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Originally Posted by Rerun
I certainly agree with what you have said.
However, you don't have to go to Europe to find some pricey avant garde architect to design a pedestrian bridge for you (and pay a premium price for doing it.) I am sure something could have been designed within Canada/USA that would be very attractive looking and at a much lower cost.
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The bridge is supposed to be 22 million. A basic bridge that would meet the same design standards (no piers in the river, etc), would be at least 15-16 Million. Do any kind of "sprucing up" and it probobly hits 18 million. Really we are only talking about a 4-6 million dollar difference here, at the most. The price premium the detractors are talking about is really very little. And really, you don't get much more in terms of instant international recognition (for a bridge) than putting Calatrava's name on it. What I mean by that, is that even if a different designer created something even more beautiful, it still wouldn't be talked about as much, simply because putting Calatrava's name on it creates international interest.
Besides, the second new pedestrian bridge (in the east village) will likely be designed in a design competition, or be designed by a local architect.
There are MANY places where tax dollars have been spent more foolishly in this city than paying an extra 4-6 million on this particular bridge.