MILLENNIUM BRIDGE – The Bridge as Event / Interesting Facts / Installation
From Wilkinson Eyre’s internal files, James Eyre speaks about the symbolic nature of his bridge: ‘Working with a structure already intended as an urban intervention or ‘event’ - itself seeking to re-energise and engender civic pride - Spencer Tunick’s event on 17 July 2005 spoke on many levels. Reasserting the crossing over of domains in art, architecture and engineering, perceived boundaries became blurred. Bridge metaphors for joining communities were heightened, while introducing tensions between innocence or vulnerability and hard steel, and the almost shocking notion of human commodity with participants carried by the bridge as vessel.
The rotated structure suggests motifs in specific views, here the symbol of infinity. Likened to an eye opening, one could also see the transparent mouth of leviathan opening to swallow craft entering the city.’
Spencer Tunick’s Nude Newcastle Event, 2005
Facts and figures about the bridge abound. Who would have thought that it would feature on stamps and coins; that it can clean up its own litter; that it was installed by the Europe’s largest floating crane? See attached for more interesting facts, a project description and an analysis of installation methodology and a structural analysis.
Although ‘means and methods of installation’ are ultimately not the architect’s responsibility, they certainly cannot be ignored. ‘It looks great, but how are you going to build the thing?’
The Millennium Bridge was designed by architects Wilkinson Eyre and engineers Gifford. It was constructed by Volker Stevin, with steel fabrication by Watson Steel.
The bridge was transported section by section from Watson Steel to works nearer Newcastle where the sections were welded together and painted. The finished bridge was transported six miles up the Tyne in November 2000 by Asian Hercules II, squeezing through narrow channels sideways.
The mammoth floating crane is the size of a football pitch, is almost as tall as the London EYE, can lift over 4,000 cars and has a live-in crew of just 12.
Naked City: Spencer Tunick in NewcastleGateshead was commissioned by the Baltic Gallery and BBC3. An exhibition will be shown at the gallery in January 2006
Spencer Tunick: The man who put the nudes The naked truth
George Oldham, 65, from Hexham, Northumberland, is a former architect with Newʉ into Newcastle castle City Council.
"My wife's ȱrst response when I told her I wanted to take part was, 'What will the In the largest British event of its kind, 1,700 people children think?' She didn't want to do it, but I had no such trepidation. I was really keen. posed naked in Gateshead for an installation by the "I went alone, but you soon get chatting to people. I didn't see anyone looking uncomʉ American artist Spencer Tunick. Helen McCormack fortable, and it didn't inhibit conversation in a way you might expect it to. surveys his body of work "You tend to think these things are bit OTT, but when you are among it, it does feel as though you lose your self. You feel part of a group who are doing something quite More than 1,700 people volunteered yesterday for US artist Spencer Tunick's latest exciting. It was a lot of fun. naked art in Gateshead ʉ the largest number of participants in any of his British proʉ "The being naked bit was actually quite an important part. You knew what the ȱnal jects ʉ easily beating the 160 who bared all outside the Saatchi Gallery in 2003, and product would be quite high art, that it would be something worthwhile. It's not just the 600 who took to the escalators of Selfridges on Oxford Street in 2003. He has creʉ talk: it really does transform the landscape. ated similar installations in Barcelona, Melbourne and Montreal. "Spencer is generally quite directorial and for the end shots was very conscious of not "It was really, really liberating," said Keeley Henderson, 24, a student from Sunderʉ having anybody with any tattoos or distinguishing features, so that no one stands out. land, who took part with her mother, Susan Henderson, 53. "I don't think anyone felt at all vulnerable." "We all had our heads down ready for the pose and he gave someone his marching orders to go to the back. No one looked up to see what his distinguishing marks were; The great unclothed stopped at the Millennium Bridge, before going on to Dean Street, when Spencer tells you to keep your head down, you keep your head down. where Tunick wanted to ȱll the road with a "thin sliver of bodies". Three hours later, the artist said he was delighted with the results, and that the participants had helped "There was no feeling of any individuality. You do feel as though you are a blob of him make some "wonderful work." paint on a canvas."
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
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Tunick said: "Those who took part have really achieved something. It is a lifeʉaȲrmʉ ing experience and something to celebrate.
