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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.
     
"   Architectural Record mentions MacDonald Architects in the editorial section of their October 2007 issue. To read the editorial, click here.
     
"   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.
     
SFOBB   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 [...]
     
SFOBB   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![...]
     
SFOBB   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. The firm [...]
Massive towers of the Ravanal Bridge   Constructor Magazine Cover Story, Sept/Oct 2005
     
SFOBB  

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
     
SFOBB   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
     
SFOBB   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
     
SFOBB   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
     
SC Architecture   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
     
GGB Safety Rail   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
     
First Street Bridge Sketch   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
     

Cooper River Bridge Rendering

  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
     
Donald MacDonald and Caspar Mol   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
     
Bridge Magazine (UK) Cover   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
     
Golden Gate Bridge Rail   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
     
Bridge Magazine (UK) Cover  

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.
Almost two years into a five year construction programme, the legs of the pylons for the new Cooper River Bridge are rising from the huge ship protection islands in the middle of the waterway in Charleston, South Carolina...

High-Rise remit

Cooper River Bridge, SC

  Bd&e - 10/12/2003

ENR Magazine Cover

  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
Maxwell Bridge Groundbreaking   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
Cooper River Bridge Rendering 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
   
" 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
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge 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
er Bridge Rendering   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)
I-80 Overpass 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
Bay Bridge Ceremony 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
Cooper River Bridge Rendering   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)
 pdf files (with images): Part 1 & Part 2

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