YES, BRIDGE DEBATE IS ABOUT AESTHETICS

[CITY Edition]

Buffalo News

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Print Media Edition: Financial edition

Buffalo, N.Y.

Aug 16, 1999

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Pagination: B3

Abstract:

Can it be true? John A. Lopinski, chairman of the Peace Bridge

Authority,

has written: "Opponents of the two-bridge plan have reduced an

extremely

complex issue into an emotional argument about aesthetics." That's

exactly

the point. Maybe they're finally getting it.

Aesthetics would also prefer a consistent expression to span the

Niagara,

such as the Rainbow Bridge or Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, to an

arbitrary

truss that seems like an afterthought, interrupting a grand march of

arches,

as presented by the Peace Bridge.

Full Text:

Can it be true? John A. Lopinski, chairman of the Peace Bridge

Authority,

has written: "Opponents of the two-bridge plan have reduced an

extremely

complex issue into an emotional argument about aesthetics." That's

exactly

the point. Maybe they're finally getting it.

Aesthetics, essentially principles of beauty, would certainly prefer

identical

twins, such as the Grand Island bridges, to the mismatch proposed for

the

two-piece bridges.

Aesthetics would also prefer a consistent expression to span the

Niagara,

such as the Rainbow Bridge or Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, to an

arbitrary

truss that seems like an afterthought, interrupting a grand march of

arches,

as presented by the Peace Bridge.

Aesthetics would prefer a bridge built in its own time, celebrating

current

technology, utilizing steel in tension and concrete in compression as

those

materials naturally allow. The steel arches of the twin span and Peace

Bridge don't measure up in this test.

Aesthetics is the issue the Bridge Authority skirted by avoiding

preparation

of an Environmental Impact Statement. State Environmental Quality

Review

requires consideration of aesthetics in judging the impact of

alternatives.

A "community standard" is used by SEQR to measure aesthetic judgment.

A standard from a community with celebrated works by Wright, Sullivan,

Richardson, Olmsted and Saarinen wouldn't be expected to score the twin

span very highly for aesthetic quality.

A standard used by the authority to build a new customs center in Fort

Erie and the duty-free shops must be what generated the twin span plan.

So, have they finally gotten it? Are they listening? Why not? Whose

bridge

is this anyway?

PAUL L. BATTAGLIA