Please in My Front Yard!: Planning and Designing a Light Rail Station and Bus Transit Center at the Front Door of a State University

摘要

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB) is in the final design stage of its 5.7-mi (9.5-km) Mission Valley East light rail transit (LRT) extension. The Mission Valley East LRT project, expected to open in 2004, will close the gap in the existing 47-mile (76-km) San Diego Trolley system by connecting the Blue and Orange Lines. It will include San Diego Trolley's first tunnel and underground station to serve San Diego State University (SDSU), one of the largest trip generators in the region with over 35,000 students and staff. The SDSU station will be at the entrance to the campus and serve as the center of a 58-acre, mixed-use redevelopment project at the university's front door. SDSU is now served by an at-grade bus transit center that will remain and be rebuilt with the LRT station. The station's location provides a unique opportunity, recognized by the MTDB and SDSU, to create a gateway to the campus and integrate transit into the redevelopment project, which is planned to be a high-density, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use project serving the campus and community. At the same time, creating a station at the hub of activity and the campus front door requires sensitivity to the university, the redevelopment project, and transit goals. Enthusiasm for the project can be tempered in view of the realities of design challenges, physical constraints, and finite budgets. To address these opportunities, constraints, and challenges, the MTDB has coordinated with the SDSU administration, the SDSU Foundation (which oversees the redevelopment project), and the greater campus community. To date, the MTDB has executed agreements with SDSU to obtain financial contributions toward the project in the millions of dollars, established a steering committee with the university to guide station location decisions and station area planning, and created a design advisory committee to obtain university, student, community, and business input into the architecture and design of the underground LRT station and at-grade bus transit center. The design effort has focused on the goals of the adopted master plans of the university and the redevelopment project. The design includes an MTDB-adopted public art program to incorporate art reflecting the university community into the station design.