Navy Pier Flyover

Decades of intensive building on Chicago’s downtown waterfront resulted in an increasingly untenable gauntlet through which the public was required to pass as they move between the city’s north and south water edge parks. As the popularity of the Lakefront Bike Path exploded, competition for space between rapidly increasing numbers of people and cars dictated a solution for separating the competitors resulting in the Navy Pier Flyover in the form of this soaring pedestrian bicycle path. The site complexity cannot be overstated. The path needed to rise over roads and a navigable waterway while dipping to pass under a highway off ramp. It would need to bend side to side to clear multiple obstructions, squeezing through narrow gaps before touching down to ground. The resulting geometry led to a structural solution inseparable from architecture. Steel, concrete, and light are leveraged to form a spine, woven thread like through the city. The path is an extraordinary pedestrian experience of the type rarely built. The supporting tube, forming elegantly slender100 foot spans, is geometrically neutral, allowing bending in every direction without prejudice. The ribs, reaching out to path edges, provide support with a lacy rhythmic sculpture of light and shadow. The railings spring seamlessly from structure below. Each piece of the bridge is a continuation of the other for unified experience whether on the path or below.