FLOATING BRIDGE | Boston, Massachusetts, USA | 2016

Architects: Paul Lukez Architecture 
Client: Boston Society of Architects

A bridge connects one place to another; it is “a time, place, or means of connection or transition” (Merriam-Webster). Some bridges derive distinctive meanings from their unique locations, technologies, and histories.

These include the Northern Avenue Bridge, engineered by MIT students and built in 1908 to link Boston with the Seaport District across Fort Point Channel. As a technological tour de force, it became the signature gateway to and from Seaport.

This project transforms the Northern Avenue Bridge into a ship that docks at diverse Boston harbor shores.

Becoming an iconic landmark on each waterfront, island or wharf it moors at, it activates local cultural and educational events and recreational activities there.

Throughout the year it changes shores, thereby connecting disparate communities and places in a “hands across the sea” gesture, bringing people together from all around Boston and surrounding communities.

The Northern Avenue Bridge will remain a bridge to Seaport, but it can readily be sent afloat. It sits on six perpendicular pontoons with small motors coordinated to power and navigate its motion. A structural web of steel supports elevates it, creating a habitable space between the bridge’s underside and pontoons.

Two of the bridge’s three bays will have glass roof canopies with embedded PV cells (BIPV) and tidal turbines will be placed in the channels between the pontoons. The renewable energy created would be stored in large battery arrays in waterproofed bays and, depending on the bridge’s energy demands, the bridge could sustain its own energy needs.

The Northern Avenue Bridge will retain its historical significance while adding a new chapter to its rich history. It will become part of both new and traditional civic rituals that takes the form of a new signature element in the city’s iconography.

The three bays can be programmed for concerts, fairs, festivals, parties, weddings, and other community events. They can also be platforms for educational and research programs on marine science, climate change, etc., for students. Support vehicles (food carts, educational trailers, restrooms, etc.) can be wheeled onto the bridge as events demand.

The bridge can also become a mid-harbor floating dock as its pontoons will allow boats from around New England to dock and let visitors disembark onto the bridge.