Arch 543X: Science and Technology for Architects III

Summer 2007
 
At a bus stop, you wait! Perhaps you look at your cell phone, your watch or at other people. Perhaps you consider your place in line. Perhaps you look up and down the road for the next bus. Perhaps you might even look at the building you are standing in. Perhaps!

As architects we see this experience as an opportunity. We ask what might be done to replace the boredom and give importance to the act of catching the bus. How might a bus stop become an interesting place that reflects the city's commitment to architecture and the use of public transport?

A bus stop, we agreed, should be more than ... a bus stop!

Our response to the challenge of designing a bus stop is a response to the wider challenge of the downtown and its architectural legacy. Downtown Sioux City has a collection of interesting and unusual buildings and spaces that testify to its dramatic history. Despite its size, this bus-stop shelter, like all buildings in good downtown areas, should play a part among the characterful edifices that you experience as you move through the city. A bus stop should become a micro space of civic pride and pleasure.
 
With this in mind, we have produced two prototype bus stops (see photo at right) that create connections to the local context in several ways. First, their forms are intended to reflect typical Sioux City buildings both past and present. We call these forms typologies of which we have chosen two versions: The Storefront and Smoke Stack Industrial.

 

These forms are created as reminders, in miniature, of buildings that have disappeared but once played an important role in the creation of the city. To these forms we have applied a cut pattern that recalls the rich traditions of architectural decoration and Prairie School design of the Midwest. Here it takes the form of abstractions of designs by Purcell and Elmslie (Woodbury Court House) and Luis Sullivan.

 

Second, our choice and use of steel is also considered for its significance to the context of Sioux City. Steel is intended to promote the advanced capabilities of local industry that are reflected in the complex cutting of intricate patterns and detail. All the panels were cut from computer drawings using CNC laser cutting technology that were rapidly produced from large panels of quater-inch sheet steel.

Finally, paint finishes, painted locally, are the same colors as used in agricultural machinery that also supplies a crucial contribution to the city.

These elements have been brought together in a project that is collaboration between the Iowa State University College of Design and Sioux City. The project was initiated by architect and ISU instructor Jason Griffiths, the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Partners. This collaboration was then extended to the students of ISU graduate architecture program who helped develop and construct the bus shelters with Missouri Valley Steel, State Steel and Fimco.