io9 
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San Francisco, 12:35 AM
Tue Dec 22
25 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/26/09
Most of these "forward-thinking" government architectural projects wind up being objects of contempt twenty years down the road. A lot of public housing projects were built on similar ideals, for example.
-Kle.
11/26/09
11/25/09
Putting a sustainable community downtown is a lot like dropping a fire extinguisher in the middle of a forest fire.
11/25/09
11/25/09
Edit: Even if you can't access the terraces from the interior they could be made wide enough to allow someone to walk along them. Basically an oversized balcony that runs the full length of each tower.
11/26/09
Now if, as you speculate, these stepped terraces are actually more like window boxes that can be accessed from inside then, this design becomes slightly more practical. I much prefer the idea of having access to a garden balcony but that wouldn't create these dramatic building shapes.
The point of my comment was not to oppose the concept but to point out the lack of consideration for practical gardening requirements.
11/25/09
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11/25/09
09/15/09
I suggest cutting the idea down to size, recycle the cantilever section and build a park on the causeway.
I'm a horticulturalist, I would sign up in a heartbeat. During the 1990s I was employed by an industrial historian, doing private research on Bay Area infrastructure from the gold rush to the present and I wrote the following letter promoting this idea to the Berkeley Daily Planet in 2006.... (Please ignore the idea of a "backup bridge.")
9.01.2006
Berkeley Daily Planet
Save the old San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge!
BAY BRIDGE
Editors, Daily Planet:
Now that the bids for the final section of the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge are being considered, perhaps we should start a campaign to preserve the existing eastern span, for logistic as well as historical reasons. It would be a backup bridge in the event the new one is a failure and it would be a nice place to walk or ride bicycles and picnic. Saving the old bridge
would be a nice homage to the builders of the 1930s and a prudent effort perhaps, considering the problems we’ve had building a new one.
Hank Chapot
09/15/09
Also, as someone else mentioned, that span of bridge is miles long. It's not like some dinky foot bridge in Podunk, France. There would be no western approach to the bridge to get to a 'bicycle community' anyway, you'd have to enter from the Oakland side.
As for the new bridge being ugly, it's not done yet. Give it a chance. The single-point suspension segment will give it the iconic look you all seek. Besides, simple bridges can be just as iconic as elaborate ones. Look at the Coronado bridge in San Diego.
09/15/09
09/15/09
09/15/09
That being said, of course the seismic issues seem pretty daunting. Does anyone know of a cost estimate for retrofitting the old span?
09/16/09
09/16/09
09/15/09
Great idea in theory though.
09/15/09
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