"This was interesting for me in that I shot from a far higher vantage point, which was pretty fascinating, although it was hard to command from that height." Gateshead Millennium Bridge Facts
• Featured on a first class stamp in 2000
• 36,000 people lined the banks of the River Tyne to watch the bridge tilt for the first time on 28 June 2001
• Contains enough steel to make 64 double decker buses or 16 Chieftain tanks
• Cost £22m to build
• Each opening and closing takes four and a half minutes
• Cleans up its own litter - anything dropped on the deck automatically rolls into special traps at each end of the bridge each time it opens
• Can withstand a collision from a 4,000 tonne ship travelling at 4 knots
• Has concrete foundations stretching to 30 metres, anchoring it to the river bed
• Is powered by eight electric motors - enough power to run more than eight Ford Focus cars
• Sits on 19,000 tonnes of concrete
• Stretches 126 metres across the River Tyne
• Was lowered into place by Europe's largest floating crane - Asian Hercules II
• The very top of the arch stands 50 metres above the River Tyne when in its normal state
• Weighs more than 800 tonnes
• Is adjacent to an area called Baltic Square: an open-air performance space which has been host to a number of high profile events such as the first ever Top Of The Pops outdoor event in July 2004, Orange Evolution music festival 2005
• Has been used in numerous television, film and media projects such as 55 Degrees North (BBC), the national football film GOAL! (GOAL Productions) and on the front cover of Bentley magazine
• The Gateshead Millennium Bridge appeared on a pound coin from the Royal Mint in 2007, representing England
The RIBA Awards 2002 Gateshead Millennium Bridge
Overview The design is the winning entry to a 1997 competition for a major new foot and cycle crossing over the River Tyne. The £22m project, promoted by Gateshead Council and part-funded by the National Lottery, links the newly developed Newcastle Quayside with the ambitious regeneration of East Gateshead, including the new visual Arts Centre at the Baltic Flour Mills and the Northern Regional Music Centre.
Brief The primary component of the brief was the need to retain a 25m high and 30m-wide clear channel for shipping whilst allowing a low-level crossing of the river [in contrast to the Tyne’s other high level crossings]. An opening bridge was therefore necessary. A parallel concern was to recognise and address the importance of context in a place characterised by its bridges. The project thereby required a definitive architectural solution to a significant engineering challenge.
Design The opening motion of the design is both its generator and its highlight. Bridges that open offer a spectacle, yet are rarely spectacular. This bridge in contrast has sculptural presence in its static position, giving way to theatre and power in operation. The idea is simple; a pair of arches, one forming the deck, the other supporting it, pivot around their common springing point to allow shipping to pass beneath. The motion is efficient and rational, yet provides a drama unseen in other opening mechanisms. Hydraulic rams located in each end support provide motive power to the base of the arch. The whole bridge tilts, and as it does the entire composition undergoes a metamorphosis into a ‘grand arch’ in an operation which evokes the action of a closed eye slowly opening.
The scheme is wholly informed by the need for a legible integration with the Tyne’s existing bridges and with its particular context. The design is a mix of the robust combined with an overall lightness to contrast the visual mass of the Baltic Flour Mill. The 45m-high arch provides instant visual reference to the Tyne Bridge beyond, but presents a slender profile against the skyline, interpreting and updating the structural and aesthetic order of its historic neighbour.
Detail The bridge spans 105m between two caissons each of which houses public viewing decks and a crystalline all-glass pavilion atop the sub-aqua plant-rooms and hydraulic enclosures. The crossing features two parallel decks separated by level and intermittent screening to differentiate pedestrian and cycle paths. Pedestrians are allowed clear views over the lower cycle deck, and seating and other amenities promote the bridge as a place as well as a crossing.
The parabolic arch comprises a kite-shaped cross section tapering in both plan and elevation, fabricated from steel plate up to 25mm thick. The main pedestrian deck is a similarly fabricated steel box, parabolic in plan and narrowing from the quaysides towards the centre of the river. The lower cycle deck features a lightweight open-grille aluminium surfacing supported from the main deck on cantilevered arms.
The lighting design balances function and spectacle to highlight the structural form and incorporates computer controlled colour-change spotlights illuminating the main arch with a dramatic and constantly varying scripted display that transforms the bridge by night.
Construction The complex steel superstructure was transported in sections to Wallsend where arch and deck pieces were welded together and painted, lying flat, before being raised and joined. The entire super-structure was transported intact the 6 miles to its final position in Gateshead in November 2000 using the giant Asian Hercules II floating shearleg crane, and successfully lowered into position to a tolerance of ±2mm.
Result Gateshead Millennium Bridge is conceived as being in the great tradition of engineering in Tyneside and represents the revitalisation of the Gateshead riverfront. The unique design has realised an iconic landmark for Gateshead and has proved highly popular since its public opening in September 2001. $SULO8QLYHUVLW\RI%DWK%DWK8.
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