TG (TRANSIT GUIDANCE) : spaces for wayfinding in multi-modal transportation hubs, a proposal for Atlanta's Lenox Station

Abstract

"The efficiency of the city and therefore the contribution of urbanization to development will depend to an important degree on how the problems of mobility are resolved. " Wilfred Owen (1972) Based on current urban patterns, this thesis assumes that as cities continue to expand and densify, living and working environments will increasingly be attracted to edge-city sites with access to public multi-modal transportation infrastructure. The program required to accommodate efficient interchange to/from and within such infrastructure (involving trains, buses, shuttles, taxis, cars, bicycles, etc) is both vast and complex. It is critical to urban mobility that the architecture of such spaces facilitates wayfinding at both an urban and inner-station scales. Unfortunately, many existing transportation interchanges that are supposed to unify, actually contribute to division through inefficient program and through illegible spaces that rely solely on signage for orientation rather than architecture. TRANSIT GUIDANCE is a set of design propositions as well as an implementation that demonstrates how architecture can be used to heighten users' environmental understanding in and around edge-city multimodal transit stations, thereby facilitating efficient navigation and ultimately the collective mental image of the city.