Miguel Rosales

Miguel Rosales (born 1961 in Guatemala) is president and principal designer of Rosales + Partners, a transportation architecture and bridge design firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. He is an architect specialized in bridge aesthetics and design, with more than 30 years of experience in urban design and bridge architecture. Some examples of these bridges include; Phyllis J. Tilley Memorial Bridge, Christina and John Markey Memorial Pedestrian Bridge, and Liberty Bridge at Falls Park on the Reedy River.

Early life and education
Rosales was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, where he received a degree in architecture at the Universidad Francisco Marroquin.  In 1985, he enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to study Urban and Environmental Design, obtaining a SMArchS (Master of Science in Architecture Studies) degree in 1987. He later completed engineering studies related to bridge design when he received grants from MIT to study Swiss bridges, from the AIA/American Architecture Foundation to study Swiss and Spanish bridge structure, and from the National Endowment for the Arts to study Infrastructure Design for the Future. As part of the grants' activities he visited the following cities in the late 1990s to conduct research and documentation related to transportation and bridge design:  Barcelona, Spain; Zurich, Switzerland, and Seattle, Washington.

Career
Rosales' career has largely been dedicated to bridge and infrastructure design in the United States. He initially worked with pioneering Swiss engineer and bridge designer Christian Menn, and from 1988 to 1996, Rosales served as the lead architect and urban designer for the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge over the Charles River. This highly-visible structure is part of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, informally called "The Big Dig". During his tenure at this high-profile project, he mainly focused in improving the appearance of the highways and bridges as part of the multi-billion project that helped transformed downtown Boston by removing an elevated highway and by opening access to the harbor.

In 1997, he started his own independent architecture and engineering professional practice, Rosales + Partners, in Boston. Soon after the formation of his firm, he was involved in the design of three award-winning bridge projects: Liberty Bridge at Falls Park on the Reedy in Greenville, South Carolina, completed in 2004, Puente Centenario, over the Panama Canal, Panama, completed in 2004 and Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River in Washington DC, completed in 2008.  These bridges have received multiple awards and widespread recognition.

Recently completed projects include the Phyllis J. Tilley Memorial Bridge over the Trinity River in Fort Worth, Texas, completed in 2012, the Christina and John Markey Memorial Pedestrian Bridge, completed in 2013, the Moody Pedestrian Bridge, completed in 2016 in Austin Texas and the Frances Appleton Pedestrian Bridge and Longfellow Bridge Restoration completed in 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Personal life
Rosales lives on Mount Vernon Street in the historic Beacon Hill Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, not far from the Zakim Bridge, the Longfellow Bridge, the Appleton Pedestrian Bridge and several other bridges he has designed. He is active in the Beacon Hill neighborhood civic activities.  Working together with the Beacon Hill Garden Club of which he is a Board member and the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, Rosales and his husband John Corey helped to fund and recruit volunteers  to install protective iron tree guards and decorative plantings around tree pits in the sidewalks of Charles Street in 2013, the main thoroughfare of Beacon Hill. Rosales and Corey were originally inspired in 2009 by a visit to Jermyn Street in London, England, famous for its fashionable men's wear shops and other retail stores.

Rosales is a Certified Master Gardener, and in 2019 his Beacon Hill garden won first place in the city wide Mayor’s Marty Walsh Garden Contest in the shade garden category. In 2016, Rosales was appointed by Boston's Mayor Marty Walsh as a full member of the Beacon Hill Architectural Commission, and in 2019 he became the Chair of the Commission. The Commission reviews and approves all new exterior work visible from a public way in the historic Beacon Hill District, which was designated in 1955.

Recognition
Miguel Rosales has received international recognition for his iconic bridge aesthetic and designs. Some of the awards he has received are for the following bridges: Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge, Liberty Bridge, I-235 Pedestrian Bridge, Puente Centenario, Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge. Earlier in his career, Rosales received the P/A Young Architects Award in 1993, published in Progressive Architecture. In 1993, he received an AIA Urban Design Award of Excellence, for his "Plan for Charles River Crossing/Interchange, Central Artery/ Tunnel Project".

