Millbank Millennium Pier

The Millbank Pier project began collecting various awards even before it was completed and anchored at its future location in front of London's Tate Britain. According to The Independent Review, it is "the most radical harbor pier ever built in England." Its authors are the married couple David Marks and Julia Barfield, whose architectural firm is also responsible for the realization of one of the city’s modern landmarks – London Eye. Millbank Pier was the fifth and final piece of the Thames 2000 project, which was financed from lottery proceeds totaling over £7 million and enabled the realization of a tourist-attractive boat service along the Thames connecting both Tate galleries. The opening ceremony of the pier was taken over by London Mayor Ken Livingstone at the end of May 2003. The festive event also included the launch of the new “fastest boat on the Thames." The boat named Hurricane was built in Australia and its polka-dotted interior was designed by Damien Hirst.
The pier resembles a smaller brother of the Yokohama terminal from another London office. Here, too, the idea of the harbor pier was conceived in a revolutionary way from the very beginning. Millbank Pier ultimately looks better than many a boat sailing by. New engineering methods made it possible to create a revolutionary and at the same time more elegant way of securing the pier. The traditional dominant vertical beams were first replaced by two “almost invisible radial arms." These two beams, together with the access ramp, create a single structure necessary to keep the pontoon in the right place during the tide. Since the Thames is a tidal river, the bearings in the beams must withstand conditions both in water and on land. Therefore, rubber was chosen as a connection requiring almost no maintenance. The access ramp serves as a third beam while also keeping the pontoon at the proper distance from the shore. This task is usually fulfilled by submerged cables. However, since this is a permanent structure, a more expensive solution was chosen. The bridge also had to accommodate height differences when boarding the pontoon. The tidal range of the Thames is twenty feet (over 6.5 m). To achieve a ramp ratio of 1:12, the bridge would have to measure 197 feet (65 meters), which would mean creating the second-longest harbor bridge on the Thames. Also, the distance of the pontoon from the shore was insufficient to achieve the desired angle at low tide, so part of the ramp had to be designed as part of the pontoon block.
The architectural concept thus integrates the access ramp, stairs, covered waiting area, and floating pontoon into a single continuous form. In the maritime industry, the technology of welded steel plates is quite common. However, here it also encountered polygon reduction techniques used in the field of computer games. David Marks, one of the authors of Millbank Pier, says about the project that the resulting shape of the pontoon was formed by “maximizing the efficiency of surface geometry and defining a continuous surface from steel plates creating a unified assembled envelope.” While the outer metal shell is rigid, the interior is lined with cozy strips of wood.
Behind the pier's light installation named 'Flash & Tidal' is Canadian artist Angela Bulloch. Her design features two interconnected light circuits that respond to the tidal cycle. During high tide, the pier is bathed in blue, while during low tide, the color transforms to light green. The second light effect is achieved using 63 programmed signal lights that create a changing light display during each night of the two-week tidal cycle.