Transitional Fusion, An End And A Beginning
DART Subway Station Design Competition 2000
When solving the design problem of linking the McKinney Avenue Trolley with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) subway station, I first examined the elements of travel. The steps required to go from point A to point B can be summarized by three elements linking the journey: the mind’s idea of where it wants to be, the body’s physical movement of getting there, and the realization and method of getting there.
Travel, like any product, will succeed with the appropriate advertisement, exposure, and marketing tools. Some of the most successful transit systems have equally recognizable images: the Art Nouveau bent iron subway entrances of Paris; the loud, unforgettable, oversized, red double-decker buses of London; and the bicycle taxis of Mexico City that maneuver through back streets on secret routes, deftly bypassing the streets clogged with parked cars.
It is essential to create unique transitional images. Therefore, my design is a Pavilion-In-the-Park that marks both the beginning and the terminus for the trolley with a covered outdoor staging area that diffuses the intense Texas sun using a mirrored surface and PTEF membrane. At night, the canopy’s membrane becomes luminous, lighting the structure for street safety. The entrance to the DART station is wrapped with a wooden structure that rises skyward, celebrating the rise of the exit and descent of the entrance. Finally, the trellis above the entry performs double duty by providing much needed shade while its shadow becomes the signage at the threshold. At night, the sun is replaced with spotlights that illuminate this welcome carpet.