Between 2009 and 2013, Hughen/Starkweather created a series of works about the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The artists spent over a year researching the bridge: they interviewed bridge architects and engineers, researched commute patterns, environmental data, topographical maps and diagrams, architecture and engineering drawings, and historic and current photographs.

The Bay Bridge was constructed in 1936 as a railroad/car bridge to connect San Francisco to Berkeley, Oakland, and the East Bay. The east span of the bridge was seriously damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and after 25 years of political wrangling, was replaced with a new bridge in 2013. While the new bridge was being built, the artists were able to go behind the scenes of construction via boat, as well as go to the top of the 20-story scaffolding on the new tower in a construction elevator. Once the new bridge was completed, the earthquake-damaged 1936 bridge was gradually dismantled, and this metal workhorse, which was part of the daily landscape of hundreds of thousands of commuters for decades, now exists only in collective memory.

More information about our process can be found here.

Hughen/Starkweather is the collaborative team comprised of San Francisco artists Jennifer Starkweather and Amanda Hughen. Together they create artworks that examine specific locations, exploring layers and complexities, built systems and natural movements. They begin each project by researching a location using historic and current maps, data, photos, and personal interviews. The resulting artworks reveal forms unique to the location. The artworks are abstract, but contain visible traces of the source materials.