Into Thin Air

While most structures are firmly rooted in the ground, some seem to float through the skies
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From Architectural Record
Josephine Minutillo

The designers also exploit the meandering path to maintain a 1:12 gradient, making Forest Walk accessible to wheelchair-bound visitors and children in strollers. (Stairways along the path lead to the earth trail below, laid out in conjunction with the elevated walkway overhead.) As it progresses along its nearly mile-long expanse, the walk rises more than 200 feet from its starting point at the Alexandra Arch Bridge - which LOOK designed as a sweeping gateway into this sanctuary of calm repose. Forest Walk begins by traversing a low valley, and at certain points it reaches nearly 60 feet above grade. The walkway is hoisted into the air by steel columns measuring 8 inches in diameter at these extreme heights. For most of the walkway, where it rises only 20 to 25 feet off the ground, the columns average 6 inches in diameter.

The Forest Walk is a popular nighttime destination. Its translucent deck is lit from below to create a luminous trail.

Photo: © Amir Sultan

 

The walkway zigzags at the path's steepest points to maintain a 1:12 gradient accessible to wheelchairs and strollers.

Photo: URA

The 6.5-foot-wide deck is composed of a triangulated grating held together by steel beams. The design for the grating was inspired by the triangle-shaped leaves of the local Mile-a-Minute plant, its clinging vine prominent throughout the site. While the shape refers deliberately to nature, the rigid, tessellated deck that resulted provides added stability and slip-resistance.

Additional stabilizers come in the form of steel rod cross bracing between facing columns. The design did not have to conform to seismic regulations, and Gee admits that if it had, the stiltlike columns would be much bigger.

To facilitate construction and minimize disturbance to the site, the entire assembly was designed as a kit-of-parts, with the columns, railings, gratings, and shelters all prefabricated off-site. On-site work was limited to the pouring of the concrete footings (which are reinforced with micropiles), a long, arduous process due to the undulating topography and dense plantings of ferns, orchids, and other native plants.

The translucent deck allows sunlight to pass through to the earth floor and foliage below. The galvanized-steel-mesh railings also transmit light, as well as rainwater, and make the overall structure appear to float through the trees à la Swiss Family Robinson. "Even though this is a man-made structure," Gee explains, "we wanted to maintain an immediate connection to the surroundings."

The Forest Walk, which is open to the public at all hours, has become an especially popular destination in the evenings, when its translucent deck transforms into a luminous trail suspended in the dark night sky.

 

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Originally published in Architectural Record
Originally published in November 2009

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