Introduction (Art)

The Karl Stirner Arts Trail

Since its opening in 2011, the Karl Stirner Arts Trail (KSAT) has brought the Easton community together through the connection between culture and nature. The trail is 2.5 miles long, is located along Bushkill Creek, and includes a bike trail and dog park. The trail route follows the creek to Third Street and ends at Lafayette’s downtown arts campus. The trail was named after renowned sculptor Karl Stirner, an Easton native who ushered many up-and-coming artists into the city for several years. According to the official trail website, “the Karl Stirner Arts Trail is dedicated to advancing civic dialogue and infusing the community with creative capital, so as to bolster economic revitalization and foster civic and cultural pride” (Karl Stirner Arts Trail, n.d.). The KSAT not only aims to celebrate Easton’s commitment to the arts, but also desires to stay focused on environmental sustainability and public stewardship.

The Karl Stirner Arts Trail is one of many active and passive parks throughout the city that range in size and exemplify the area’s values of community and identity. According to The City of Easton’s main website, “active parks are parks which have an established piece of equipment, court, or field in which to play or recreate. These are designed for families to play and enjoy the outdoors” (“City Parks” n.d.). Several of these active parks have landscaped fields, basketball courts, and playgrounds for children to play on. Passive parks “provide a bench or seating on which you can relax. There are no set pieces of equipment for play,” but there are different forms of art and history such as statues or memorabilia that are showcased in these areas, which is exemplified by the trail (“City Parks” n.d.). Along the KSAT specifically, there are many art installations created by local artists. The most notable art piece is a red arch sculpture created by Karl Stirner himself that serves as an entryway into the trail (Figure 1). Art has become an important part of Easton’s identity as it has enticed locals and outsiders of all ages to come and enjoy scenic exhibits. The emergence of the art scene and its influence on the community are discussed further in the social context section of this report.

The Current State of the Bridge

The Karl Stirner Arts Trail is currently looking to expand its footpath by integrating a bridge that crosses the Bushkill Creek near the Simon Silk Mill. The KSAT has recently acquired an inactive railroad trestle that was originally built in 1924. The KSAT Commission intends to expand its footpath to make the Bushkill area a more desirable and popular place for people to go. A problem that our project must address is that pedestrian access on the bridge is currently restricted due to barriers in on either end. Although the bridge is structurally secure, there are no railings, it is currently overgrown with vegetation and covered in debris, and the wood deck is rotting making it unsafe for trail use (Figure 3). While the trail incorporates several, various art installations, the bridge was not constructed with the possibility of it evolving into a creative space. Therefore, it currently has no design significance to the trail or surrounding community. With these problems in mind, our solution must address the bridge utility while seamlessly integrating it into the artistic atmosphere of the trail.

Project Background

In the Fall 2019 semester, our team generated several proposals to introduce artistic elements into an addition on the bridge. Initially, we considered making the addition a work of art in and of itself that would invoke the surrounding area’s nature and culture. We also contemplated adding a covered exhibition space for rotating installations. As our research and design work has evolved, we determined that the KSAT board should ultimately decide artistic utility of this structure. As a result, our team compiled a portfolio of design options to be reviewed by the KSAT’s Board of Directors as a prompt to further integrate historical and artistic contexts in the bridge rehabilitation. We discuss these in greater detail in the technical analysis section of this report. These designs represent our desire to infuse cultural and community aspects while emulating and maintaining the themes and values of the Karl Stirner Arts Trail.

Some potential challenges to the trail expansion include funding and material costs for the bridge addition, the extent of Lafayette College’s involvement, future maintenance of the bridge, and the constraints of its current structural integrity. To advance our design concepts, we made a set of guiding assumptions that future researchers will have to revisit: We assume the maintenance and ownership of the bridge will be a joint effort between KSAT and Lafayette College. Though the distribution of work between these two entities is currently unknown, we will assume KSAT holds most of the authority. Lafayette will then be, in part, responsible for policing the area due to the provision of an environmental studies site implemented in the nearby area.

 

 

Community Contacts

To mitigate these challenges, our team contacted members of the trail’s Board of Directors. This group “includes city officials, members of Lafayette College and art experts. It receives funding from donors and through an annual art auction” (Gordon, 2015). Included in the board are two Lafayette art professors Edward Kerns and Jim Toia. They provided critical information regarding the artistic aspects of the trail and the possibility of enhancing the bridge to unite the pathway. We drew from research that civil engineering professor Michael McGuire’s class conducted in 2016 which includes a LIDAR analyses of the site. This research provided us with a greater understanding of the technical aspects of the bridge. We also contacted Dave Hopkins, the Director of Public Works for the City of Easton, who explained the current and possible future ownership of the bridge and surrounding land. Finally, we produced prototype designs and cataloged all necessary materials to create a cost-benefit analysis that are explored in depth in the technical and economic analysis sections of the following report.

Community Engagement

This trail expansion is being championed by the KSAT Board of Directors and Friends of KSAT. Therefore, we must have active engagement with those community members interested in furthering the mission of the trail. For effective community engagement, it is important to make sure that people’s voices are heard and that they are involved in the design process. One of the main principles of the Engineering Studies curriculum, effective community engagement, is the result of engineers maintaining the community as a focus within every project. Engineers should follow the community-centric model of engineering and sustainable community development which “implies that development and engineering should be for and about community and that sustainability will not happen without community’s self-determination and ownership of projects” (Lucena, Schneider, & Leydens, 5). Exemplifying this ideal, future groups should engage the community in an equitable, open dialogue about the proposed project and ensure that the Easton community will benefit from this trail addition.

Ultimately, the improvement of this bridge aims to unify the area and local communities by providing a designated place on the trail dedicated to celebrating the history of Easton and the importance of local art. Our project is unique in that the technical aspects of this problem have already been addressed in a previous civil engineering capstone course. Specifically, this report’s scope focuses on the bridge’s future social impact in the community and its intersection with various contexts including social, political, technical, and economic contexts. The social and political contexts focus on the non-technical aspects that would be incorporated into the design of the bridge addition as well as its process of implementation, while the technical and economic analyses examine the materials, mediums, and costs that could be utilized in carrying out our team’s vision. By emphasizing these aspects, it will ensure that the bridge has a meaningful and lasting impact on the Easton community.

To read about the social context of our project, click here.