San Diego Coronado Bridge Lighting photos, Peter Fink design USA, Southern California architecture
San Diego Coronado Bridge Lighting Competition
Architecture in Southern California – Design Contest Winners News
Oct 21, 2010
A combined UK and North American team wins international competition to light iconic 2.5 mile long San Diego Coronado bridge in California
images from Peter Fink / FoRM Associates
San Diego Coronado Bridge Lighting Design
An international team led by London based artist Peter Fink (Form Associates) and lighting designer Mark Major (Speirs + Major) in association with Buro Happold in Los Angeles has been announced as the winner of the largest interactive green energy lighting project in North America.
The San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge, built in 1969 in the spectacular context of the bay, has become a symbol of the San Diego area – just as the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges are symbols for San Francisco. The San Diego bridge is characterised by its graceful 2.5 mile long curved deck supported by over
30 towers reaching a height of 200 feet over the navigation channel. The shipping channels are spanned by the world’s longest continuous three-span box girder measuring 1,880 feet.
The lighting project is a partnership between the Port of San Diego and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), which operates and maintains the bridge. After an extensive period of evaluation, the Port Commissioners and Caltrans embraced a selection panel’s recommendation to choose the Peter Fink and Mark Major led team ahead of two other finalists, the Bideau Company of Ballan-Mire, France and Ned Kahn/Patrick McInerney Associates in association with ARUP.
The winning concept envisages illuminating the bridge with programmable LED lighting in an energy neutral manner using electricity generated by wind turbines. The lighting concept is designed to celebrate the spectacular Bay location of San Diego, and emphasize the bridge as an important gateway with programmable changing coloured light which expresses the movement of energy across and under the bridge.
The variable rate of traffic flow over the bridge will be expressed by parapet lighting programmatically reflecting the direction, speed and intensity of vehicle movements on the deck. The lighting of the navigation span will express the nautical gateway function of the bridge and will have the capability to respond to the movement of larger ships. A distinct secondary layer of lighting accentuating the bridge pillars will provide the sense of urban connection between the two shores and celebrate the strong ties across the water body linking the communities of San Diego and the City of Coronado.
San Diego Coronado Bridge – Design Team
Peter Fink
Peter Fink was born in London and brought up in the USA and Czechoslovakia where he graduated in engineering in 1968. In 1969 he returned to live permanently in the UK and graduated in Visual Arts at St. Martins School of Art in 1973 and in Philosophy at University College London in 1978.
For 40 years Peter worked as an independent artist realising a range of award-winning public art and installations internationally. Peter’s keen interest in architecture has also extended into teaching as a Unit Master at the Architectural Association and as a Dissertation Master at the Bartlett Institute school of Architecture. In 2003, he was appointed as an enabler for CABE Space. In 2006 he became a founding partner of FoRM Associates.
Mark Major
Mark Major trained and practised as an architect prior to focusing on the unique relationship between light and architecture. In 1993 he formed a working association with Jonathan Speirs and Associates which developed into Speirs + Major. Mark has worked on a diverse range of international projects from architectural lighting to urban master-planning and light art and has been honoured with a number of national and international lighting awards including the Lighting Designer of the Year 2007.
He has also worked on three RIBA Stirling Prize winning projects; Magna Science Adventure Centre, 30 St Mary Axe and the Maggie’s Centre in London. Mark is a corporate member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Professional Lighting Designers Association, the International Association of Lighting Designers and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
FoRM Associates
FoRM Associates is a landscape and urban design practice focusing on place making. FoRM are urbanists in the widest sense creating places that are better to live in, work in and enjoy. Working collaboratively Form develops ‘green places’ environmentally and metaphorically – as places of new growth and positive change.
Form develops distinctive and functional contemporary designs avoiding preconceived styles through interdisciplinary way of working based upon the ethos “Many minds are better than one”. By bringing together in one practice landscape and urban design with lighting, arts, media and branding Form delivers fresh thinking to the design process.
www.formassociates.eu
Speirs + Major
Speirs + Major is a UK-based design practice that uses light to enhance the experience of the visual environment. Their work is wide-ranging in terms of type and scale and includes architecture, strategic projects and innovative product design.
They have designed light for hundreds of architectural projects including Barajas International Airport, the Grand Mosque of Abu Dhabi, Copenhagen Opera House and the interior of St. Pauls Cathedral, London. They have also developed lighting master plans for cities and developments including Cambridge, Coventry, Durham, Al Raha, Abu Dhabi and Burj Dubai – and have evolved night-time identities for leading brands including Armani, Nike, Sony, Virgin Atlantic, IBM and the BBC.
Today, the practice employs 30 people drawn from disciplines including architecture, art, lighting, interior, graphics and theatre. Its offices are in Edinburgh and London, UK. The work of the practice was recently recognised by the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Radiance award given by the IALD for the most outstanding lighting project of the year.
www. speirsandmajor.com
Buro Happold
Buro Happold has a worldwide reputation for innovative, multi-disciplinary engineering and strategic consultancy, operating out of an international network of offices. They provide comprehensive general and specialist engineering consultancy for the built environment, specializing in low energy and sustainable building design.
From the Louvre in Abu Dhabi to the World Trade Center Memorial Pavilion in New York, and the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center in Anaheim to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, they have a real passion for the built environment. Working with many of the world’s most renowned architects and clients, Buro Happold always strives to take engineering excellence to a higher level, finding better ways to tackle challenges. Buro Happold has over 30 years of experience providing high quality, innovative solutions which help to minimize impact on the planet
San Diego Coronado bridge lighting images / information from Peter Fink / FoRM Associates
Location: San Diego, Southern California, United States of America
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Comments / photos for the San Diego Coronado Bridge Architecture by artist Peter Fink (Form Associates) and lighting designer Mark Major (Speirs + Major) in association with Buro Happold page welcome