Michigan's Bridges: Trellis Bridge at Cranbrook School (1)

August 2003 (42.575 Degrees, -83.245 Degrees) Trellis Bridge

Michigan is a pretty place. It was created by glaciers pushing their way south and melting to form enormous freshwater lakes. The resulting peninsula is filled with rivers, hills, lakes, trees, and brambles.

One of the prettiest areas is around Bloomfield Hills. It was here that publisher George Booth started the Cranbrook Schools just after the First World War. The primary architect was Eliel Saarinen who was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement (which also influenced Frank Lloyd Wright). Consequently all the structures, even pedestrian bridges built 70 years later, have a craftsman aesthetic.

The Trellis Bridge was designed by Dan Hoffman in 1991 and built in 1993. It's a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Rouge River near the Kingswood School parking lot. It's a single span timber beam bridge supporting a trellis. The trellis was to be covered in ivy or roses, but for some reason that never happened. In this view we can see a simple concrete seat-type abutment, floor beams, and diagonal members that are used to integrate the handrails into the load path.

I like the little 'Vs' atop the trellis that suggest a Japanese roof. We'll take a closer look at this interesting bridge tomorrow.

Michigan's Bridges: Trellis Bridge at Cranbrook School (1) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.