Milwaukee Marsupial Bridge wins design award

My favorite bridge beneath another bridge is the Milwaukee Marsupial Bridge that's suspended from the underbelly of the Holton Street Viaduct.


It links the Brady Street neighborhood with the Beer Line B neighborhood north of downtown Milwaukee and the condo district along Commerce Street.


I used to live about 2 blocks from the south end of the bridge on Cass Street, near Water Street and across from Trocadero. The other end passes right by Lakefront Brewery on Commerce Street.


It's a wide bridge that's easy to bike across and seems lightly used, but it's a neat way to see the Milwaukee River and get access to Water Street. The bridge is made out of steel with wooden planks that make a clickity-clack noise when you ride your bike over it.


JSOnline is reporting that the bridge won a design award:

SATURDAY, Sept. 8, 2007, 10:13 a.m.
By Whitney Gould

'Marsupial' bridge wins design award

Milwaukee's "marsupial" bridge beneath the Holton St. viaduct, along with an adjacent bus shelter and plaza, has won a national design award.

The $10,000 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence is one of six presented nationwide from the Bruner Foundation, based in Pittsford, N.Y., to recognize "outstanding examples of urban placemaking."

The foundation cited the Crossroads Project, designed by La Dallman Architects and engineered by Bloom Consultants, for "providing a new model for the use of leftover space," raising the quality of infrastructure design and improving pedestrian connections along the Milwaukee River.

The pedestrian bridge is tucked beneath the viaduct, linking the Brady St. neighborhood with the booming condo district along Commerce St. An artful bus shelter at the corner of Brady and Van Buren streets and an urban plaza with benches are part of the project. The award will be presented Tuesday on the plaza, just off Water St. Cecilia Gilbert, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works, said the $10,000 would probably be used to complete a connection from the bridge to Commerce St.