July 5, 2011 A video from the ground breaking ceremony of the Willamette River Bridge in Portland designed by Donald MacDonald Architects. In the words of TriMet Chief Architect Bob Hastings: "We wouldn't be enjoying such positive public support for the Bridge without your fantastic efforts. I look forward to our ongoing collaboration" |
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July 5, 2011 An article about Donald MacDonald and the Golden Gate Bridge was published in the Danish newspaper Faktisk. |
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Upcoming event: On the 30th of April at 1:00pm Donald MacDonald will lead a boat tour of the new span of the Bay Bridge. Mr. MacDonald will give a presentation on the project and also highlight design features and construction details during the excursion. For more information click here |
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15th of April, 2011 The official opening of the Lagunitas Road Bridge, designed by Donald Macdonald of Donald Macdonald Architects in San Francisco, took place on the 20th of March, 2011 at the Town of Ross in Lagunitas, California. |
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April 15, 2011 The official Dedication Ceremony for the Cypress Bridge Replacement Project was on the 14th of April, 2011. Architect Donald MacDonald provided conceptual bridge design services. |
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March 14, 2011 "If there's an architect with the qualifications and credibility to write about the greatest bridge of them all, MacDonald is it. In 1980, he won a controversial architectural competition to redesign and replace the original art deco toll booths. The streamlined booths he created - and which remain today - won awards from the Art Deco Society and the American Institute of Architects. MacDonald's colorful, graphic-novel-style drawings illustrate the bridge's visible but little-known features." |
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March 15, 2011 "The Golden State Warriors have unveiled a logo, depicting a facet of infrastructure that will soon be widely recognized - the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge." The new span was designed by Donald MacDonald of Donald MacDonald Architects. |
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March 15, 2011 "The soaring white tower designed to be a signature for the East Bay hasn't even begun to rise from the waters off Yerba Buena Island. But the new span of the Bay Bridge already is becoming an icon. "It's a great branding opportunity for Oakland," said Donald MacDonald, the San Francisco architect who designed the single-tower span and has spoken with the Warriors. "It gives (Oakland) a gateway, and at night, it's going to be spectacular." |
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March 16, 2011 "MacDonald said the new Bay Bridge's unique look fits the current trend of cities and regions to brand themselves with a recognizable symbol. His firm also designed the cable-stayed Cooper River Bridge in Charleston, S.C., which he said has become a popular emblem in the area. "It's going to be a great-looking bridge," MacDonald said. "There will be more and more (use of the bridge's image) as it gets built." |
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March 10, 2011 An article about the Iron Horse Pedestrian Overcrossing designed by Donald MacDonald in collaboration with ARUP engineers appeared in the February issue of Civil Engineering magazine. "San Francisco-based Donald MacDonald Architects assisted Arup in the design of the 860 ft long structure, which opened in October and features a 240ft long main span with asymmetrical, outwardly tilting steel arches that reach a height of 45 ft." |
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March 10, 2011 An article about the Iron Horse Pedestrian Overcrossing designed by Donald MacDonald in collaboration with ARUP engineers appeared in the fourth quarter edition of Bridge: Design & Engineering magazine. To read the article click here |
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March 10, 2011 "Architect Donald MacDonald of San Francisco, who has designed more than a dozen bridges since establishing his architectural firm in 1966, is designing the bridge for TriMet. MacDonald worked on updating the Golden Gate Bridge, has bridges scheduled for construction in Dubai, and since 1997 has been involved in building the world's largest self-anchored suspension bridge: the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge." |
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March 10, 2011 Donald MacDonald Architects' Iron Horse Pedestrian Overcrossing was named one of the 10 Changes for the Better in 2010 in a December issue of the San Francisco Chronicle. "...architect Donald MacDonald show that our society can still create public works of lasting merit, worthy of pride, if only we try." To read the article click here |
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March 9, 2011 An article about the Iron Horse Pedestrian Overcrossing designed by Donald MacDonald Architects in collaboration with ARUP engineers, was published in the February issue of Modern Steel Construction magazine. To read the article click here |
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October 9, 2010 "Were there less costly alternatives? Yes: a plain overcrossing perched on a column in Treat's median was among the four design options studied by Arup and MacDonald". To read more click here |
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November 27, 2010 "You see this on Summer Street, where the mix includes four townhouses from 1991 designed by Donald MacDonald. They're clad in shiny metal, each sporting a bay window that looks more like a pagoda than a Victorian Affectation Out of context? Not at all. The quartet is a snapshot of an era, surprising but thoroughly at home". To read more click here |
