River Douglas Footbridge - shortlist announced

RIBA have announced the 7 shortlisted entrants to their River Douglas Footbridge competition:

• Amin Taha Architects, London
• Guy Nordenson & Associates, USA
• JDA with Arup, London
• Nick Hancock Design Studio, London
• NPS North West Ltd, Cumbria
• Ramboll Whitbybird with Priestman Goode, London
• t-hoch-n Architektur, Austria

There were 110 entries in total, which I think may be a new record, excessive even by the crazy standards of other recent RIBA open design competitions. It would be interesting to tot up the total amount of professional time spent on these competitions (at, say, £2k per entrant, that's over £200,000 spent on this single competition already). It might be even more interesting to compare that against what actually gets built and consider the cost/benefit balance to the various parties involved. Certainly, the client gets by far the best deal - loads of ideas for minimal outlay, plus as much publicity as they can squeeze out of it.

There are no pictures of any of the designs yet; apparently there will be public consultation in September.

The only non-shortlisted contender I could find on the web so far is by Architects in Residence. Please post in the comments if you find any others!

[PS: I ought to declare an interest, as I contributed to one of the 103 entries not shortlisted ...]