I really like the design and I think it will be amazing from the pedestrian point of view. I'm sure the materials and attention to detail will be superb.
I held back from giving an "I love it" because I would have liked it to be a little more visible from Memorial Drive in order to give the bridge a bit of a wow factor to people that drive by. This comment is of course just judging from these renderings... in real life it may be more visible than I imagine and then I will add my name to the "I love it" list.
You never know what the fuck the City is doing with this project. First its going to be revealed in May, then August 6th, now it just pops out. Perhaps it was on the verge of being leaked? Perhaps release it at the same time as the name so all the anger occurs over 1 or 2 days rather than spread out over weeks and multiple announcements?
I like the design, but I have to wonder how well it will hold up in the real world... I've lost count of the number of times I've seen smashed glass on bus shelters and LRT stations. I've got to wonder how long it will take before the glass panels on this bridge are added to that list... I hope I'm proven wrong!
I think possibly why Calatrava left out any curves is because he wanted to make the no-support-beams a defining aspect of the bridge.
I don't think he could've gone with no support beams somewhere along the river had he gone with extra curvature and what not...........
He had to go with no support beams into the water, that was part of the terms of reference. He also had to go low because of the heli-pad height restrictions. Those type of constraints often lead to interesting design responses.