Who Says?

Fred Gottemoeller

Fred Gottemoeller’s reputation as America’s most distinguished bridge architect was sealed by the universal acclaim for his award-winning Woodrow Wilson Bridge in Washington, DC. In addition to his assistance in the design of bridges over many of the country’s most important rivers, Bridgescape, his book on bridge aesthetics, has become a ‘bible’ for bridge designers, and he speaks frequently to engineering and academic groups.

With more than 56 years of experience in the field, Fred has used his skills as both an architect and engineer to create iconic bridges that are both elegant and innovative. His bridges demonstrate that elegance and economy can be both economical and elegant. The Rich Street Bridge across the Scioto River in downtown Columbus, Ohio was built for less than its $14 million budget, yet it has won more than a dozen awards and has become the centerpiece of the “post card” view of Columbus.

His assignments often required satisfying competing community visions of what their bridge should be. He is well known for his ability to build consensus across the whole community, so that the bridge concept becomes theirs.

Fred has developed aesthetic design guidelines for the states of Maryland and Ohio, and led seminars on bridge aesthetics for Maryland, Minnesota, Colorado, North Carolina, Utah and many professional organizations. His commentary on the aesthetics of recent bridges appears regularly in Aspire, the quarterly magazine of the Precast Concrete Institute. Now retired, Fred is continuing to share his ideas and knowledge in this web site and through journal articles and presentations to bridge design groups.