Historic Recreation or Modern Monument: Design for 6th Street Viaduct Still Up for Debate
Eric Richardson / blogdowntown
The 6th Street Viaduct is one of a dozen historic bridges that cross the L.A. River as it passes through Downtown. The dual-arch structure is the longest of the group, and has been used in countless television shows and films.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — In the five years that the fate of the 6th Street Viaduct has been actively discussed, one question has consistently brought split opinions every time it has come up: If the historic bridge must be rebuilt, should the original 1932 design be recreated, or should a new, modern monument be created in its place?
The city's design team has tended to side with the latter option, presenting an "extradosed" bridge design as its preferred replacement.
Preservationists have largely argued for recreation, asking for a replica of the original's tight column spacing and dual river arch.
The city's Cultural Heritage Commission will again take up the question on Thursday, two years after the body was split on the exact same issue.
Signs indicate the commission still isn't willing to give in on losing the structure. A draft letter prepared for the commission by the city's Office of Historic Resources says that the loss of the 6th Street structure would "result in the irreparable loss of a Historic Cultural Monument and a major blow to the City’s cherished collection of historic Los Angeles River bridges."
If the bridge must be rebuilt, though, the letter asks that it be replaced intact in a way that would allow it to keep its historic designation, just as the Hollywood sign was in the 1970's.
That option may simply not be possible. The railroads will have a strong say in any proposal which replaces the columns that currently give a less-than-standard clearance for tracks along the L.A. River. Their rights trump auto rights, and in earlier meetings project staff told attendees that they did not expect the railroads to allow any new columns to be built.
The city hopes to bring the replacement project to City Council this morning for environmental certification. That process will involve selecting a preferred alternative for the bridge. The $401 million budget includes $365.5 in federal funds, $29.7 million in state Proposition B funds, $5.6 million from the city and $0.2 million from other state sources.
Dixon on November 02, 2011, at 11:08AM – #1
Did you mean Historic or MODERN design?
Jim Shafer on November 02, 2011, at 11:41AM – #2
I vote for carefully done historic recreation. Good engineers/architects should be able to change the column size and placement a bit to give the necessary train clearance and keep the original character of the bridge. The 1st St. Bridge faced the equally challenging problem of not being wide enough for cars and the Gold Line, and that widening/historic recreation project has been in progress for a few years now, so this can be done. When finished, many probably won't realize that the bridge was originally about 15-20 feet narrower.
Eric Richardson (@blogdowntown) on November 02, 2011, at 02:45PM – #3
Dixon: Hah. I did mean modern. I guess I could have said "historic moderne" and new, modern. The debate is over old vs. new.
David McBane on November 02, 2011, at 03:38PM – #4
Jim Shafer - They have been working a design for 5 YEARS and they can't make a historic recreation work. Sometimes, there is just not enough room. The big difference in this case compared to the 1st Street bridge is that it is private railroad land where the columns are and they won't accept any sort of modification to their required clearances.
Simon Ha on November 02, 2011, at 09:02PM – #5
Architecture should reflect its time. If it's a refurbish, i'm for preservation. If it's a rebuild, how try to recreate the old? Mimicking out of nostalgia limits the imagination and creativity that captures the snapshot of our time in history.
Dixon on November 03, 2011, at 10:37AM – #6
" Hah. I did mean modern."
Er........then don't you think you should change your front page headline, sir? Just saying.
Eric Richardson (@blogdowntown) on November 03, 2011, at 10:52AM – #7
Of course, but since it doesn't show up on this page I didn't see it when you first posted. On the homepage, I guess my eye passed over it as just too-tight kerning.
Thomas K Nagano on November 07, 2011, at 02:09PM – #8
We have SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) just off the Los Angeles River on Santa Fe. The students see the bridges everyday. Why not a competition for a new bridge design?
Bridge technology has improve in past four decades. Done right, the new Sixth Street Bridge should last a lot longer than a 100 years.
William Crandell on November 07, 2011, at 08:08PM – #9
Why recreate what's there? It looks like a slow dive to the river bottom, about as exciting as a wet mop. We can do better!
Scott Piotrowski on November 09, 2011, at 08:48AM – #10
If saving the historic structure is not physically possible, then a new bridge that mimics the original style is fully in order. By that, I mean it has to be similar enough to the other bridges to fit in the theme, but distinct enough to stand out as a recreation.
William Crandell on November 09, 2011, at 09:54AM – #11
Take a walk into the Nineties era Bradley addition to the Main Central Library. Ride those escalators down into that pit - leading to a blank wall.
Right.
And imagine what could have been, if the preservationists had not been running the show - what might have been if one of the world's top modernist architects had been hired to design the addition. It seems as though they intended it to be a warehouse for the dispossessed right from the very start.
At least they hired the right artist. That huge chandelier looks like it was intended as a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe.
Virtual Urban Visions on November 09, 2011, at 04:29PM – #12
If you want a "modern" bridge look no further than your nearest freeway overpass. The bridge should be recreated as it appears today, perhaps with a design that accommodates the railroads but preserves it's look as much as possible. I see this bridge everyday as it is a major TV star. I love the way it looks and reminds me of a more glamourous period in Los Angeles.