Category: Design Inspirations

Design inspirations and products

Luxury Family House Design With Exposed Steel Bridge Ideas

This home on Mercer Island utilizes the elemental natures of concrete, steel and glass to create a family refuge. Two concrete structures, which house the garage, mudroom, and a play area, present themselves to the street. Between them runs an exposed steel bridge which leads over a private courtyard and into the main house. A bent plate steel staircase descends into an open plan, double-height living space, which is dominated by an immense concrete fireplace and chimney (in the living room) and a massive black granite-covered island (in the kitchen). Floor to ceiling windows provide unimpeded views of the water from the courtyard or inside the house.

HomeGallerydesign full article
Olson Kundig Architects

Bridge House / Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects

The site is fifteen acres of wooded grasslands with a ravine running through. The house bridges the ravine, spanning east to west.

The house is a continuous 22′ wide two-story bar. A stair leads up to the entry court. The living areas are the upper level and have continuous glass walls which look north to the hill. The bedrooms below have continuous glass walls, which look south to the theater in the landscape.

ArchDaily full article
Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects

Cantilever Glass House

When Bob Zielinski, a former marine who owns a glass manufacturing company here, and his wife, Kim, showed contractors plans for the house they wanted to build — a 53-foot-long glass-and-steel wedge cantilevered over their factory — the contractors said they couldn’t do it. You’d have to get guys who build bridges and do highway work to create the support system for something like that, they said.

It took three years to build, but the Emerald Art Glass House (named after the Zielinskis’ company, Emerald Art Glass) now hovers above the factory in the South Side neighborhood, overlooking the Monongahela River, railway line and bridges.

LoftBerg full artcile
Eric Fisher - Architect

Kraanspoor / OTH Architecten

Kraanspoor (translated as craneway) is a light-weight transparent office building of three floors built on top of a concrete craneway on the grounds of the former NDSM (Nederlandsche Dok en Scheepsbouw Maatschappij) shipyard, a relic of Amsterdam’s shipping industry. This industrial monument, built in 1952, has a length of 270 meters, a height of 13,5 meters and a width of 8,7 meters. A street length and width. The new construction on top is the same 270 meters long, with a width of 13,8 meters, accentuates the length of Kraanspoor and the phenomenal expansive view of the river IJ. Fully respecting its foundation, the building is lifted by slender steel columns 3 meters above the crane way, appearing to float above the impressive concrete colossus.

ArchDaily Full Article
OTH Architecten - Architect

Stilted Shanghai Office Building is a Bridge Amongst The Trees

The stilted, four-building complex, designed by Scenic Architecture, appears to hover above the ground-level atrium in a grove of camphor trees, which poke through the interior walls and adjoin small bridges that interconnect the larger maze of light-filled spaces.

Gizmodo full article
Designed by Scenic Architecture

NorCal Structural Tekla Videos of the Bay Bridge

Here are some Great videos made by NorCal Structural using Tekla software for the Bay Bridge. These models are being used in the demolition and to test the stresses on different sections as beams are removed. Kind of like a giant visual Jenga game.

Norcal Structural - a few long videos
Tekla North America BIM Awards 2013 / Steel / San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge
Vimeo Video 1
Vimeo Video 2
Vimeo Video 3

Bay Bridge Troll

He spent 24 years working in dark, dank seclusion - all with the aim of protecting the public. Now, after two months cooling his heels in a safe house, the Bay Bridge troll has emerged from hiding.

The troll was rolled into the Gallery of California History at the Oakland Museum of California in a box, then carefully hoisted and placed on a pedestal near the entrance. He’ll hold court there until Feb. 26 along with the exhibit “Above and Below: Stories From Our Changing Bay,” which features a special section on the old eastern span of the Bay Bridge.

We will need a Troll for the Bay Bridge House!

SFGate Article

Visit him at the Oakland Museum of California

Peter Stackpole: Bridging the Bay Exhibition

Featuring stunning black-and-white photographs chronicling the original San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge construction in the 1930s by American photographer Peter Stackpole, the exhibition Peter Stackpole: Bridging the Bay continues OMCA’s ongoing series exploring contemporary topics in California through photography. On view in the Gallery of California Art during the opening of the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in fall 2013, the exhibition of 22 of Stackpole’s works from OMCA’s collection connects visitors back in time to the bridge’s first iteration and serves as a complement to the Museum’s major exhibition on the San Francisco Bay, opening in concert with the new bridge and America’s Cup. The son of California sculptor Ralph Stackpole, Peter Stackpole was educated in the San Francisco Bay Area and Paris, where he grew up under the influence of his parents’ friends and peers such as Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, and Diego Rivera. His appreciation for the hand-held camera and his technical expertise found a perfect subject chronicling the construction of both the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. An honorary member in the Bay Area’s Group f/64, Stackpole’s work appeared in Time, Fortune, U.S. Camera, Vanity Fair, and LIFE magazine, where he was an original staff photographer.

Visit the Exhibition at the Oakland Museum of CA

BAY BRIDGE PROJECT

Approach, Transition, Touchdown is a series of collaborative works by Hughen/Starkweather focusing on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. For two years, the artists researched maps, diagrams, photographs, and architectural/engineering drawings, and toured the construction area many times. They met with engineers, architects and others involved with the project who deciphered the immense complexities of the design and construction of the bridge, as well as its environmental, financial, and political intricacies. When the new Bay Bridge opens in 2013, it will be the most complex engineering feat in the history of California and the largest self-anchored suspension bridge in the world.

Hughen/Starkweather create collaborative artworks that explore the layers, complexities and patterns that comprise a specific place. They focus on places that act as transitional thoroughfares or points of departure and research each location using current and historic photographs, maps and data. The resulting artworks embody unique forms and patterns derived from the built systems and natural movements of a place.

Support the Artists - Hughen/Starkweather

The Bay Lights project

The Bay Lights is an iconic light sculpture designed by world-renowned artist Leo Villareal. This stunning fine arts experience will shine from dusk ’til dawn on the San Francisco Bay Bridge West Span from March 5, 2013 through March 2015.

Support our frients at TheByLights.org