Barb Ickes wrote this really great piece about the I-74 bridge when it was a toll bridge. How all the old office space is still under the part that 80,000 motorists (used to) travel over every day.
The DOT plans to blow up the bridge after the new I-74 span is complete... don't get me wrong, I love a good explosion more than most people... but that seems wasteful and disrespectful. Adaptive Re-use is the term my architect friends use, I think this fits that category.
That was the notion I floated around last spring and it quickly made it to the front page of the Quad City Times. The prevailing thought was that is wasn't going to happen
With the help of concept champion Jeff Moore and my Marigold Partners, we flushed out the viability of the project.
How people, vendors and emergency services could access the pier.
Space allocation, how to to divvy up .75 acres, six stories above the Mississippi.
I'm thinking this should be somebody's library.
Here's why it wont happen and probably shouldn't.
John Deere regarded Moline as a place where people who worked for him lived. He brought trainloads from Sweden, Belgium and Mexico for the community they brought. He wanted families, not just work force.
