Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport Center takes a new approach to the problem of downtown redevelopment of a traditional but deteriorated urban context. Eschewing the single monolithic edifice, this complex was conceived as an assembly of heterogeneous buildings. The result is a composition that attempts to echo the form and scale of the existing city fabric.
Instead of developing adjacent sites as competing free-standing fragments, Bridgeport Center consists of a continuous fabric of low to mid-rise structures in which a series of varying heights and different surfaces relate the complex to various aspects of the surrounding context. In this way the assemblage responds both to the overall view of the downtown area from the highway and a pedestrian-scaled experience of the building from the central spine of Main Street.
The internal focus of the building is a five-story atrium that links the lobby entrances and elevators to the parking garage and thus serves as the distribution core for the sixteen-story office tower rising above.
The adjacent Barnum Museum has been restored as an historic landmark and linked to Bridgeport Center via a wing that provides gallery space at grade, a training center on the second floor and an employee cafeteria above.
Faced in white and gray porcelain steel panels, red granite and clear insulating glass, Bridgeport Center embodies the ways in which ‘cities in miniature’ may be used to revitalize decaying urban areas while still integrating with the existing context and scale.
Bridgeport Center是一座商业综合体，位于康涅狄格州的Bridgeport市中心，建筑师是理查德·迈耶。这座建筑体现了一种全新的市中心再开发方案，通过由低到中层的建筑组成，旨在回应周围环境。整个建筑群以白色和灰色瓷钢板、红色花岗岩和透明隔热玻璃为外观装饰，从高速公路上远看和从市中心的主干道上近看，都有着不同的视觉体验。在建筑内部，有一个五层高的中庭，连接着大堂入口和电梯，通向上方的16层办公楼。此外，建筑与邻近的Barnum博物馆通过一个展示空间相连，提供了一个培训中心和一个员工餐厅。Bridgeport Center的设计理念为“城市缩影”，通过不同高度和不同表面的建筑物组成，将商业综合体融入周围的城市环境。这种设计方案在保证商业功能的同时，以一种不同于传统单体建筑的形式回应了城市的缩放和比例问题，是一种非常值得借鉴的城市更新方案。