Every time the design competition thing comes up, I like having a look at the under construction St. Partrick's Island bridge and the Peace bridge.
The Peace bridge is a fantastic result, something people make a destination of, and appears in a lot of pictures of Calgary now.
The St. Patrick's Island bridge, which had no limited height constraints, and the extra parameter of having an island stopover in the middle, opening the door for some really creative stuff. Instead, we had a design competition, and got something nice, but fairly conservative and boring. And for roughly the same price. I don't see a future of people flocking to that bridge.
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