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These competition-winning bus shelters in Austin will harvest rainwater for a pocket park

These competition-winning bus shelters in Austin will harvest rainwater for a pocket park

It’s a matter of time before the canine-abused fire hydrant is outfitted with its own sound system—like this park bench. Two designers are retooling a high-traffic bus stop in Austin, Texas, to incorporate a pocket park for city dwellers to revisit distant nature.

AIA Austin’s “design voice” committee and transportation company Capital Metro have announced designers Sara Partridge and Melissa Robledo as winners of the Bus Stop Shelter Design Competition. Located at 1717 South Pleasant Valley in east Austin, the new stop will shade riders from rain and shine with three structure cisterns in colorful designs inspired by Metro Rail’s Crestview Station, which includes a trail providing pedestrian and bicycle access to the station from the surrounding neighborhoods. Meanwhile, a harvesting system will collect rainwater to irrigate the native and adapted plants in the surrounding landscape, while the enhanced lighting and bicycle racks makes it easy for cyclists to switch from two wheels to four.

“The bus stop meets riders’ basic needs by providing shade and shelter from the rain, but we have also designed a space that welcomes riders, cyclists, pedestrians and even the riders in cars passing by,” Partridge said. The concept stems from a new “place-making” approach: the design of community-centered and multifunctional public spaces designed for health and wellbeing – in which the park bench becomes an ogle-worthy social hub for reconnecting with nature.

“Austin is rich with arts and culture and we wanted to celebrate our community by creating a unique neighborhood space,” said Dan Dawson, Capital Metro vice president of marketing and communications. “We are excited to begin working with our winning design team, and look forward to picking up riders from this one-of-a-kind stop.”

The design competition commenced in September 2014 with a design charrette attended by over 30 designers and architects. Finalists then had four weeks to develop designs and submit their presentations. In the meantime, AIA Austin designvoice and Capital Metro surveyed over 100 riders and community members to gauge transit needs and feedback. Capital Metro will contribute $30,000 to the project, which is the average costs for the construction of a bus shelter, while the design team is responsible for securing additional project funding.

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