(Photo Credit: Michael Maltzan Architecture)

The City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering is celebrating a major, international architectural honor with the inclusion of the Sixth Street Viaduct Replacement Project in the 17th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, Italy titled How Will We Live Together? The exhibition is curated by Hashim Sarkis, organized by La Biennale di Venezia, and features 112 participants from 46 countries.

Included in the exhibit is a model of the Sixth Street Viaduct, scheduled to be completed in Summer of 2022, a transformative infrastructure project for the City of Los Angeles and the single largest bridge project in the City’s history. The display was created by the architect who designed the viaduct, Los Angeles-based Michael Maltzan Architecture.

(Photo Credit: Michael Maltzan Architecture)

On display are two primary elements connecting contextual ideas of design, engineering, community, history, and transportation infrastructure. Suspended from above, the 1:360 scale architectural model highlights the bridge's unique connective elements and shows the entire 3,600 foot span of the viaduct. Three short videos highlight the physical, historical, and cultural context of the Viaduct. The first monitor displays historical images of the viaduct, representations of the original structure in film and popular culture, and images from Michael Maltzan Architecture's submission to the international competition. A second monitor shows photographs by Iwan Baan of the people, buildings, and neighborhoods connected by the viaduct, and a third displays construction images of the new bridge, from the groundbreaking through the present day.

Challenging the long-held notion that infrastructural elements in our cities are single-purpose, divisive elements, the viaduct instead reimagines the city’s infrastructural network as a vital physical, social, and cultural catalyst that can unite, rather than divide our cities.

The Sixth Street Viaduct design was selected by the Bureau of Engineering through an international design competition.

“The Sixth Street Viaduct is a unique transformational project that was conceptualized by our City to embrace simultaneous community, infrastructural, and aesthetic objectives," said Gary Lee Moore, Los Angeles City Engineer. "The viaduct combines the fundamental necessity of infrastructure with the grace and beauty of art. We are thrilled that our project is a part of the Biennale Architettura 2021 and that Michael Maltzan’s visionary design is being shared with the international architecture community.”

The 17^th International Architecture Exhibition runs from May 22, 2021 until November 21, 2021 in Venice, Italy.

The City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering is leading the construction of the new, $588 million Sixth Street Viaduct Replacement Project, the largest bridge project in the history of Los Angeles. The completed structure will be a 3,500-foot long viaduct connecting Boyle Heights and the Arts District across the Los Angeles River. The original viaduct was built in 1932, but had significantly deteriorated due to "concrete cancer"; it was demolished in 2016. The new viaduct will have ten pairs of lit arches, bike lanes and wider sidewalks. When the viaduct is completed, work will begin on the Sixth Street PARC, 12 acres of recreational and open space under the bridge. The bridge is funded primarily through the Federal Highway Administration, with additional City support. The viaduct will be completed in Summer 2022.

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