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November, 2010 "Were there less costly alternatives? Yes: a plain overcrossing perched on a column in Treat's median was among the four design options studied by Arup and MacDonald". |
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July 29, 2010 "The Metropolitan Transportation Commission approved $5 million in funding for the engineering of a suicide barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge on Wednesday." Designs provided by MacDonald Architects. To read more click here |
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October 29, 2010 |
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November 18, 2009 A model displaying the Iron Horse Bridge in the San Francisco, California area, Contra Costa County near Concord won Tekla’s 2009 North American Model Competition in category 4 for Axis Steel. MacDonald Architects provided architectural design services on this bridge project. This ad appeared in the November 2009 issue of Structural Engineer magazine. |
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November 18, 2009 Read about the Portland cycling community’s passionate involvement in the design of the new Willamette River Bridge by Nathalie Weinstein in the Daily Journal of Commerce here |
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November 3, 2009 Donald MacDonald discussed the aesthetic attributes of Popular Mechanics favorite 18 unusual bridges from around the world. To read his expert opinions click here |
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September 28, 2009 Opening Ceremony of the First Street Bridge in Napa. |
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November 19, 2009 More upcoming readings from The Golden Gate Bridge: History and Design of an Icon. Book Passage - Ferry Building Location at 1 Ferry Building. |
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September 18, 2009 San Francisco Business Times released a special supplemental issue to announce the winners of the Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards. The La Loma Foothill Bridge garnered two design awards in the “Special Use Structures” category, including a state-level award. To download the issue click here |
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October 1, 2009 Donald MacDonald gave a lecture on the Golden Gate Bridge book. This event was hosted by the California Historical Society. To read more, please visit the Society's webpage |
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September 12, 2009 More than 120 members of the San Francisco Historical Society enjoyed a special boat tour of the new East Span of the Bay Bridge led by Donald MacDonald. To read the Examiner article click here |
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August 23, 2009 "Caltrans will halt the Bay Area in its tracks for four days over the Labor Day weekend, when the Bay Bridge will be shut down so workers can replace a big piece of roadway on the new eastern half of the bridge." To read the SF Gate article click here |
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July 29, 2009 "After more than a year of construction, the new First Street Bridge over the Napa River will open to traffic on schedule Saturday August 1, 2009." To read the City of Napa article click here |
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July 28, 2009 "The committee voted for a cable-stayed bridge designed by Donald MacDonald Architects of San-Francisco that is estimated to cost $110 million." To read the The Architect's Newspaper article click here |
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August 06, 2009 New Willamette bridge to span cyclist-pedestrian chasm To read The Oregonian article and watch a video click here |
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July 24, 2009 Willamette transit bridge design update To read the Portlandart article click here |
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July 8, 2009 An update on bikeway design for TriMet's new light rail bridge To read the Bikeportland Article click here |
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July 7, 2009 TriMet's Willamette bridge: have to admit it's getting better? To read the Portland Architecture article click here |
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July 6, 2009 TriMet Transit Bridge: it will be gorgeous, cheap, and unique To read The Examiner article click here |
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June 16, 2009 Soaring or boring? TriMet ponders the price of originality To read the The Oregonian Article click here |
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June 1, 2009 Design by committee: notes from the latest Willamette River bridge meeting To read the Portland Architecture Article click here |
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May 28, 2009 Committee Splits on Bridge Design To read the Portland Mercury article click here |
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May 28, 2009 Transit bridge design not finalized To read The Daily Journal of Commerce Article click here |
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May 13, 2009 Bridge over troubled waters: the new SF Oakland Bay Bridge To read The San Francisco Examiner Article click here |
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May 1, 2009 "Architects proclaim new span a landmark" by Michael Cabanatuan. Photo taken during the AIA '09 convention's educational tour of the East Span of the Bay Bridge. To read The San Francisco Chronicle Article click here |
