Great article!
What I've been taking as relevant out of the Met Council discussion is that
there are people on the Met Council who don't think there should BE a Met
Council.
They might not be the people to listen to when it comes time to formulate a
plan
requiring judgment and foresight for a structure we hope might last more than
one
generation--that structure being the 35W bridge, right now, with the Lafayette
Bridge
soon to follow. For that kind of planning, St. Paul citizens may well prefer
the
counsel of a planning body that has a modicum of faith in the planning process
itself.
The 35W Bridge was new once and, no doubt, had planners taking bows in shiny
photo-ops.
A Met Council that doesn't believe in its own function is JUST the kind of
outfit
that will rush to deliver a politically expedient bridge design with the same
sort
of visionary shortcomings as the one that now lays in the river.
The article cited by Mr. Swope lays out the recipe for the antidote very
articulately
and, as a citizen peon with no engineering credentials except swinging a spike
hammer
for the railroad, I wholeheartedly agree.
I've taken the liberty of posting a salient quote from conclusion of the
article:
"I would urge the State of Minnesota to organize a jury of public officials,
engineers and community leaders to recommend a design after a holding a
competition
along the lines of the one in Annapolis.
"We have a choice: we can replace the standard-form truss with another bland
and anonymous work, or we can come up with an efficient and elegant form that
helps
engineers educate the public in the possibilities of turning our nation’s
bridges
into safe, economical and beautiful landmarks worth maintaining.
"David P. Billington is a structural engineering professor at Princeton and
the co-author, with David P. Billington Jr., of “Power, Speed and Form:
Engineers
and the Making of the 20th Century.”
What I've been taking as relevant out of the Met Council discussion is that
there are people on the Met Council who don't think there should BE a Met
Council.
They might not be the people to listen to when it comes time to formulate a
plan
requiring judgment and foresight for a structure we hope might last more than
one
generation--that structure being the 35W bridge, right now, with the Lafayette
Bridge
soon to follow. For that kind of planning, St. Paul citizens may well prefer
the
counsel of a planning body that has a modicum of faith in the planning process
itself.
The 35W Bridge was new once and, no doubt, had planners taking bows in shiny
photo-ops.
A Met Council that doesn't believe in its own function is JUST the kind of
outfit
that will rush to deliver a politically expedient bridge design with the same
sort
of visionary shortcomings as the one that now lays in the river.
The article cited by Mr. Swope lays out the recipe for the antidote very
articulately
and, as a citizen peon with no engineering credentials except swinging a spike
hammer
for the railroad, I wholeheartedly agree.
I've taken the liberty of posting a salient quote from conclusion of the
article:
"I would urge the State of Minnesota to organize a jury of public officials,
engineers and community leaders to recommend a design after a holding a
competition
along the lines of the one in Annapolis.
"We have a choice: we can replace the standard-form truss with another bland
and anonymous work, or we can come up with an efficient and elegant form that
helps
engineers educate the public in the possibilities of turning our nation’s
bridges
into safe, economical and beautiful landmarks worth maintaining.
"David P. Billington is a structural engineering professor at Princeton and
the co-author, with David P. Billington Jr., of “Power, Speed and Form:
Engineers
and the Making of the 20th Century.”
