The Bunge

The Department of Transportation was very deliberate about the design of the St. Anthony Falls Bridge (the new 35w). They tried to make it far more than just safe, even though with good reason that was their top priority. In the Mn/DOT press release they say, “We will build a bridge for the future that will be a source of pride for Minnesotans.” So, in other words, they are not just making any ol’ bridge.

In the press release they also say they have designed a “bridge that fits well in the environment.” But, I guess I missed how a futuristic white bridge (hence the storm trooper) fits in with the sand stone arched and suspension bridges surrounding it or how it fits in with the surrounding neighborhoods.

In the press release, they also mention that they have hired the “most awarded bridge designers and builders in the country.” They seriously wanted to make this a beautiful bridge and they did not intend to make a “causeway.” They even have a theme: Arches, Water, Reflection. My friend Dan had a post which bluntly sums up to say: the bridge is just a bridge, so stop complaining! However, if people don’t like the design, they have some legitimate concern because its not supposed to merely get your car across the water, its supposed to be attractive, suiting its surroundings and commemorating the victims. And if it doesn’t do all that, it didn’t accomplish a lot of what they set out to do.

As you enter and exit the bridge, there will be abstract monuments remembering the bridge collapse. What a better way to remember the victims, driving 70 mph yelling at the car that just cut you off. I really like what they are doing with the river-front and the observational platforms (anything would be an improvement down there). But, I think the monuments would make a lot more sense down on the water, a place where people can walk and spend time overlooking the river and skyline.

On a positive note, I love the suspension walking bridge that would hang under the main bridge and the arched lights. However, its not clear if these are really going to happen.

To sum up my thoughts, the bridge looks a bit odd especially given all the money and thought put into it. I agree with the Professors I talked to at the College of Design at the U of M in feeling the design looks a bit rushed (which is pretty understandable). The only real design elements are awkward pillars of the future or gradient blue pillars that might match perfectly with a new IKEA but not match with the muddy Mississippi rapids. However, I do like what they are doing with the landscape around the bridge area and they definitely get an A+ for safety (and given my engineering background, that’s saying a lot).

As far as the bridge being a source of pride, I don’t particularly want Minneapolis to be know for the bridge collapse, but I do see this as a great opportunity to create a beautifully designed city center. Minneapolis has put a lot of emphasis on architecture and design as of late and I would like to see that continue. Why not make the bridge a portrait of what the city prides itself on such as lakes, culture, art, and design, etc. (within a reasonable budget). And seeing thousands cross the bridge everyday, what a great place to communicate this concern for public places and design. Take a look at the short video touring Minneapolis’s architecture (library, walker art center etc.) guided by U of M architecture and design Professor John Comazzi, who I worked with this summer.

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By Alex Nordenson

A reflection on the short story “Blood” in Burnsville

Dreams have always perplexed me. They are perhaps at the forefront of those mental phenomena of which I have a thorough lack of understanding but with which I still maintain an utter fascination. Our mind essentially writes stories while we sleep and and then throws us headfirst into them as the lone protagonist. At this point of personal entry, however, it nearly ceases to be a story at all, for throughout the window of slumber during which this dream is occuring there is absolutely no doubt that such events are truly happening. I have literally jumped out of bed upon awakening from a lengthy dream, scurried across my bedroom, and anxiously flipped open a plastic, purple suitcase in my closet to see if its contents were a plethera of candy, as my dream had truly convinced me. Other dreams have left me desperately relieved that my parents were not in fact divorced due to the fact that my mother was having an affair with a distant relative, or that I actually have not been chased around my neighbor’s backyard by large scorpions.
Dreams amazingly produce true emotions. They have an aspect that is completely real, that is not fictionalized. As I read in the story “Blood,” written about a Minnesota suburb that I am all too familiar with, dreams can often transcend this category of mental phenomena and very much affect, or have a deep connection with, important matters in the physical world. In cases like these, it is almost as if your mind has a predictive ability that serves to prepare its host for a particular experience or trauma that will soon occur. How in our world of supposed logic does this occur? Supposing this story by our Burnsvillian here is indeed true, is there any legitimate explanation behind his all-too-coincidental dream sequence?
Perhaps part of the man’s subconcious consumed auditory imputs as he was sleeping, and he in fact heard the boy scream, “My Hand!” His slumber, however, rather than being disturbed, was thrown into “story mode” and decided to inflict the boy’s real pain imitatively on the dreaming adult. This could happen right? Ummm…I think it’s more interesting to assume there is indeed something supernatural, a metaphysical cause of sorts, going on here. Neurochemistry shouldn’t be able to lay it’s soul devoid hands on the meaningful dreams of spiritual, hopeful, or perhaps merely superstitious individuals. Should it? I’m not sure if I would put God at the helm of this operation in REM irony, but it almost seems more logical, in way, that there is some wave of experience that attacked this lawncare boy and then proceeded to shake his employer’s sleeping son. In writing that, I felt my “what the hell am I talking about sense” take flight, but I’m not gonna take back my enthused sci-fism just yet. It’s like ghosts. Would you rather try until your life is half over and you’re blue in the face to prove logically and scientifically that what you saw in your attic on the anniversary of your wife’s death was a illusory mental malfunction, or simply believe that the woman you love was trying to contact you in any form that would intrigue your physical senses? I’m not even sure if I believe in ghosts, but my point is the same. I kinda hope I do believe in them. And I really hope that my dreams in fact aren’t pointless and vestiges of extreme coincidences. This transcendent quality of dreams and life itself is an astounding mystery. I shall have to read a bit more Freud if I hope to ease my confusions, I guess. Right? Probably not.

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