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March 29, 2009 Grand opening ceremony of the Folsom Dam Bridge, Folsom, CA. To read The Sacramento Bee Article click here |
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January 26, 2009 Rebuilding a Bridge, 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles To read the LA Downtown News Article click here |
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November 23, 2008 SF Chronicle columnist John King recommended Golden Gate Bridge: History and Design of an Icon as a Holiday Gift for 2008 in the architectural books section. To read the San Francisco Chronicle Article click here
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September 23, 2008 "New Bay Bridge span on road to being icon" by Michael Cadanatuan To read the San Francisco Chronicle Article click here |
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The La Loma Foothill Bridge opened for the start of the Fall school year at UC Berkeley in August of 2007. |
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Architectural Record mentions MacDonald Architects in the editorial section of their October 2007 issue. To read the editorial, click here. |
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Builder/Architect Bay Area featured Donald MacDonald in a three part series titled, "An Untutored Process." The articles cover Donald MacDonald's beginnings as well as the highlights of his career. Click here to read the articles. |
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Four of the bridges worked on by MacDonald Architects made the Top Ten Bridges of All Time list published by Roads and Bridges Magazine. The Ravenel Bridge in South Carolina, The Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate in San [...] |
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Five employees of MacDonald Architects created a team and took on the Bike to Work Challenge. Calling themselves "The Critical Macs," the team went on to achieve first place in the entire bay area![...] |
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CHARLESTON, SC - South Carolina Debuts New Cooper River Bridge - Cover Story. "San Francisco based MacDonald Architects consulted and suggested eye-appealing features such as sloping light poles on the approaches to the bridge to match the cables' slope. [...] |
| Massive towers of the Ravanal Bridge | Constructor Magazine Cover Story, Sept/Oct 2005 |
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LOS ANGELES, CA - Groundbreaking of Ave. 19 Bridge over Arroyo Seco A new bridge - a statement of the City's birthplace. With much expectation and excitement, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Ave. 19 Bridge Replacement took place on October 20, 2005. [...] |
| Hand rendering of the bridge replacement | LA DPW Engineering Newsletter |
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CHARLESTON, SC - The NSBA Prize Competition honors significant and innovative steel bridges constructed within the U.S. The 2005 winning bridge is the Ravenel Bridge over Cooper River. The competition and the bridge are featured in Modern Steel Construction magazine. |
| The Ravenel Bridge over the Cooper River is the 2005 prize bridge | Modern Steel Construction |
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CHARLESTON, NC - The newly completed Ravenel Bridge structure is making headlines as the largest cable stay span in North America at approximately 600 feet tall and 2.5 miles long. Voted one of the "10 to watch" by ENR magazine, the bridge opened in July of 2005. |
| Largest cable-stay span in Noth America | SCDOT - July, 2005 |
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SACRAMENTO- It has cost the state almost $132 million in delays, and pretty soon it will cost Bay Area drivers an extra dollar when they pull up to the toll booth, but the warring parties are finally ready to move forward on the new eastern span of the bridge. Gov. Schwarzenegger... |
| The signature design is finally moving forward on the Bay Bridge | SF Chronicle - 6/25/2005 |
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CHARLESTON- This is big. No question. Under construction right here in Charleston, South Carolina, is the largest cable-stayed bridge in North America. With a $644 million dollar construction budget, this is the biggest project the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) has ever undertaken. The Arthur Ravenal, Jr., Bridge replaces the two older bridges over the Cooper River that link Charleston to... |
| Architects & engineers push the envelope: Cooper River Bridge | SC Architecture (pdf) - 2004/2005 |
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SAN FRANCISCO- Any proposal to add suicide barriers to the Golden Gate Bridge reveals a tangle of aesthetic and moral issues. But there's another critical aspect that gets overlooked: engineering. The design of such a barrier poses the challenge of keeping people from harm without harming the... |
| Safe, slick suicide barrier sounds simple -- but it's not | SF Chronicle - 3/10/2005 |
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NAPA-
Instead of building yet another downtown bridge steeped in Napa's history, the city is
giving designers the freedom to innovate with the new span over the Napa River
at First Street. Conceptual drawings depict designs the likes of which this community has never seen. In one, the deck hangs from wires |
| Two First Street bridge designs vie to be symbol of the community | Napa Valley Register - 1/26/2005 |
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CHARLESTON- The creation of a landmark architectural design in the area is the driving idea behind the Cooper River Bridge project. The single tower scheme is intended to reflect the nearby elegance of the city of Charleston. The proportions of the of the tower were produced through... |
