Roberto Rovira

Side guardrails
Side guardrails open to adjacent parking
Section | End termination detail
Siteplan
Process drawing
Model showing recycled rubber sidewalk, LED light sculpture on ceiling, and side guardrails
Model showing recycled rubber sidewalk, LED light sculpture on ceiling, and side guardrails
Passing traffic reflects on guardrails

Oakland Interstate 880 Gateway

This winning public art competition proposal sought ways of connecting waterfront and downtown Oakland at a busy and dark highway underpass.

The design makes use of materials such as guardrails, recycled rubber and LED lights that acknowledge the presence of the highway but that also reinterpret materials common to this context.

Although not all the proposed elements were implemented (undulating sidewalks flanking the road and LED lights that would register the movement of cars above the overpass), the sculptural guardrail screens and the brightly painted and illuminated red columns, create a language that transforms an otherwise unwelcoming urban space.

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Project Team:
Roberto Rovira
Jeff Burris
Peggy Chung
Nick Gomez
Steve Jones