EMBARGOED UNTIL 10 AM ON MAY 8, 2002
The new pedestrian walkway at Calvin College has an official name. At a
service of dedication, to be held at 10 a.m. on May 8, the 380-foot span over
the East Beltline will be christened Calvin's Crossing.
To come up with a name, Calvin held a contest that drew about 150 entries,
everything from the serious to the sardonic. There were suggestions as simple
as Dwight and as silly as Dude, Where's My Overpass. Some suggested naming the
structure for Calvin President Gaylen Byker, while others favored naming it
after long-time Chaplain Dale Cooper.
In the end a five-person committee chose the descriptive, yet alliterative,
moniker: Calvin's Crossing. The name was submitted by five people: students
Jill Baker (Strathroy, ON), Andrea Hagerup (East Grand Rapids), Micah Sytsma
(Elmhurst, IL) and Steve Zaagman (Grand Rapids) and staff member Phil de Haan.
Each of the students earned $100 for the winning suggestion.
Calvin's Crossing was a year in the making and provides a visible and
architecturally dramatic link between the existing Calvin campus and the new
facilities east of the East Beltline. "There's nothing like it," says Calvin
vice president Henry DeVries of the new crossing. "It not only will carry people
across the East Beltline, it also carries all of the heating and cooling and
communications needs for the East campus from the main campus."
It is that second factor that makes the project unique.
"There are other pedestrian overcrossings in the state," says DeVries, "but
this one doubles as part of our powerplant. That meant significantly more
engineering considerations."
Consequently the structure is made up of four sections or trusses of structural
steel. All told the steel alone weights about 150 tons. The floor is five inches
of concrete on top of steel decking with 4,000 to 5,000 sections of special
tiling laid, by hand, on top of that. And then two ribbons of glass window panes
(with each pane each weighing between 125 and 175 pounds) and a metal domed roof
enclose the structure.
There is a sophisticated snowmelt system on the roof to ensure that chunks of
snow and ice do not fall from the roof to the road below. And the entire roof is
specially designed as a domed roof with two layers of steel separated by four
inches of insulation, thus keeping the inside layer warm and the outside layer
cold.
In addition all of the lighting inside the arc, which will be open 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, is both muted and directed straight down, minimizing
glare for drivers on the Beltine. And the crossing is 20 feet above the road at
its highest point, providing plenty of clearance for vehicles.
Although it passes over one of the busiest roads in Grand Rapids, Calvin
architect Frank Gorman wanted to create a subtle nautical theme for the span. He
notes that the this theme is present inside and outside. For example, the tiled
floor, hand-designed by 1978 Calvin graduate Dave Daining of Beta Design, which
at each end sees tiles in earth tones, browns and greys and greens, but in the
middle sees a shift to water colors, shades of blues. The pattern is intended to
depict a transition from land to water. And that ties together work Gorman did
in designing the two towers of the crossing, one on either side of the East
Beltline, to look like lighthouses.
The crossing will be a big benefit to the Calvin community. It also will
benefit those who drive the Beltline. That's because the crosswalk and light on
the northbound Beltline, just north of Burton Street, will be eliminated in
early June thanks to the crossing, thus improving traffic flow at the corner of
Burton and the Beltline.
The two new buildings that the crossing will connect with, the DeVos
Communication Center and the Prince Conference Center, are slated to open in
September 2002.
See http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2001_02/bridge_open.htm
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue May 07 2002 - 11:12:24 EDT