The 2022 YASC Prompt: Frick Park Fern Hollow Bridge Future-Fit

In the wake of the Fern Hollow bridge’s collapse, entrants are asked to reimagine an ambitious future to build upon the new bridge as a community connector, an extension of the park spaces that surround the bridge, and a meaningful destination that adds to the environmental, social, and aesthetic value of Frick Park. Competition entrants should consider:

  • the daily users of this bridge
  • the users of the park and playground
  • the surrounding neighborhoods, schools, the trail networks,
  • the park assets such as the Frick Environmental Center Living Building

 

The 2022 YASC Submissions

Tower in the Park
Jason Andrews

While the Fern Hollow Bridge provides horizontal circulation across the ravine from Frick Park to Regent Square, an elevator tower provides accessible vertical circulation from the hilltop to the trail below.

 

The Fern Hollow Junction
Brendan Bogolin & Brad Feitl

Our intervention seeks to establish an accessible pedestrian junction to reconnect Regent Square with Squirrel Hill and Frick Park. This space will support movement but will also provide a tranquil destination to relax.

 

Gather Together
Alexandra Garcia

With my redesign, through the incorporation of greenspace and an enlarged platform filled with walking paths, bike paths, and communal space the city of Pittsburgh will be able to Gather Together once again in the everchanging world we live in.

 

Impactful Interventions Possible with Paint
Walter Haim

The New Fern Hollow Bridge is a robust accomplishment and example of political, capital, and construction willpower. Interventions with paint can make it an even better complete street and add aesthetic excitement.

 

Super Photosynthetic Dystopia
Jake Heaton

The Super Photosynthetic Dystopia is a quasi-parody of society hyper fixating on quick fixes instead of taking the time necessary to tackle root problems and provide proper lasting solutions.

 

The Pink Path Down
Meredith Ludlam

An adaptation proposal to the current bridge replacement (which undermines the safety of bikers and pedestrians) to allow for a separate two-level pedestrian bridge and multi-level spiral path under the bridge to the trail with community-driven spaces in between.

 

FHB3
Michael Sweterlitsch

The Fern Hollow Bridge 3.0 project endeavors to:Commemorate–learn from what happenedConnect–use the bridge to create stronger communitiesCorrect–use the new bridge as the impetus for bridge improvement in the Pittsburgh region