Fentress creates new landmark for Colorado city

Today, the opening ceremony takes place for the new pedestrian bridge in Lone Tree, Colorado, which broke ground on 19th September, 2016. When planning the bridge, the city authorities challenged Fentress Architects to create an icon for the area, while establishing an essential connection between the North and South sides of the expanding city. The firm responded by basing their concept on the form of a leaf, establishing a new landmark and acknowledging the site’s grand vista of the nearby Rocky Mountains. “Landmarks provide an opportunity to tie the community together,” said Curt Fentress, principal in charge of design. 

The design itself was informed by the local community, with collaboration taking place during multiple public presentations and a telephone town meeting with hundreds of Lone Tree residents. The resulting 78-foot-tall mast structure and 170-foot-long pedestrian bridge spans a major thoroughfare that sees 89,000 cars a day, with the mast supporting six pairs of steel cables affixed to the bridge. Fentress’ vision was to balance steel’s efficiency with artistic form, using its experience in cable and pylon geometry to create the leaf from a three-dimensional lattice truss.

Expected users of the bridge include local residents from Heritage Hills, RidgeGate, and Lincoln Commons, as well as students of the nearby Lone Tree Elementary School. Bicyclists travelling along the Willow Creek Green Belt can cross Lincoln on the bridge as well. The designers see the bridge as part of a larger trend towards the integration of varied transport networks, with Curt stating: “This project reflects a need for so many places across the country. From biking to walking, the design of cities must accommodate multi-modal movement. It’s the way of the future.”

Lucy Nordberg
TenderStream Head of Research

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