| Contextual Infrastructure Planning and Design |
| Light Rail Transit Station Design and the Urban
Landscape |
| By Kathryn Lim, Phoenix, Arizona 1-602-744-5580 limk@pbworld.com
|
| Two light rail transportation
projects in California illustrate how the aesthetic and urban design
aspects of transit infrastructure can make significant contributions
to ridership and to the overall quality of life in a city. |
|
Transportation in no longer just about mobility. Passenger transportation
systems have become a significant urban form of the 20th century with
few other public works having the potential to reshape the built environment
as much as this form of infrastructure. Through transit station architecture,
we have opportunities to create places that enhance the quality of
urban life. Many believe that these stations will be key elements
in our efforts to create livable cities.
Los
Angeles Metro Blue Line: A Light Rail Station Is Not a Bus Stop
Designing rail transit stations in a city as steeped in the culture
of the automobile as Los Angeles was a formidable task for PB. We
started this effort with development of the Long Beach Light Rail
system that opened in 1990. There had not been any form of rail transit
visible on that city's streets since the Pacific Electric Red streetcars
stopped running in 1955. In those times, the streetcars were more
like electrified buses that stopped in the middle of the street. There
were no safe waiting areas for passengers trying to board and deboard
and there were no amenities. The streetcar system was purely a means
of getting from point A to point B, so when gas became cheaper and
the road system was expanded, buses replaced the streetcars and gave
Los Angeles the level of service and flexibility of routes that its
citizens preferred.
When the Long Beach Blue Line was being designed almost 35 years later,
care was taken to design rail stations that did not look like streetcar
stops or bus stops and that provided a substantial level of passenger
amenities. Many of the stations have extensive canopy coverage over
the platforms with increased circulation areas and full accessibility
in conformance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Other amenities
include plenty of seating areas, information kiosks, and park-and-ride
and kiss-and-ride areas. In addition, the public art program provided
for artwork that enhances and individualizes stations. In areas with
high-graffiti activity, the art has helped to reduce some of the "tagging"
of vertical surfaces by neighborhood gangs and thereby has maintained
the station areas as neutral territory.
Skeptics might wonder if such steps have any impact. The answer is
a resounding yes. The stations are clean and extremely well used.
The Long Beach line far exceeded initial patronage estimates and has
grown from 15,000 daily riders just after opening day to about 63,000
daily riders. The system is used not only by the transit dependent
population but, perhaps more important, by commuters who prefer not
to drive because of the amenities offered by this form of transportation.
There is no question that if the stations had been without amenities
like those of the original streetcars, transit would be less of an
alternative to the automobile. Yet the cost of this type of design
enhancement is perhaps only one to two percent of the overall construction
costs-a very small price for the positive impact it has on ridership
and the day-to-day perception of the quality of the environment for
the daily user.
San Diego Trolley:
A Light Rail Station as Architecture
The starter line of San Diego's light rail system began in the late
1970s as a "bare-bones" transportation system that connected
the city's downtown area to San Ysidro at the Mexico border. The stations
were essentially glorified sidewalks with bus shelters dotting the
concrete slabs. The use of the "trolley red" color was the
only aesthetic treatment. This highly functional system served an
important regional transportation need successfully, but it did not
recognize the importance of architecture as a design element of the
system.
Even on the Mission Valley West light rail extension that was completed
in the mid-1990s, stations such as the elevated Mission San Diego
station had standard sidewalk bus stop shelters on the platform-an
indication of a lack of sensitivity to the site context and to the
transit rider's experience of waiting on the platform in an unfriendly
environment 6 m (20 feet) above ground. The station has no identity
and, rather than being an asset to the area, its lack of design actually
detracts from the adjacent development. This station serves as a sad
reminder of how bad design diminishes the quality of our everyday
experience and has measurable negative economic consequences.
The Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB) has increasingly
recognized the importance of station design, however, and the need
to attract joint development and transit oriented development on the
new rail extensions. Based on that recognition, several stations included
canopies designed to:
- Reflect the architecture of the adjacent
development.
- Serve as the visual "front door"
to the surrounding area.
Often, the stations provide the first impressions of their surrounding
neighborhood to the thousands of passengers who use them every day.
