A R I E L T A K A T A - V A S Q UE Z
TRANSIT LANDSCAPE
San Francisco MUNI Transit Center MUNI is the municipal transit system in San Francisco; providing buses, underground subways, and trolleys throughout the city. The MUNI bus Barn sits at the corner of Masonic avenue and Geary boulevard (below). Both streets are high traffic areas for cars and pedestrians traveling from the residential Richmond district to the urban Downtown. While the area is bustling, it feels exposed and un-welcoming to those on foot, particularly around the MUNI bus barn. The bus depot serves as a central hub for servicing the city’s zero-emission buses and houses administrative offices. While the depot is large, it is under used. It is in a prime mix-use area with housing on Presidio avenue and a variety of businesses and restaurants on Masonic avenue. This Studio 5 project is to redevelop the MUNI bus barn to still function as a service stop and administrative center as well as include retail space, housing, and a large museum. The challenge in this project is providing an attractive area to be inhabited all hours and serve multiple purposes. The program requirements were flexible. The housing density as well as size/quantity or retail space was up to the students’ discretion. The project was broken into two sections -- urban design and museum design. The urban design lay out the master planning for the space and the museum design became a fully-fleshed out building inserted into the urban design plan.
MAP /SITE STUDY
TRANSIT LANDSCAPE
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To first approach the space, we studied Sanborn maps and created our own to understand the qualities of the building and open space surround the bus barn (bottom right). Through the diagraming exercise, it became clear the large chain stores were partly responsible for the un-walkable scale. Many box stores turn their backs to the neighboring housing. We also explored San Francisco on a larger scale. The simplified underground/subway map (top right) diagrams the connection between the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit underground system , servicing the larger SF bay area) and the MUNI underground system.
Mixed-Use Redevelopment After studying the site to understand the qualities of the surrounding area, initial sketches are develop to program the space and pull pedestrians into the public space. The MUNI administrative building remains in the plan and expanded to act as a transit center to accommodates future transit system (MUNI or BART) expansion. The site is highest at the corner of Masonic avenue and Euclid avenue (top left) which crates the opportunity to design the museum into the hill side and mimic the sweeping motion of the natural grade. The retail space is scattered across the open space at varying angles to create more private spaces between store fronts and allow for pedestrians to leisurely walk though the varying passages. The grade also provides a path sloping into the public space to draw in foot traffic. Each of the spaces are embedded into the landscape and cantilever over the public space to provide the opportunity to use the sheltered public space below. Larger scale retail space is also available to accommodate chain store who wish to embed themselves into a community oriented mixed use space. Housing is then stacked above the retail space. The transparent building core intersects both live and work space to create lantern like forms that can be illuminated at night. The four level housing overlooks downtown San Francisco without obscuring the view from Masonic avenue. Masonic Ave. Live
Transit Center MUNI Admin.
Geary Blvd.
Retail
Live
Retail
Live Retail Retail
Live
Museum & Learning center
Retail Automobile drop off Presidio Ave.
Retail
Euclid Ave .
TRANSIT LANDSCAPE
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TRANSIT LANDSCAPE
Circulation plays a large role in determining the pattern/rhythm of the structures. Pedestrians are be encouraged to enter from Geary boulevard, Masonic avenue, and Euclid avenue. Automobile traffic is limited, the only entrance is located on Presidio avenue to cause as little disruption to current traffic as possible. Presidio avenue is the least crowded of the surrounding streets. The majority of street parking is located to the South which also helps to isolate automobile traffic. The drop off area is located near open space to encourage people arriving by vehicle to walk across the public space. Limited parking is provided for the center to discourage driving especially with the convenient location of the transit center in the site.
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The museum is designed to sit into the urban design and reinforce the ideals embodied in the master planning. Like the warp and woof of a woven fabric, the site’s sweeping length dynamically pulls against the sloping latitude from Masonic avenue to Presidio avenue. Initial study models begin to experiment with the directional pulls. Some are clearly directional, while others use horizontal lines cut by verticals forms and vice versa. Verticals and horizontals create interesting spaces, where the strong directions are abruptly stopped. Much like the dynamism between the horizontal and vertical directions, the light and shadow from intersecting forms become the most intriguing and private spaces.
TRANSPORTATION MUSEUM
WARP & WOOF
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TRANSPORTATION MUSEUM
EXTRUSIONS After developing interesting play between horizontal and vertical directions, a crystal-like form was created with multiple levels. It incorporates larger forms deteriorating into smaller intimate interstitial spaces. The form mimics the slope of the grade it is built into and becomes a pedestrian friendly scale as it nears the public space. Like a hand, it begins as a large form and as it becomes more articulate, it creates finger like appendages reaching out into the landscape. The fingers are the entrances to the space drawing in pedestrians from the public space and retail areas. Although punctuate, the continuous roof creates a unified structure. The materials also alternate between transparent and solid to create interest and provide protection from solar gain within the exhibition spaces.
iterations, the straight retaining wall, backing Masonic avenue, became curvilinear to imitate the undulating retail space in the urban design. The curves create interest for pedestrians on the street level.
The building’s program is organized by level with exception in larger spaces, piercing multiple floors of the museum. Like the external form of the building, the interior spaces become smaller as they reach out into the landscape. Circulation follows the forms and becomes dispersed as it nears the open space.
TRANSPORTATION MUSEUM
Through several
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TRANSPORTATION MUSEUM
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CIRCULATION From the top down, the circulation through the museum becomes more dispersed as the levels grow. The central ramp becomes a grand foyer with 40 foot heights from the first though third floors. Ramps provide for a leisurely walk through the exhibits spaces. Stairs and elevators provide direct access between floors. Freight elevators are located in the stacked exhibit space to provide functionality.
TRANSPORTATION MUSEUM
The structure of the build also follows the horizontal and vertical directions to form a grid system of columns. Each column is sized appropriately to support the alternating heights. As the columns move away from the street, they become smaller and eventually are exposed to form pavilions. The grid system is then carried out into the opens space in the form of light wands providing illumination at night, again mimicking the larger urban design.
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9 Street Entrance Exhibits
TRANSIT LANDSCAPE
Restaurant
Public Space
Exhibits
Exhibits
The hand drawings require understanding of both the form of the space as well as structural elements involved. Short and long elevations speak best to the grided, yet random extrusions creating sloping downward into the public space. Sections provide a view of the double-height spaces and the leisurely ramps leading from exhibits on either side.
The perspective to the right describes one of the
smaller private spaces between the “fingers� of the museum and the exposure of the column grid as it extends outward.
TRANSPORTATION MUSEUM
DIFFUSING FORMS
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MIXED MEDIUM
11 ORCHID PENCIL DRAWING 9” x 11”
MIXED MEDIUM “Seeing Nature” ACRYLIC PAINT ON CANVAS 12” x 15”
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