NEWPORT, R.I. (WPRI) — Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) students have turned blueprints of futuristic versions of the Newport Pell Bridge into virtual reality experiences.
The Newport Bridge is 2.1 miles long and spans across the Narragansett Bay connecting Newport to Jamestown.
This weekend, people can go to the Old Colony House in Washington Square in Newport to virtually go across the bridge by bike, walk, or even enter a world of augmented reality where the bridge pops up off the table through a tablet.
Professor Liliane Wong said she was contacted by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse in 2020 to see if her team could create a virtual world to reimagine how the bridge could be accessible in the future.
“It’s the same distance as the length of Central Park, so if we were to draw these in drawings, the drawings would be very small in order to see all of it, so while the objective is to see how we might add to the bridge, the other objective was to let everyone get in on how architectural drawings work,” Wong explained.
The team took it a step further and even mapped out the venue for this weekend’s exhibit as well.
It’s free and open to the public but you’re advised to sign up for a timed entry online.
