrounding the bridge will be used as public spaces. Rendering. 11th Street Bridge Park by OMA team. Image courtesy of Luxigon / OMA

The interior space converted into a nightclub. Rendering. 11th Street Bridge Park by OMA team. Image courtesy of Luxigon / OMA

Concept model. 11th Street Bridge Park by OMA team. Image courtesy of Luxigon / OMA

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More information

Jason Long

Jason Long (OMA partner / OMA NY co-director) Jason Long is a Partner at OMA. He joined the firm in 2003 and has been leading OMA New York since 2014. Jason brings a research-driven, interdisciplinary approach to a wide range of projects internationally—from concept to completion, he served as the project manager for the Quebec National Museum in Quebec City and the Faena Forum in Miami.

A number of projects under his direction take a creative approach on the much-needed adaptive reuse and restoration of existing buildings, including POST Houston, the transformation of a former post office warehouse in downtown Houston into a mixed-use cultural platform, incorporating a new venue for Live Nation; the conversion of an Art Deco parking garage in New York City into a synagogue; the renovation of the Fitzgerald Building at University of Toronto into a new campus administration center; the adaptive reuse of Jersey City’s Pathside Building into museum for Centre Pompidou; and LANTERN, the conversion of a former commercial bakery into a community arts hub in Detroit.

Jason’s projects in urbanism and the public realm, particularly in Washington, D.C., public health, and equitable development at varying scales: a streetscape design for D.C. Convention Center, the 11th Street Bridge Park connecting disparate communities on either side of the Anacostia River, and a sports and recreation masterplan for the RFK Stadium Armory Campus.

His diverse portfolio extends to residential developments across housing types and regions in North America. Jason led the recently completed Eagle + West, OMA’s first high-rise towers in New York. In California, he oversaw the design and completion of The Avery in San Francisco and is currently leading 730 Stanyan, a 120-unit, 100% affordable housing building in historic Haight Ashbury. Currently in progress is The Perigon, a beachfront high-rise in Miami’s mid-beach neighborhood.

Jason previously served as a key member of AMO and was the Associate Editor of Content (Taschen, 2004).

Jason has lectured at SPUR, Urban Land Institute (ULI), AIA Conventions, and various museums and universities across the globe. He has been a visiting professor at Cornell University School of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP).

Jason holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Vassar College and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD).

OMA. Office for Metropolitan Architecture

Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international practice operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism. AMO, a research and design studio, applies architectural thinking to domains beyond.

OMA is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. OMA-designed buildings currently under construction are the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin, The Factory in Manchester, Hangzhou Prism, the CMG Times Center in Shenzhen and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.

OMA’s completed projects include Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux (2024), LANTERN in Detroit (2024), Mangalem 21 in Tirana (2023), Aviva Studios – Factory International in Manchester (2023), Apollolaan 171 in Amsterdam (2023), Buffalo AKG Art Museum in Buffalo (2023), Toranomon Hills Station Tower in Tokyo (2023), Taipei Performing Arts Centre (2022), Audrey Irmas Pavilion in Los Angeles (2020), Norra Tornen in Stockholm (2020), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), Galleria in Gwanggyo (2020), WA Museum Boola Bardip (2020), nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (2020), a new building for Brighton College (2020), and Potato Head Studios in Bali (2020). Earlier buildings include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), De Rotterdam (2013), CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012), Casa da Música in Porto (2005), and the Seattle Central Library (2004).

AMO often works in parallel with OMA's clients to fertilize architecture with intelligence from this array of disciplines. This is the case with Prada: AMO's research into identity, in-store technology, and new possibilities of content-production in fashion helped generate OMA's architectural designs for new Prada epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles. In 2004, AMO was commissioned by the European Union to study its visual communication, and designed a colored "barcode" flag, combining the flags of all member states, which was used during the Austrian presidency of the EU.

AMO has worked with Universal Studios, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Heineken, Ikea, Condé Nast, Harvard University and the Hermitage. It has produced Countryside: The Future, a research exhibited at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, including Public Works (2012), Cronocaos (2010), and The Gulf (2006); and for Fondazione Prada, including When Attitudes Become Form (2012) and Serial and Portable Classics (2015). AMO, with Harvard University, was responsible for the research and curation of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale and its publication Elements. Other notable projects are Roadmap 2050, a plan for a Europe-wide renewable energy grid; Project Japan, a 720-page book on the Metabolism architecture movement (Taschen, 2010); and the educational program of Strelka Institute in Moscow.

HALLIE BOYCE

Hallie Boyce, Olin. Partner. A Partner since 2009, Hallie Boyce has seventeen years of experience in the field of landscape architecture and urban design. Her focus is the design of places in the public realm that promote community building and public health through the engagement of urban ecologies and natural systems.

Her expertise in cultural landscapes includes the design of the new U.S. Embassy and Cubitt Square at King’s Cross Station in London, a vision plan for Franklin Park in Washington DC and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. In 2012 she led the design of the winning entry for the Washington Monument Grounds at the Sylvan Theater.

Recently realized projects include the Spirit of Women Park and Nationwide Children’s Hospital Children’s Garden in Columbus, Ohio and the landscape for the University of California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, California. Hallie has also worked on the design of private estates in Virginia, Wyoming and France.

Hallie is currently an adjunct studio critic for the graduate Urban Lands studio at Temple University. Previously she co-led Studio Slavonice for three years at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design which explored the idea of catalytic landscapes that sustainably transform rural towns along the Czech-Austrian border. She has also been a visiting critic at the University of Virginia and a guest critic at Morgan State University. Hallie holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Art in Art History from Bucknell University.