Novak Center Connector Bridge

How do you ease anxiety for children and families as they approach the Novak Center for Children’s Health at the Louisville of Kentucky? The answer was to through positive distraction and designing a pedestrian bridge that captures the imagination of a child and leverages the unique attributes of a site.

The unique attributes of this tight urban site drove the center supported, double cantilever design. Exposed steel girders and beams branch out from central supporting columns. Sloped facades allowed us to use lighter columns and reduce the amount of steel that would typically be required for a pedestrian bridge of this size used by 22%. The soaring roof height allows users to experience a child-like sense of wonder. All who cross can contemplate the connection between architecture, engineering, and sculpture…or just have fun

The ceramic frit patterning on the glass enclosure may appear random, but its density or openness reflects the structural forces at work at various points. The frit also informed the meandering ‘streams and pools’ on the floor and dapples incoming sunlight. Sunny or rainy, winter or summer, day or night, playful or serious, walking to the doctor’s office will never be the same.