Urban Design Considerations for the New Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge: Competition-Winning Design for Metropolitan Washington, D.C.

Bridges are prominent features of many landscapes. They are justifiably called on to meet public objectives beyond their transportation function. It becomes the responsibility of the designer to determine what these requirements are and whether the proposed design is really addressing all of the dimensions of the problem, including objectives that may not express themselves in the form of number of lanes, minimum clearances, and other physical criteria. Public requests for structures that emulate historical bridges or architecture are especially difficult considering the modern demands on the structure and the modern materials and techniques that are available. Techniques used to incorporate contextual and urban design concerns into the design of a major contemporary bridge are described. The project addresses the public’s desire for landmark bridges without resorting to imitation of historical precedents. It is the winning entry in the recent international design competition for the new Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge in the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan area, submitted by a team led by the Parsons Transportation Group. The aesthetic and urban design considerations that guided the design for the bridge are described by the team’s architect-urban designers.