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Architect Donald MacDonald has some fancy ideas for the newest bridge to cross the Willamette River in 35 years. Think slender. Think delicate. Think flowing waterfalls and curving bike paths.
Or maybe not.

At a Friday design forum for the Willamette River Bridge, which will take the planned Portland-Milwaukie light-rail across the river, local architects suggested MacDonald go back to the drawing board and try a simpler approach.

鈥淢y main point here is, less is more,鈥� said local architect Rick Potestio after MacDonald’s presentation. 鈥淭he basics here are great, but they could be diminished by elaborations. At the end of the day, it’s a bridge.鈥�

But simply creating a bridge isn’t what MacDonald had in mind. He sees the structure he’s designing as a public space that he thinks should reflect Portland’s identity.

鈥淚’m looking at the bridge as a platform for public use,鈥� said MacDonald. 鈥淲e want to link this bridge into the community.鈥�

A past bridge design of MacDonald’s in Dubai incorporated the image of a falcon, a native resident of the Arabian desert, into the bridge’s legs. For a bridge he designed near Sixth Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, he included six towers made to resemble Los Angeles’s numerous downtown skyscrapers.

For Portland, MacDonald wants to integrate the image of nearby waterfalls, such as Multnomah Falls, by聽placing water pipes on the bridge and allowing the water to cascade off the side. MacDonald also mentioned locating a public amphitheater beneath the bridge, as well as placing sculptural solar panel installations on the bridge to highlight Portland’s commitment to sustainability.

鈥淧eople here have a real concern for their environment that you don’t see everywhere else,鈥� MacDonald said.

But architect Cassidy Bolger with Holst Architecture is worried that flashy additions will overwhelm what he thinks should be a simple and elegant design.

鈥淚 am concerned about all of the different parameters that have to be met with things like waterfalls and solar panels,鈥� Bolger said. 鈥淎re the goals of lightness and slenderness being met?鈥�

MacDonald’s idea for a belvedere, a viewpoint that would be located in the center of the bridge, and his indicated width for bike lanes were also points of concern.

鈥淧eople will not stop in the middle of a bridge,鈥� Potestio said. 鈥淲e have a very elaborate waterfront and there are plenty of amenities in place. You need to understand how much cycling has become a major form of transportation in our inner city. If you have too narrow of a bikeway, it won’t work.鈥�

Not everyone was ready to veto MacDonald’s version of a Portland bridge, however. At least on person attending the forum spoke up in favor of being able to find a spot in the middle of a bridge to safely stop and enjoy the view.

MacDonald still has time to convince Portland’s architecture community that his design ideas are feasible; the project design will only be 15 percent complete by Aug.15, and a final design will not be ready until the middle of next year.

鈥淲e’re at the point now where we’re synthesizing all of our information,鈥� TriMet architect Bob Hastings said. 鈥淚n August we’ll be able to bring a cost analysis to the project’s citizen advisory committee.鈥