Completed projects
Puente Centenario, Panama Canal, Panama
Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, Boston, MA
Liberty Bridge at Falls Park on the Reedy River, Greenville, SC
George Washington Carver Bridge, Des Moines, IA
I-235 Pedestrian Bridges, Des Moines, IA
Edna M. Griffin Memorial Bridge
40th Street Pedestrian Bridge
44th Street Pedestrian Bridge
East Locust Street Streetscape Improvements, Des Moines, IA
Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge and Maryland Interchange, Washington, DC
Port Columbus Airport Crossover Taxiway Bridge, Columbus, OH
Phyllis J. Tilley Memorial Bridge, Fort Worth, TX
Christina and John Markey Memorial Pedestrian Bridge, Revere, MA
Moody Pedestrian Bridge, Austin, TX
Frances Appleton Bridge, Boston, MA 
Longfellow Bridge, Boston, MA
Fore River Bridge, Quincy and Weymouth, MA
Como Park Pedestrian Bridge, St. Paul, MN

Current projects
, Rosales is designing the following bridges:

Massachusetts:  North Washington Street / Charlestown Bridge at Boston Harbor in construction and the Northern Avenue Bridge at Fort Point Channel. In addition, Rosales has designed a new lighting scheme for the Harvard Bridge near MIT. 
Texas:  Three Trinity River Vision Bridges in downtown Fort Worth in construction and Dallas Fort Worth Airport Gateway bridge in Dallas
Washington:  The Marion Street Pedestrian Bridge over new Alaskan promenade next to Colman Dock Ferry Terminal in Seattle's waterfront
Minnesota: Bruce Vento Regional Trail Pedestrian Bridge next to the Mississippi River in St. Paul
Alabama: Huntsville Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge
New York:  East 54th Street Pedestrian Bridge, New York City
North Carolina:  Hickory Signature Pedestrian Bridge in Hickory
Illinois-Iowa:  I-74 Mississippi River Crossing Bridge is in construction.
Virginia:   Wasena Signature Bridge in Roanoke
Illinois: Dominick Street Bridge over the Chicago River, Chicago, IL

Proposed projects
Massachusetts: Science Park footbridges, next to the Boston Museum of Science. If built, these two footbridges would close a gap in the "Charles River bridge circuit", allowing pedestrians to walk or run next to the river rather than alongside traffic congestion on a nearby road.

References

External links

 Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Falls Park, the “crown jewel” that helped bring the green back to downtown Greenville
 Liberty Bridge, Falls Park transformed downtown
 City to Celebrate 10th Anniversary of Falls Park
 Team of Miguel Rosales and Parsons Brinckerhoff ranked top choice to design lakefront pedestrian bridge
 LED lighting project: The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in Boston, Massachusetts, USA
 Liberty Bridge a ‘transformative work of art’
 Its lights on again for Boston's Zakim Bridge
 Miguel Rosales Building a Better Bridge
 After Years Reconstruction, Longfellow Bridge Reopened 5 a.m. Thursday
 New Lighting Revealed for Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge
 Zakim Bridge Turns 15
 Frances Appleton Pedestrian Bridge Across Storrow Opens to the Public
 North Washington Street/ Charlestown Bridge Replacement Receives Notice to Proceed
 Miguel Rosales Discusses Iconic Bridges at TEA Annual Meeting
 First Class: The Winners of the 2019 Richard H. Driehaus Foundation National Preservation Awards
 Bridge Receives ‘Most Important Historic Preservation Award’ in U.S.

Category:1961 births
Category:Living people
Category:Bridge engineers
Category:American architects
Category:Guatemalan emigrants to the United States
Category:Universidad Francisco Marroquín alumni
Category:Urban designers
Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Category:People from Beacon Hill, Boston