丨美国纽约丨STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS

Gymnasium Bridge

South Bronx, NY, United States

The Gymnasium Bridge is a hybrid building synthesized as a special strategy for generating positive economic and physical effects. The bridge condenses the activities of meeting, physical recreation, and work into one structure that simultaneously forms a bridge from the community to the park on Randall’s Island.

Along the bridge community members participate in competitive sports and physical activities organized according to a normal work day with wages. The bridge becomes a vehicle from which destitute persons can reenter society, become accustomed to a normal workday, and help gain strength to develop their individual potential. The form of the architecture is a series of bridges over bridges.

The small entrance bridges at each end of the main span preserve the view down Brook Street to the canal, and from Randall’s Island up Brook Street. The main span is aligned with this axis and is crossed by a fourth and highest bridge. In water rather than over water, this bridge acts as a structural pivot from which the turnbridge portion of the main span rotates to allow future ship passage in the waterway.