J4I21023B

J4I21023B, also know as the Broadway Overpass, reopened earlier this month. The bridge was entirely rebuilt as part of the opening of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The project was an exercise in speed and efficiency, lasting 10 months from the selection of the design team to the opening of the bridge.

View from I-670

View from the Westside Neighborhood

el dorado teamed up with Derek Porter to design the pedestrian railings on both sides of the street. We have a fifteen year history of collaboration with Derek. There’s a great deal of overlap between his work as a photographer and lighting designer and the work of our Public Art Studio. For the Broadway Overpass, we explored our shared interest in the impact of light and color on the perception of space. We focused our attention on the space inside the individual pedestrian railings, and the way that space is influenced by natural and artificial light.

South End of Guardrail

View Beneath Bartle Hall

The design uses simple materials for maximum effect. The steel guardrail structure is wrapped in an outer skin of chain link fencing. On the west side of the bridge, an inner layer of yellow chain link inside creates unexpected moiré patterns. On the east side, yellow acrylic panels reduce the noise of cars passing under Bartle Hall.

LEDs and Yellow Chain Link

LEDs and Acrylic Panels

In the shadow of Kansas City’s largest civic buildings the bridge recedes by day, a light gray mesh with a slight tint of yellow. At night, vertical LED lights project dramatic blasts of color, visible from the tangle of highways that circle downtown Kansas City. The perception of the guardrail, in pattern, color and opacity, is very different for those walking and those driving, and very different from day to night.

Looking South from the I-670 On-Ramp

Pedestrian Experience By Day

Pedestrian Experience By Night

The fast-paced project was completed on-time and well-under budget. Besides creating a public art piece that’s sensitive to its urban context and the architecture around it, we wanted pedestrians who walk across the Broadway Overpass to be surprised by it. We want people to experience the bridge in a way that defies, and hopefully exceeds, their expectations for public infrastructure.