BAU_Butzer Architects and Urbanism

Oklahoma City hosted a national competition to design an iconic 400 foot-long pedestrian bridge to serve as a symbol for Oklahoma City and unite the north and south portions of Scissortail Park, which is bisected by Interstate 40 (formerly Route 66).

The winning entry, SkyDance Bridge, acknowledges that key aspects of the state's history are defined by the sweeping Oklahoma wind. From images of the tall grass prairie to the achievements of Wiley Post, Braniff Airlines and Tinker Air Force Base, sculpted blades rise up to slice the wind. The flight of the scissor-tailed flycatcher, the state bird, evokes these shaping forces of Oklahoma’s wind. Its springtime "skydance" is a V-shaped flight drawn against the sky. The bird's distinctive tail feathers demonstrate an evolved necessity to navigate swirling prairie winds. Its lightweight frame is held strong by hollowed bones. From this reference point, the SkyDance Bridge projects its iconic form onto the Oklahoma City skyline.

Its steel hybrid structure, consisting of a vertically cantilevered tri-cord truss (its wings) and simple span truss bridge, reflects dual urban and loading-diagram conditions. The two wings learn from the efficient bone structure of the bird, stressing the skin around a hollow core. The structural approach ensured that local steel fabricators could competitively bid the project, keeping jobs within three miles of the site and reducing transportation costs. Durable construction materials, including recycled material content, were essential to ensuring a strong measure of sustainability and efficiency, while high performance LED lighting elevates the civic stature of the pedestrian bridge at night.

Today, the bridge has indeed become a civic icon for Oklahoma City, with its likeness being adapted for the OKC Convention and Visitors’ Bureau logo, on t-shirts and baseball caps, team jerseys, OKC Pride marketing, the new airport’s terrazzo floor design, and more.