Lighting the Bridge
Our 2014 intervention, “Lighting the Bridge” was an example of intervening in a hard arrangement, in this case a commuter rail bridge underpass on a busy street that was poorly lit and felt unsafe to passers-by. We intervened in this arrangement with a temporary, guerilla-style bridge lighting.
Discovery
During our creative placemaking work in the Boston neighborhood of Upham’s Corner, we noticed how this Upham’s Corner commuter rail bridge was a place of “place breaking.” In talking with neighbors at our previous interventions (StreetLab: Upham’s and Making Planning Processes Public), one of the things that we heard a lot about the Upham’s Corner commuter rail bridge is that people didn’t feel safe walking under it at night.
Without sufficient lighting, the bridge created a break between neighborhoods: it kept residents on one side from using the rec center on the other side, while residents on the other side didn’t feel safe crossing to access the shopping district after dark. The darkness and associated danger of the bridge created a significant physical and visual divide for residents and deepened their belief that their neighborhood was “unsafe.”
Ideation
We started to explore the bridge as a “symbol and a thing.” By this we mean that it was something physical–a real “thing”--a physical place of place breaking, and if we intervened in this thing we could intervene at the symbolic level as well. If we made the space feel safe, we might be able to change beliefs about the neighborhood being unsafe.
We started to explore ideas of a temporary installation, what we call a “productive fiction”, where we would light up the bridge and see how it made people feel. We imagined projected lights, disco balls, a red carpet, music, all kinds of things. We played with if we would do it guerilla-style or try to permit it, and realized that guerilla style was much more manageable with our budget. We also played with different ideas about how to capture people’s responses to the bridge lighting, including interactive signage, interviews, and videography.
Specification
Our first prototype took place over two evenings. Our installation of lights and an illuminated red carpet transformed the bridge into a bright, joyful space. People old and young walked, biked, and skipped on the red carpet. As people walked through, we gathered their comments on how lighting the bridge would transform their experiences and perceptions. It was clear that the need for more light was felt by everyone who came through and that this had been their sentiment for years.
Iteration
Following our unofficial temporary lighting, the city and a local foundation moved to hire a lighting artist to permanently light the way under the bridge. By intervening in an arrangement of placebreaking, we moved at least one step closer to an arrangement that transformed the bridge into a gateway rather than a barrier between neighborhoods.
Another fun iteration took place when we went to celebrate the permanent bridge lighting in Upham’s Corner. Since our project had expanded to multiple neighborhoods along that commuter rail line, we supported all the communities at each stop to hire local artists to “Lighting the Line” for a big celebration on the night that the Upham’s Corner bridge was permanently lit.
See other Intervention case studies
