Those on the 32-member binational jury picked - by a wide margin - a two-tower concept suggested by Swiss designer Christian Menn.

"This is a simple and elegant landmark framing the Niagara River," Robert G. Shibley, co-chairman of the jury, said of the design.

Two needle-shaped towers would straddle the roadway, supporting a main span almost one-third of a mile long.

One tower would be on the western shore in Fort Erie and the other on the west side of the Black Rock Channel.

Both towers would be 568 feet above water, taller than the Washington Monument.

"Even though this was the tallest of the bridges being considered, it ends up being the most open, the most transparent," said juror Lawlor F. Quinlan III, a Buffalo lawyer. "It's an elegant bridge that has a wispy effect. It narrows at the top to a point where it almost disappears into the sky.

"That's why I didn't think the height was too overpowering."

The Menn design can be built as a three-, four- or even five-lane bridge. But once it's built, it cannot be expanded, said juror Dominic J. Bonifacio, a Common Council member representing the Niagara District.

The jury offered no recommendation on how many lanes the bridge should carry.

Civic juror Jeff Belt, a Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy board member who has been active on the Peace Bridge issue since 1999, said his position on companion versus replacement concepts has been ambivalent over the years.

"The only thing I have stressed is, if we keep the old bridge up, it shouldn't obscure the new bridge," Belt said. "And the new bridge shouldn't obscure the old bridge. And this Christian Menn design is very complementary. When you look at the two bridges side by side, neither bridge obscures the other.

"The lower structure arches of the old bridge are still beautiful, and they attract your attention. But the slender, tall towers of the new bridge look modern, state-of-the-art and create a great gateway. So I'm very satisfied."

In the final vote, jurors voted, 22-5, for the Menn concept over a two-tower, cable-stayed concept jointly developed by Modjeski & Masters of Poughkeepsie and Buckland & Taylor of North Vancouver, British Columbia.

In an earlier round of voting, jurors eliminated three concepts developed by Figg Engineering Group of Tallahassee, Fla.: an arch design; a two-tower, cable-stayed concept; and a three-tower, cable-stayed design. Menn's three-tower, cable-stayed design was also eliminated.

"The consensus on the three-tower [design] was that it was too busy; it obstructed the view," Shibley said.

Figg's arch design placed a distant third place to the pair of two-tower, cable-stayed designs that emerged as the finalists.

Computer simulations allowed jurors to view the bridge design alternatives from a distance, from both sides of the border, and also up close as if driving across the bridge.

Ted Ogilvie, a Fort Erie chiropractor, said that he was initially impressed by the arch design but that he changed his mind after seeing the computer simulations. "I saw McDonald's arches," Ogilvie said, a reference to the fast-food restaurant's Golden Arches. "Then a number of different things came up. It overpowers the old bridge. In the end, everybody saw that."

The jurors met for the last time Thursday in the Holiday Inn in Fort Erie. Among their recommendations:

• The new span should not be curved.

• The lines of the towers should be softened.

• Traffic railings should be transparent - not like concrete barriers - to enhance the pedestrian and driving experience across the span.

• Security considerations should be incorporated from the start and not compete with the simplicity and elegance of the concept.

One the subject of lanes, jurors said engineers should decide on the number based on traffic-flow projections. "The number of lanes to be built is kind of a traffic engineering question," Belt said.

"My own opinion is that it's not really a matter the public needs to debate a great deal, because it really is a matter of technical requirements. If we can resolve the traffic bottleneck [through] shared border management, then the number of lanes we build really becomes much less important."

Shibley said, "The number of lanes is driven by traffic capacity. Traffic capacity was never our charge; therefore, the number of lanes was never our charge."

Menn's winning concept is for three lanes, Shibley said.

It could be built to accommodate up to five lanes if sidewalks are done away with, he said.

Shibley said the bridges would be 80 feet apart, but jurors did not express an opinion about which side of the existing bridge the new bridge should be built.

In the past, Menn has said he envisioned his bridge south of the Peace Bridge, closer to Lake Erie.

The group spearheading the bridge-expansion project - composed of officials from the Peace Bridge Authority, the City of Buffalo and Town of Fort Erie - will make the final decisions on the design. Members of that group have said they expect to follow the jury's advice.

The jury's recommendation won quick praise from top political figures. "This is a major step, a huge victory," Mayor Anthony M. Masiello said. "A Christian Menn bridge gives us the signature gateway that we all want and need."

"Today, we have confirmed what we have known for a long time," Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a news release. "Ever since I was first elected senator, the people of Buffalo have been clear that they want a signature bridge. And today, the design jury made it official. A lot of work went into this decision and the jury should be congratulated for their hard work."

The jury's recommendations will be included in the draft environmental-impact statement. Those recommendations are expected to carry great weight with the bridge authority.

e-mail: plakamp@buffnews.com