STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Story Sharp is a senior at Wood River High School, but she has a vision for Hailey’s Bullion Street Bridge that would undoubtedly garner the same acclaim as the uniquely designed Bow Bridge a short distance away.

Her vision features trusses that mimic the peaks of the surrounding mountains, the steel paying homage to the Wood River Valley’s mining heritage. Two pedestrian/bike paths line the outside of the bridge with an overlook above the Big Wood River providing a pathway leading down.

“I wanted to focus on pedestrian safety, which the current bridge does not have—ironic given the hiking, biking out Croy,” said Sharp, who plans to study architectural engineering at Cal Poly or bioengineering at USC.  “I wanted benches and access down to the river for people and their dogs.

Bryan Chanco affixes benches to the wooden pedestrian walkway on the side of his bridge.

“The steel shows the industrial aspect of our history and the wood benches not only complement our pine trees, but they won’t get hot in summer like metal would.”

Sharp is one of a dozen Wood River High School students in Dylan Carey’s architecture class who took part in a week-long exercise with local architects as part of National AIA Architecture Week.

Architects with the AIA Idaho Mountain Chapter went into classrooms at Hemingway STEAM School and Sun Valley Community School, talking with students about what they do.  And they invited Carey’s students to come up with a design for the Bullion Street Bridge, which serves as the gateway to Croy Canyon, sitting as it does near Hop Porter Park, Lion’s Park, the Carbonate trailhead and the Wood River Land Trust’s Draper Preserve.

The students presented their designs to an array of people on Friday, including Vice Principals Madeline Muschamp and Samantha Johnson; Shawn Bennion, head of Blaine County School District grounds; Hailey City Council member Sage Sauerbrey, a former Hailey Planning and Zoning commissioner; Kristin Anderson, who has served on statewide architecture boards; Casey Burke, president of the AIA Mountain Section; Mason Keener, AIA Mountain Section co-chair, and Susan Desko, who designed the Ketchum Starbucks, which has earned worldwide acclaim.

Architect Mason Keener brainstorms the finer points of Miles Dean’s project.

Carey, engineer, architecture and robotics teacher at WRHS, said he tries to do something in conjunction with National AIA Architecture Week every year. The first year he had students design and build wacky structures, reprising a fun exercise he remembered as a student at Cal Poly. Last year students worked with Bennion to look at designing a bus stop and park bench on school grounds. The Cube, made of materials donated by Idaho Lumber, still sits on school grounds.

This year, Carey and Burke challenged students to redesign the bridge, which sits at the end of the Master Plan rebuild currently being done from Hop Porter Park into downtown Hailey.

The students talked about the sense of place and how architectural designs might incorporate the history or topography of the area. They looked at a variety of bridges around the world, including covered bridges, train bridges, bridges that resemble a rollercoaster track, curvy bridges, natural bridges, the Chihuly Bridge of Glass in Tacoma and the Pegram and Sheep Bridges closer to home.

And they discussed how different textures, such as tracks on logs can slow traffic, while bicyclists can make use of off ramps.

Story Sharp affixes the overlook to her bridge walkway.

The students were then given 10 minutes to come up with a design before building their bridges out of wooden dowels and other materials.

The students were asked to meet several goals:

Connect downtown to parks and trails

Improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians

Bryan Chanco affixes the safety wire.

Increase placemaking, beauty and comfort

Provide environmental benefit by offering plantings that sequester carbon, mitigate heat or benefit pollinators

Reduce dependency on vehicular transit

Design a cost-effective solution.

“The current bridge is dangerous,” said Desko. The width of the bridge is too narrow for cars alongside bikes and pedestrians. Yet the Seattle architect hired for the plan said the solution for safety was doing more ticketing. We believe design can address the problem. You see planters, people alongside the bridge, and you drive slower.”

Desko was impressed with many of the students’ designs, including ways they opened the bridge so people could see the river.

One student created made the bridge one lane with grass on it, noting that the one-lane bridges he’d seen in France seemed to work well.

Desko agreed, noting that the Avenue des Champs-Elysees is being transformed into a green promenade as the French reduce car lanes and increase pedestrian space.

“They already have the final stage of the Tour de France there. They joke that they plan on having lawnmower races there in 2030,” she said, noting that the student was doing well in working with what we already have instead of building something new.

Bryan Chanco and Allan Montes constructed pedestrian walkways and benches out of popsicle stick on their sides of their bridge.

Charlie Eastop and Callie England built wavy walkways reflecting the waves in the river below on the sides of their bridge, which they said would feature vines on the trusses.

And Miles Dean created an exhibit not just of the bridge but the entire area, showcasing how his bridge design looked in the bigger picture.

Burke said he was impressed with how innovative the students were, especially given their time constraint.

“They collaborated well together,” he said. “And an exercise like this ensures that students have a voice in our community.”