Washington DC is getting a big new bridge that is also a park, with green spaces, pathways, recreational facilities and an educational centre. A place for locals to enjoy, built on the struts of an
Design for Living: The Washington bridge that's also a park
![Simon Wilson](https://s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/nzme/024b4a01-30c7-4ae7-9638-10f1770d7d08.png)
Simon Wilson
Washington's new 11th Street Bridge is designed entirely as a park.
![Exercise or just hanging out: the bridge is designed as a facility for the people there now, not for wealthier residents of the future.](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/5MAC5JGUXVRDFTIHJKPZKZVO4Q.jpg?auth=ffb7d9e3e32f52d4ae4880a049b7416193b7dc8b226321902c799f3dac531b3d&width=16&height=10&quality=70&smart=true)
Since 2013, locals have been helping design the whole facility. A "home buyers club" provides cash grants and forgivable loans for deposits to long-term renters wanting to buy a home. A community trust has a portfolio of 240 units of permanently affordable housing for local residents. Half the money generated by fundraising for the whole project is earmarked specifically for the park's "social mission".
There's also a programme of support for black-owned local businesses, including help with IT and funds for marketing, financial services, help with grant applications and strategic advice. The corporates that provide this support are not there to push locals away, but to help them stay.
That's the theory. Hallie Boyce, a partner at Olin, a landscape company designing elements of the bridge park, says the park is a "new paradigm". Introducing big design-led features to a community while actively trying to stop "residential displacement" isn't always the way things are done. "We have other clients around the country who are trying to learn from this project," she says.
Auckland has its own new recreational bridge: Ngā Hau Māngere, which connects Onehunga with Māngere Bridge and features an eight-metre wide pathway, fishing bays and a beautiful cantilevered white arch.
The bridge is fabulous, but it sits there on its own. We don't have the joined-up approach to planning that would see local residents or businesses involved in realising its potential.
![The new Ngā Hau Māngere recreational bridge connects Onehunga with Māngere Bridge township.](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/J7X6G43ZBRYMHO324MXWUMXGRI.jpg?auth=d820ade20c49f05d392461424643707f74b3c23015eb119d82a735db7be6eb28&width=16&height=10&quality=70&smart=true)
Design for Living is a weekly series in Canvas magazine, devoted to bright ideas that make cities better.