Webb Bridge
Melbourne, Australia
Denton Corker Marshall Architects

Denton Corker marshall and artist Robert Owen spark up the docklands with a serpentine pedestrian and cyclist bridge

© Shannon McGrath

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By Suzanne Stephens

Sometimes a bridge is as much a destination as a passage. This seems to be the case with the slinky, glimmering, steel-lattice Webb Bridge in Melbourne, Australia. The pedestrian bridge, designed by artist Robert Owen with architects Denton Corker Marshall (DCM), obviously does not provide the most direct path from the Docklands on the north side of the Yarra River to new residential development taking shape on the south side. But it enhances the transit experience for bicyclists, pedestrians, and the disabled.

As part of the redevelopment of Yarra’s Edge, former wharves and docks near Melbourne’s central business district, the Docklands Authority required the developer of the residential complex, Mirvac, to contribute 1 percent of the budget to public art. In this case, the money went for the bridge. Robert Owen, an Australian artist known for his mixed-media installations, and Denton Corker Marshall, architects of the Melbourne Museum (Record, January 2001, page 70), won a competition with a writhing, tubular structure that incorporates two segments of the former Webb Railroad Bridge.

Owen’s and Denton Corker Marshall’s design recalls an aboriginal eel trap, except that it is fabricated with a hooped steel frame tied by flat, laser-cut steel straps rather than woven sticks. DCM used computer-aided three-dimensional modeling to arrive at the 20-foot-high hoops of various sizes and spacing, while the Melbourne office of Arup engineers came up with a structural solution of steel box girders, cranked to allow a curved form to take shape.By day, the coiled bridge glints in a reptilian fashion against the Yarra River; by night, illumination conceived by Arup Lighting causes it to glitter like a silvery roped necklace reflected against a dark mirror.

Want the full story? Read the entire article in our June 2004 issue.
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Formal name of Project:
Webb Bridge

Location:
Melbourne, Australia

Measurements:
Span: 361 feet

Total construction cost:
$1.75 Million

Client:
Mirvac Corporation/ VicUrban

Architect:
Denton Corker Marshall Architects
www.dcm-group.com

Artist:
Robert Owen