| Cooper River Bridge renderings | roadtraffic-technology.com - 2005 |
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SAN FRANCISCO/OAKLAND- His face is not flush, no veins bulge from his forehead, and his teeth are not clenched. Donald MacDonald doesn't pound the table or raise his voice when he speaks, but he admits he's angry. It's not surprising. MacDonald, a San Francisco architect who's been working on bridges for 25 years, designed the single-tower, self-anchored suspension bridge that... |
| Bay Bridge architects Donald MacDonald & Caspar Mol | SF Chronicle - 11/28/2004 |
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How do you win a bridge design competition? Donald MacDonald, who has experience of judging as well as entering such competitions, offers a few words of advice. 1. Make sure that your design goes beyond what people are expecting, but you must be equally confident that it has a logic to it that can be explained both to the jury/peer review panel and to the public both to the jury/peer... |
| Winner takes all | Bd&e - 4/3/2004 |
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SAN FRANCISCO- Wonder of wonders: The Golden Gate Bridge these days looks better than ever. The view hasn't changed, thank goodness, and the rugged romanticism of the cabled towers rising 500 feet above you hasn't faded. Giddiness is still the sensation that kicks in when you... |
| Gate Bridge bike rails blend well | SF Chronicle - 1/11/2004 |
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CHARLESTON- As construction of what will be the USA's longest span cable-stayed bridge continues, the legs of the
diamond-shaped concrete pylons are beginning to take form. |
High-Rise remit Cooper River Bridge, SC |
Bd&e - 10/12/2003 |
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CHARLESTON- Charleston's Cooper River crossing is drawing on a flurry of advances in design and construction of cable-stayed bridges from around the globe. The project has captured the imagination of South Carolina's largest city, and the workers building it. "We have the greatest bridge in the world here," says a foreman standing on one of two 6,500-cu-yd rock islands at the base of what will be North America's... |
High-profile team puts it together for America's longest |
ENR - 7/14/2003 |
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NAPA- At Friday's groundbreaking for the replacement Maxwell Bridge over the Napa River, officials said the new span couldn't happen soon enough. The existing bridge, built in 1949, was adequate in its day, but now it's a major bottleneck for highway and river... |
| Representatives from the City of Napa and Caltrans at the groundbreaking ceremony | Napa Valley Register - 4/12/2003 |
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CHARLESTON- From high atop the Cooper River bridges, the path of the new bridge under construction is clearly visible. Concrete columns rise to eye level with drivers on the old Grace bridge before curling downward in twin sets across Town Creek toward Charleston, where the... |
| Cooper River Bridge Taking Shape: diamond-shaped towers climb into the sky | Post and Courier - 2/16/2003 |
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SAN FRANCISCO- A new safety railing being installed on the Golden Gate Bridge will be the most significant architectural change to the 65-year-old landmark, but it has been carefully designed to blend in, bridge district officials said. The installation of the 41/2 -foot-tall... |
| Golden Gate Bridge Patrol rides along the new bike rail | Press Democrat article - 10/26/2002 |
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SAN FRANCISCO- Monumental projects often begin in scarcely noticeable ways. Piles of rocks and dirt. Portable construction offices clustered in an out-of-the-way location. A posse of pickups and dusty dump trucks. And so it goes with construction of the... |
| The Bay Area's next landmark is beginning to rise | SF Chronicle article - 8/18/2002 |
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CHARLESTON- Nearly 60 stories high and visible from 30 miles away, the new Cooper River Bridge will be the largest cable-stayed span in North America and the most visible architectural feature... |
| Cooper River Bridge's construction progress | Post and Courier - 1A - 8/4/2002 (pdf) |
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BERKELEY- The City of Berkeley Eastshore Pedestrian Overcrossing is a bland name for the spectacular new footbridge soaring over Interstate 80. It deserves a title as grand as the Sydney Harbour Bridge. That's what it looks like, with two long arches rising out of the pavement as a curiosity... |
| Berkeley's new pedestrian bridge's (over I-80) opening | SF Chronicle Magazine - 3/3/2002 |
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TREASURE ISLAND- California officially started construction on the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge Tuesday, marking the end of a 12-year battle that critics contend put motorists on the seismically vulnerable bridge at risk while politicians quarreled over aesthetics and money. With the “Old Gray Lady”- the... |
| Former Gov. Gray Davis speaking at groundbreaking ceremony | Contra Costa Times - 1/30/2002 |
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CHARLESTON- Maybe it was the traffic that day. Maybe it was the big trucks on the old, narrow bridge and the prospect of many more to come when the new Wando shipping terminal was built in Mount Pleasant. Maybe it was the rust and corrosion on... |
| Announcing the new Cooper River Bridge | Post and Courier - 7/2/2001 (text only) |
