MacDonald Architects

		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.

		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 [...]

		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![...]

		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

		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

		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

		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

		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

		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

		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

		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

		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

		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

		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

		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

		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

		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

		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

		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- 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

		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)

		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

		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

		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