WASHINGTON – The commute from Maryland into Washington on New York Avenue will soon have a new look.
The rehabilitation of the bridge that carries large volumes of traffic over the rail yard north of Union Station has been going on for years. The repairs to the bridge’s deck, piers and abutments are nearing completion and so too is a visual curiosity at mid-span.
A team with the Kent Bloomer Studio in New Haven, Conn., is erecting a grand sculpture above the New York Avenue Bridge near Florida Avenue.
This weekend, the studio’s engineers, craftsmen and designers will finish erecting the last section of the archway above the bridge.
In a city immersed in architectural accents from generations past, the partial arches on the New York Avenue Bridge will serve as a gateway into Washington’s NoMa district.
The tree-like sculptures are more than five stories tall, towering 52 feet above the road. The arches will not line up opposite of one another, rather one arch will come before the other.
Kent Bloomer is chief designer at the Bloomer Studio.
“In a sense we are ornamenting a gateway – two partial arches,” Bloomer says. “The kind of ornament that we have always used is ornament that evokes nature.”
The New York Avenue Bridge straddles two very different urban enclaves
