For The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO)

Neighborhood Transit Connections

2024 The Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Award Recipient

Best of Design Award for Unbuilt—Urban Design & Master Plan

Jury’s Comment:

“It’s trying to think about the bus as another infrastructural piece, which is really interesting.”—Walter Hood

The project re-envisions Houston’s network of transit facilities as an answer to the dwindling social infrastructure available to many of the city’s communities. This study focuses on contextual, cultural, and local connections that could benefit from enhanced transit experiences. Urban, active, and architectural opportunities that adhere to transit operations are examined at two stations to provide experiences that consider safety, ecology, and access. Too often, public transportation improvement strategies focus on finding an engineering fix to bring postmodern cities up to speed with their industrial counterparts, but new strategies developed holistically from and for non-urban cities are needed. Scholarship and practice both inform us that public transit is vital to a more green and equitable future. Re-envisioning transit zones as not only points of travel but also as venues for innovation and culture is a strategy to weave together Houston’s uniquely non-urban urban fabric.