Environmental design, informational graphics, and project management for the the Longfellow Bridge Reconstruction Project in Boston, MA. Work done while working for Harriman. Engineering firms and a task force of nearly 40 government and local agencies managed the $300 million-plus project. The arched steel bridge is a protected landmark that spans the Charles River, connecting Boston and Cambridge. The original bridge was built between 1900 and 1907, and was ultimately named after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Graphics included informational signage, typographic etchings on the concrete seat walls of stanzas from Longfellow poems, and additional etchings at the base of each staircase positioned along the pair towers on each end of the bridge. These additional etchings became medallion-like designs with motifs borrowed from architectural aspects of the bridge. Signage designs read as historical moments connected with the bridge and offered information and informational graphics on the subsurface gravel wetland acting as a natural recycling and filter system for run-off water from the bridge.
Final Installation
Medallion Designs
As indicated in the above maps and labeled A,B,C,D inside the green circles, granite platforms are created at the end of the stairwells on both entrances of the Longfellow Bridge, ie the Boston and Cambridge side of the Charles River. Etched into the platforms will be circular medallion designs. Each of the designs elements is inspired from the Bridge’s motifs found along its iron railing and along the sculptures found on the piers.
Medallion A
Medallion B
Medallion C
Medallion D
Longfellow Bridge detail of iron railing
Longfellow Bridge pier detail — motifs inspired from Nordic culture
Medallion design to scale with inspirational motifs
Seat Wall Designs
As indicated in the above maps and labeled A,B,C,D inside red squares, seat walls have been constructed for pedestrian traffic. Inscribed onto each seat wall will be parts of poems from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Conceptual sketch for design and typographic layout using architectural rendering
Longfellow Bridge seat wall typographic specifications and positioning
Longfellow Bridge Seat wall specifications detail
Installation of Seat Walls
Informational Signage
Conceptual Designs
As indicated in the above maps and labeled inside purple and orange circles, informational signage has been developed communicating the history of the bridge and its relationship with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Conceptual studies on structure of signage
Conceptual studies on structure of signage
schematic
schematic designs
Schematic designs investigating layout, typographic possibilities, and color. Content is being developed simultaneously.
Final designs (in process). Designs also incorporating informational graphics demonstrating the Surface Gravel Wetland process that organically filters water runoff prior to entering the Charles River