When a station is identified with adjacent development through the
use of similar colors and architectural details, nearby property owners
are more receptive to the trolley station location. Additional costs
for these specialized features tend to be more than repaid by increased
patronage and revenues.
For example, a recent MTDB study indicated that the average trolley
rider who arrives at the Fashion Valley Station and shops at the Fashion
Valley Mall spends an average of $80 per visit. Here, the station
design enhances the mall site by giving it a visual identity and making
it a regional destination, instead of detracting from its nearby area,
as was the case with the Mission San Diego Station. The Fashion Valley
Station illustrates that the good transit station provides clear economic
benefits.
Figure 1: Alvarado Medical Center Station; Station Canopy
and Shade Louvers |
Figure 2: Alvarado Medical Center Station, Partial Wall Elevation
Showing Frieze with Riddle |
Figure 3: La Mesa Station, Station Canopy |
Figure 4: Seating Clusters Made of River Rock with Native
Plantings |
PB is providing the architectural final design for three stations
on the latest 10-km (6-mile) Mission Valley East extension. For the
first time, MTDB has adopted a policy of integrating art in the design
of the stations through the City of San Diego's Public Art Program,
so our designs go even further to expand the concept of light rail
stations as architecture, as art, and as destinations in themselves.
Each station design is unique and was developed in collaboration with
an artist. As of this writing, designs for the Alvarado Medical Center
station and the La Mesa station are complete.
Alvarado Medical Center Station. The design of the station,
located in front of the Alvarado Medical Center, creates an Arcadian
environment (simple and reflective) with architectural and artistic
references to a garden-like setting. For example, station canopies
resemble glass greenhouses. Trees, plants and stone walls form a 6
m (20-foot) -high retaining wall that separates the station from the
freeway (Figure 1). Along the wall, the artist has created a frieze
that contains a riddle about the site itself, with references to the
freeway, the trolley line and the drainage culvert that passes under
the trolley tracks. The riddle, which is reminiscent of the sayings
engraved on university building facades and on 18th century English
garden shelters to provoke interest and thought, is made up of 0.3-m
by 0.3-m (12-inch by 12-inch) concrete tiles, each etched with a letter
of the alphabet (Figure 2). The lines of the riddle create a visual
rhythm similar to the rhyme itself, and the linear quality of the
riddle encourages users to walk along the platform area while waiting
for the trolley and discover the area for themselves in an environment
that gives references to the healing qualities of nature. Plentiful
seating is located under solar green glass canopies to minimize heat
gain.
La Mesa Station. The design of this station
creates a park-like setting through its landscaping and natural features-a
place to have a picnic or bring the family on the weekend. Green metal
canopies that mimic a tree canopy cluster (Figure 3), are located
toward the front of the station, giving passengers in approaching
trains a sense of nearing a grove of trees as the train pulls into
the station. The platform finish, which has an iridescent blue-green
water-like appearance created by a concrete mixture made of recycled
glass cullets, serves as a reminder of the stream on the site that
will be channeled into a culvert once the trolley tracks are installed.
Also, a "nature information garden" of native plants and
trees is on the station site. To accentuate the mix of real landscape
and symbolic landscape elements, the artist has designed special seating
with solar-lit awnings for the station platform. These seating clusters
will be made of river-rock that will be reassembled from the stream.
(Figure 4).
Some Concluding Thoughts
Creating a sense of place is an essential role for architects. The
architecture of light rail stations can create environments that become
important urban places and elements of civic pride. People come in
contact with these structures on a day-to-day basis, so their quality
will symbolize the quality of people's lives.
To be livable, cities must meet their residents' requirements for
more than just the essential infrastructure; city dwellers demand
and require a quality consistent with their own vision of the standard
of living they aspire to and expect their cities to provide. More
and more people recognize the important role that design plays in
maintaining this quality of the environment. A transit station needs
to be more than just a glorified bus stop. |
|
| Kathryn Lim is the Chief Architect for the Los
Angeles Metro Rail system. She is currently working on the final design
phase of the San Diego LRT Mission Valley East Extension and the preliminary
engineering phase of the Phoenix Arizona LRT system, which was approved
by Arizona voters in March 2000. |
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