Bender

Our team (the School of Multimedia team) has been looking into ways we could resolve the issues presented by the bender and how it ends. We looked at the Seattle Olympic park by Weiss/Manfredi Architects which links down town Seattle with the waterfront in a similar way that the bender, at this point, attempts to connect the schools to the waterfront and well being centre.

http://www.landliving.com/image/groundswell_9.jpg

The main issues that came up in the review were the lack of street level access to the bender and tunnel effect created at the Western Beach Rd crossing. Various options were discussed including lowering the bender at this point to street level and having a traffic light crossing. This option presented the problems of traffic management and how we would be able to lower the bender a floor level in the short distance from the end of the bleeding group bender segment to the road. Another option discussed was to keep the bender at ‘bender level’ and re route it through one of the buildings (the front end of the Denny Lascelles building). This option would make use of the gradient at the front of the site, the bender would end at street level and a street level crossing would be used to access the Well Being Centre. The option we have decided to explore further is of multiple crossings linking the waterfront and well being centre with the rest of the schools at bender level as well as linking the bender level to the bus stop across Western Beach Road without creating a platform.