Mayor’s Office invites Suisman to join design panel for new Sixth Street Bridge

The office of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has invited Doug Suisman to join a distinguished group of architects and community leaders to advise on the selection of a winner in the competition for a new Sixth Street Bridge across the Los Angeles River. The existing bridge, built in 1932 and designed, like many of the city’s most famous river spans, by city engineer Merrill Butler, is afflicted with a degenerative structural problem known as “concrete cancer” and needs to be replaced. The city’s Bureau of Engineering considered building a replica or a simple viaduct before switching gears and announcing a major design competition. The 9-member Design Aesthetic Advisory Committee, or DAAC, also includes Hitoshi Abe, Chair of the UCLA Department of Architecture; Eric Owen Moss, Director of Sci-Arc; and Lewis Macadams, Founder of the Friends of the Los Angeles River.