Unique ideas for recycling 520 bridge

posterPULLMAN, Wash. – A climbing tree made of recycled steel. Adult-sized swings and an adult-sized playground designed in the form of a sea monster.
 
Could this someday be the future for pieces of the old SR-520 floating bridge? 
 
From eco-friendly residential and office space to a community for the unemployed to a cemetery, architecture students and professionals have developed unique ways to reuse the bridge.
 
More than 100 teams and individuals from 20 countries entered Washington State University architecture graduate student Sara Strouse’s Rethink Reuse competition, and more than 70 submitted design plans. The Seattle bridge is being removed and replaced in 2014.
 
“I enjoyed the complete openness of the prompt. It essentially said, here are some things that float, what can you do with them?” said Ivan Schulz, a third year WSU architecture student who entered the competition with another undergraduate, Sophie Gao.
 
Their team designed a park in the form of the sea serpent known as Kwakwaka’wakw, which is part of Pacific Northwest native mythology. 
 
“Our design, Wilatuk Park, challenges societal norms by providing a place where adults can rediscover their ability to play,” said Schulz.
 
A group of WSU architecture graduate program alumni designed a floating residential and office structure with turbines underneath. The team said the turbines would generate more energy than some dams in the area.
 
Another team went a completely different direction – turning the pontoons into a burial site and memorial park.
 
“They wanted to utilize water as an alternative to land burial, which is becoming an issue because of lack of land space,” Strouse said. The team is a student duo, one from Harvard and the other from the University of Washington. Their eco-sensitive design includes biodegradable floating urns, floating gardens, above ground tombs and submersed crypts.
 
The competition is part of Strouse’s graduate thesis project, the other half of which includes research about competitions and their use in the architecture field. While Strouse does not have the authority to grant a design contract for the winners, there is a $3,000 first place prize.
 
The competition aims to raise awareness about sustainability and reusing existing infrastructure, even at the large scale, rather than demolishing it.
 
“I really wanted to get people thinking about the possibilities that are out there, and I think I have,” Strouse said. Entrants ranged from undergraduate students to professionals.
 
“It was intriguing to work on something we’ve never done before that is not class driven,” Gao said. “It was a great way to build experience and our portfolios.”
 
Judges will announce the competition winners on Sept. 21. The Seattle Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) is co-presenting the competition, and the sponsors are NBBJ, Mulvanny G2, Kiewit/General/Manson a Joint Venture, WSU School of Design and Construction, KSI Architecture and Planning, Efikio and Belfor.
 
Winning entries will be displayed at the Seattle AIA gallery, 1911 First Ave. Seattle, in conjunction with the AIA’s Design Festival. The opening reception for the gallery show is 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18; the show will run through Oct. 26.
 
For more information on the competition, please visit http://www.rethinkreuse.org
 
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