Northern Spire

In 2003, the urban regeneration company, Sunderland Arc commissioned the engineering firm Arup to assist with finding a suitable location for the siting of a new road bridge over the River Wear. In 2004, the Canadian-American Architect Frank Gehry undertook a study for this new river crossing. An international design competition was organised by Sunderland Arc in 2005. Several submissions were made, including one by Frank Gehry, but it was the cable-stayed design of Spence Associated that won. In 2008, Sunderland City Council held a public consultation on the designs to see if the public would prefer the Spence design to a more basic beam bridge. The consultation showed that people in the…