May 16, 2016

D.C. artist designs Grant Street Pier on the Columbia River in Vancouver

By JOURNAL STAFF

Rendering courtesy of PWL Partnership [enlarge]
The pier is the centerpiece in a planned waterfront park and will be integrated into an upland plaza.

Vancouver is preparing to build Grant Street Pier: a 90-foot-long, a cable-stay structure that will extend over the Columbia River.

The city is seeking construction bids by May 24, according to a notice in the April 14 DJC.

Construction will start in mid-June and should be done in September 2017.

Larry Kirkland, a Washington, D.C.-based artist who has designed a number of site-specific public art pieces, designed the pier without any in-water pilings or supports.

Materials and construction are expected to cost up to $8.5 million. That figure does not include the design.

The pier is at the terminus of Grant Street, which was extended from downtown through a BNSF railroad berm to help open up the waterfront for new development. The pier will be the centerpiece in a planned waterfront park. It will be integrated into an upland plaza that will connect to the city's waterfront trail.

Gramor Development of Tualatin, Oregon, and its investment partners are developing a 32-acre mixed-use development called The Waterfront Vancouver along the Columbia River in Vancouver.

Adjacent to that, the Port of Vancouver USA plans a 10-acre complex with biotech offices, housing, a hotel and retail.

Here is the project team for the park/pier: BergerABAM of Vancouver, landscape architecture, structural engineering, natural resources assessment and environmental permitting; PWL Partnership of Vancouver, B.C., master planning and park design; HDJ Design Group of Vancouver, civil engineering; Martin/Martin of Lakewood, Colorado, structural engineering; The Studio of Larry Kirkland of Washington, D.C., pier design and public art; and Fisher Marantz Stone of Seattle, lighting design.

Kirkland's website said he has collaborated on public art projects at municipal buildings, transit hubs, libraries, universities and urban plazas. He has pieces at Pennsylvania Station in New York, Putra World Trade Center in Kuala Lumpur and Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan.