Autodesk Gallery Powers of Design Exhibit: 10**3 Bay Bridge

I work out of our office on One Market Street in San Francisco. My standup-desk is right across from our Gallery at One Market. One of our newer exhibits is called Powers of Design. It was first featured at the Technology Entertainment & Design (TED) conference last year. Powers of Design depicts the size of everything from the inconceivably small to the mind-blowingly large. I thought I'd cover the exhibit elements, one at a time, over the next few months. I started small and am working my way up.

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Visualization of the soon-to-be-completed eastern span of the Bay Bridge. Bridge image courtesy of the California Department of Transportation. Design and 3D rendering by the Parsons Brinckerhoff Project Visualization Group.

10³ MAGNITUDE
1,000 m
1 Kilometer

Bay Bridge

3.5 Kilometers

Okay, this one’s big, as in the biggest engineering project in California history. Crucial to the success of replacing the east span of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge was the ability to communicate to the general public how the world’s largest self-anchored suspension bridge would reshape the surrounding landscape.

Engineering, manufacturing, and construction data was used to create contextual, photorealistic visualizations of the bridge. Showing these on the Internet, local television, and in Bay Area theaters helped guide public behavior during critical periods of construction and road closures. Reduced traffic and increased transit ridership during these times helped construction crews start earlier and avoid delays.

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For additional information about the bridge, check out my previous blog articles:

• Bay Bridge Retrofit Self-Anchored Suspension Bridge 2010 Construction Tour
• Bay Bridge Tour 2012 with Bart Ney

Thanks to Global Content Manager, Matt Tierney, for the images and text that comprise the exhibit element. This is just one of the many exhibits in the gallery at One Market in San Francisco. The gallery is open to the public on Wednesdays from 12 pm to 5 pm, and admission is free. Visit us.

Previous posts on this topic include:

• 10^-15 Protons and Neutrons
• 10^-14 Atomic Nucleus of a Uranium Atom
• 10^-13 Nada, Zilch, Zero, Zip
• 10^-12 Gamma Rays
• 10^-11 Fluorine Ion
• 10^-10 Wavelength of Hard X-Rays
• 10^-9 Carbon Nanotubes
• 10^-8 Molecular Transport Nano Robot
• 10^-7 HIV Virus
• 10^-6 Red Blood Cells
• 10^-5 Sand
• 10^-4 Microelectromechanical Systems
• 10^-3 Sonata Silicium Watch Components
• 10^-2 Lego
• 10^-1 Prosthetic Fairing
• 10⁰ Biome Concept Car
• 10¹ Ma'erkang Housing Reconstruction
• 10² Shanghai Tower

Future blog posts will cover:

• 10⁴ Masdar City
• 10⁵ Palm Islands
• 10⁶ The Moon
• 10⁷ Earth
• 10⁸ Jupiter
• 10⁹ The Sun
• 10¹⁰ Distance Light Travels in 34 Seconds
• 10¹¹ Distance from Jupiter to the Sun
• 10¹² Distance from Pluto to the Sun
• 10¹³ Voyager 2
• 10¹⁴ The Solar System
• 10¹⁵ Cat's Eye Nebula
• 10¹⁶ Pillars of Creation
• 10¹⁷ Great Orion Nebula
• 10¹⁸ M15 Globular Cluster
• 10¹⁹ Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy
• 10²⁰ Triangulum Galaxy
• 10²¹ The Milky Way
• 10²² IC 1101
• 10²³ Local Group of Galaxies
• 10²⁴ The Local Supercluster
• 10²⁵ 3C 273
• 10²⁶ Outer Limit of the Universe

Measurement is alive in the lab.