Hudson Bergen LRT: Transit Arts Design Integration and Construction Implementation

摘要

The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Transit System (HBLRTS) is the first major, modern north-south transit link on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. In addition to supporting the traditional dominant west-to-east movement of New Jersey commuters to midtown and lower Manhattan, the primary design and operational objective of this system is to serve and link communities along the New Jersey side of the Hudson River waterfront corridor, to reinforce the dramatically expanding commercial and residential centers along the waterfront-particularly in Jersey City and Hoboken-and to serve as an economic development catalyst for residents and businesses in existing downtown and neighborhood community centers, some of them vibrant and thriving and others struggling. The geographic and cultural setting of the project corridor has provided us with exceptionally rich content for transportation design, urban design and transit arts, encompassing as it does large cities and small towns with a long and existing history, all the richness of the New York metropolitan region with more than 100 distinct ethnic groups, scores of home-grown social, cultural and religious institutions, and-incidentally-the largest concentration of visual artists in New Jersey. For the HBLRTS, project planners and designers have attempted to enhance the typically utilitarian components of light rail station and system technology with a distinctive character that respects and responds to the tremendous diversity and complexity of the project corridor. An integrated station area planning program, urban design guidelines program and a major transit arts program have been the primary vehicles for achieving this objective. This paper introduces and summarizes the way in which a major public art program-encompassing approximately 45 distinct projects valued in excess of $2 million for the Initial Operating Segment (IOS) alone-was integrated into the station architecture and landscape design from the very beginning of the project. The implementation structure of this project itself has been innovative, as it is the first major transit system in the U.S. to be implemented in a Design-Build-Operate-Maintain (DBOM) mode. In this context of fast-track design and "third party" implementation, planners have had to work in exceptionally close collaboration with other design professionals to ensure the articulation and application of urban design and transit art in the design process. The planning process, implementation strategy and administrative procedures established for the HBLRTS by a collaboration of project sponsor, designers and contractor represent a model which can be replicated, in whole or part, for other communities and transit agencies which seek to incorporate a substantive public art in a complex, cost-sensitive and fast-track implementation program.