Client: City of Kettering Ohio, City Sites Percent for Art Program

Overview

Foliage integrates art into American infrastructure. How does a bridge become a community icon and a place for people in addition to serving its functions as a traffic and pedestrian bridge? This dynamic project, which was a collaboration between the City of Kettering and Cliff Garten Studio, demonstrates how infrastructure can become art, serving a second purpose beyond its base functions. Connecting the communities of Kettering and Oakwood, Foliage, the Ridgeway Road Bridge, straddles the Hills and Dales Park, by Fredrick Law Olmstead. Seating, screens, and luminaires built into the structure of the bridge highlight view sheds from the bridge deck and create new lines and forms that relate to the surrounding landscape. The 230’ bridge is constructed with laser cut stainless steel sheets and concrete. CGS led the project with Shayna McConville, Division Manager of Cultural Arts, City of Kettering, Ohio, and Steve Bergstresser, City Engineer and Director of Public Works, formed a collaboration between community art and infrastructure whose goals was a seamless integration of art into the bridge.

Goals

CGS provided artistic leadership towards the integration of community engagement and city engineering to develop a bridge project whose goals were a response to a bridge site between two communities in Kettering Ohio. The views from the bridge and the sense of forested landscape of rolling hills were important to the surrounding communities. CGS responded by creating gathering and viewing points on opposite ends of the bridge. There are three bridges, the one you pass under and the one you pass over, and the space between the two ends that you occupy. These enhancements change the way people will use the bridge. City Engineer, Steve Bergstresser, commented that working on the project with CGS was a “transformative point in his career," because he saw how “infrastructure could become a place that held people in a meaningful way." CGS again demonstrated the relationship between community, art, and infrastructure, fulfilled through this collaboration between art and engineering. The work allowed people to have a different relationship to their infrastructure. Designing by listening to the community gave them an image of themselves and imbued the infrastructure with a value added for the neighborhood and for the City.

Process

Through careful planning with the City of Kettering Public Works Department and the Ohio Department of Transportation, Cultural Arts for the City off Kettering and the Kettering community, the character of the bridge was transformed into something that created a gathering place for the surrounding community. CGS was involved at a very early stage of the project and worked with the city engineer to change the shape of the concrete abutments of the bridge that provided view sheds to the surrounding landscape. The contractor delivered high quality concrete work that nestled seating within its forms. CGS worked with its longtime partner Metal Arts Foundry to establish a system of laser cut panels and luminaires telling the story of the surrounding landscape. These panels were integrated into the standard construction OHDOT safety fencing to create a layered composition and still meet the budget for fencing over the 230' length of the deck. CGS provided the engineering team with a modular panel system that was numbered and delivered to the site in containers ready to install. CGS' longstanding expertise in dealing with public infrastructure and low bid contractors facilitated a high quality and timely installation.