Gary Transit Station

Core stuido|2018 SPRING|BSU
Instructors: Robert Church, Josh R Coggeshall
Location: Gary, IN
Team work: Antonio Medina

​The transit station investigates the relationship between building and ground in order to fully integrate with the context of the site (currently an underutilized public park). By enclosing transit, retail, offices, and other programs in a single envelope, different areas of usable space are designated, activating the entire site. The design draws inspiration from Chicago's Thompson Center for integrating mixed-use with design; it creates an understandable language of Gary's untapped potential for its community. Despite remaining strong and hopeful, Gary remains limited. Using drawing and modeling as ways to think about and organize Gary's features, the design starts a conversation about not building a new Gary in the hopes of making something new, but rather reshaping Gary and tapping into the full potential of the community. Using principles of social, environmental, political and cultural characteristics, they create the notion of multiples forces of the community and industry in those characteristics to integrate that of one single driving force by the creation of topology and morphology relations.

The project's design goal is to demonstrate the value of open space in the city by providing a space for students and children to create and display art. The Youth Art Center is close to Fair Haven School, making it convenient for students to visit. The Fair Haven Youth Art Center provides an art space and a gathering place for the community. It also draws attention to the city's empty spaces, filling and connecting them.