Rutgers University bridge would connect campuses as park suspended over Raritan River

A proposed pedestrian bridge and circular park suspended over the Raritan River would connect the Rutgers University New Brunswick and Piscataway campuses while unifying Middlesex County in a celebration of an overlooked natural resource, the project's designers say.

The "really cool" Nexus on the Raritan River bridge proposal is the idea of the Franklin-based Design Resources Group Architects (DRG), inspired by a 2016 challenge by Rutgers University and the New Brunswick Development Corp. (DEVCO).

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“The university and the city always turned their backs on the river,” said Jack King, DRG’s director of architecture and business development. “When you go down to the Raritan, there’s no development there that celebrates the natural resource, which is actually really nice. You can walk up and down the canal and that sort of thing, but we thought this would be an opportunity where if they had pedestrian bridge, it could celebrate the river.”

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The university and DEVCO introduced the idea of the need for a pedestrian bridge to link the campuses during a meeting two years ago. During “Rutgers 2030 — A Visionary Physical Master Plan,” Antonio Calcado, Rutgers’ university executive vice president of Strategic Planning and Operations and chief operating officer, and DEVCO President Christopher Paladino encouraged architects to submit innovate ideas to improve the master plan.

DRG Director of Design Victor Rodriguez’s concept to meet that need by transmuting the river into a valued attraction and destination won the state chapter of American Institute of Architects 2017 Design Honor Award in the Unbuilt Category.

“This unifies the other side of the river with New Brunswick in a community, like Central Park is New York,” Rodriguez said. “Because of its round shape, it will become a very central location that completes everything and unifies Middlesex County with something that for New Jersey will be a place to go, a place to be.”

Reaction of stakeholders

DRG’s plan would connect the university’s forthcoming Campus Quad and Transit Center on George Street, as well as the city, with High Point Stadium, Johnson Park, and Rutgers Ecological Reserve, King said.

In addition to Paladino and Calcado, a Nexus Bridge proposal was sent to the following stakeholders:

Rutgers President Robert Barchi

Jeffrey Livingston, university architect, Institutional Planning and Operations

Ronald G. Rios, Middlesex County Freehold Director

John A. Pulomena, Middlesex County Administrator

New Brunswick Mayor James Cahill.

“We appreciate the efforts made by DRG and are reviewing the information they provided,” Calcado said. “We continue to look at all of our options, doing our due diligence on each. There is no established timeline at this point.”

Paladino said he knew that a campus-connecting pedestrian bridge is important to Barchi, who was not available to comment on DRG’s design.

Having helped build $2 billion worth of urban revitalization projects in New Brunswick, as well as Newark and Atlantic City, Paladino applauded the local architectural firm’s vision.

“This is the kind of thing you need to do,” Paladino said.” “You need to dream, to create a vision. I have no idea if the engineering, permitting or cost would allow for something of this proportion to work, but it certainly is the type of thing to aspire to. It’s really cool.”

What’s next

The next steps in building the Nexus Bridge involve securing funding and partners, King said.

The designers said they could not venture to guess how much the project would cost.

“It all depends on how it’s done,” Rodriguez said.

“There’s nothing new about this,” King added. “You see improvements like this in urban settings all the time.”

A similar concept proposed for the Potomac River has been approved in Washington, D.C., Rodriguez said. New York City also took a similar approach by converting an abandoned railroad bridge into High Line Park, a greenway and rail trail on the West Side of Manhattan.

To help make the plan come to fruition, Paladino suggested that DRG work with the newly created Innovation Hub, a partnership between the state Economic Development Authority and statewide technology and science experts. Eventually the team of academics, engineers, scientists, doctors, entrepreneurs, students and others will be based at The Hub, a billion-dollar development project at the site of the former Ferren Parking Deck across the street from the city’s train station.

In the meantime, Paladino suggested a meeting.

“That’s what we’re trying to do at the Innovation Hub, why the state government wants to pursue an Innovation Hub in proximity to Rutgers,” Paladino said, “to launch ideas that are potentially transformative. The Innovation Hub will be built as soon as possible, but we wake up every day and work on a project. That’s happening now between DEVCO, Rutgers and New Brunswick. We’ve always had strong relationships to think through issues and challenges that offer opportunities of mutual interest, but this has put a laser focus on how to take the research of a major American university and use it as an economic force that will create jobs, new therapies, invention and technology that can change the region.

“I’m always talking to Tony Calcado,” Paladino added. “A bridge is now on the front of President Barchi’s agenda. While we’re talking about other infrastructure improvements, such as light rail, maybe this just somehow falls into cue.”

Once approved, King said DRG could build the bridge within three years.

For more information about the Nexus Bridge, visit drgaia.com.

Staff Writer Bob Makin: 732-565-7319; bmakin@gannett.com