LIGHTING DESIGN PLANS

A dedicated and spirited group of community volunteers, known as the St. Johns Bridge Lighting Committee (SJBLC), has been working to achieve a long sought-after dream of the St. Johns and Linnton neighborhoods — to install permanent accent lighting on the St. Johns Bridge. While the SJBLC is a separate non-profit focusing solely on Portland’s most downstream bridge, Paddy Tillett, Chair of Willamette Light Brigade, has attended many of their meetings in order to liaise between the two groups.

The St. Johns Bridge, considered by many the most graceful and beautiful of all the bridges in the city, and perhaps the entire West Coast, remains in the dark at night, except for a single row of street lights. Committee members successfully applied for a $25,000 Metro grant specifically for creating a lighting design. They sent a request for proposals to a select group of lighting design firms around the country.

Interface Engineering, a local firm, worked with nationally acclaimed artist Tad Savinar to create a lighting design that has been accepted by SJBLC. A 3-D model of the St. Johns Bridge was constructed by Interface Engineering and proved invaluable in visualizing the lighting design options.

SJBLC is currently working with Oregon Dept. of Transportation (ODOT), the owner of the bridge, and other agencies to insure the lighting design meets all necessary standards. While ODOT is doing some construction upgrades on the bridge, the SJBLC is working on the fund-raising plan for their lighting endeavor.

For more information about this group’s efforts to light the St. Johns Bridge,
please contact johnburton@earthlink.net (John Burton).