The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has revealed the five finalists teams in competition to redesign the Port Authority bus terminal in west Manhattan: Arcadis of New York, Archilier Architecture Consortium, Hudson Terminal Center Collaborative, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, and Perkins Eastman.
The Port Authority Bus Terminal International Design + Deliverability Competition challenged architects to reimagine the current terminal building, built in 1950 and expanded in 1979, for the demands of modernday ridership. The terminal currently accommodates approximately 220,000 passenger trips and more than 7,000 bus movements on an average weekday, with demand projected to increase to 270,000 daily peak-hour passengers by 2020, and as many as 337,000 daily peak-hour passengers by 2040.
Continue reading to see each of the designs.
The proposed design solution considers four themes in response to the interests of multiple constituencies for the Port Authority Bus Terminal: Purposeful Design, Certainty of Results, Encompassing Vision and Regional Connectivity. These themes establish a basis that challenges conventional assumptions about the Bus Terminal in order to enhance terminal operations while mitigating any potential negative impact on the community.
Archilier Architecture Consortium
In our design proposal for a new midtown bus terminal, Archilier Architecture and its team have created a new civic landmark that urbanistically knits together historic Hell’s Kitchen and the emerging Hudson Yards district, replacing what is now a ‘no-man’s-land’ with a vibrant multi-faceted public facility as part of a long-range master plan that heals what has been an open scar on the face of New York’s west side. This terminal will be New York’s “Next Great Place”.
Hudson Terminal Center Collaborative
The Hudson Terminal Center (HTC) Collaborative has developed an extraordinary approach for reinventing the Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT), one that can bring about a transformative impact on the quality of life in Midtown West. Our innovative concept places a new terminal directly below the PABT site – as an underground facility – with seamless, naturally lit connections to adjacent city streets and subways. This innovative scheme will provide the potential for private equity development on the PABT site, as well as on nearby PANYNJ parcels that are currently occupied by the terminal’s existing bus and private auto ramp infrastructure.
Welcome to Times Square West, a new district that redefines the southern edge of Clinton and connects the emerging neighborhood of Hudson Yards with the iconic office, cultural and tourist destination of Times Square. Designed around a new Transit Center west of 9th Avenue, Times Square West marks the next phase in the area’s evolution from a maritime community to a vibrant residential, cultural and commercial one. By relocating and downsizing the bus terminal and repairing the urban fabric severed by its ramps and tunnel approaches, Times Square West reintroduces mobility and human scale to this midtown neighborhood after a half century without them.
The “Convergence” design vision for the new Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT) leverages every single aspect of transit infrastructure, above and below ground, in order to create an iconic place in the City where people will want to live, work and visit, regardless of whether they are using any form of transit.
Key features of the Convergence design plan include:
- Transform Jacob Javits Convention Center into the ideal site locale
- Buses, trucks and ramps are removed entirely from the local street network, allowing greater permeability of surface streets for cars and pedestrians
- Integrate the Terminal with new Number 7 Hudson Yards station for direct access
- Introduce resilient transit infrastructure that doubles as a new public waterfront park
- No eminent domain and a flexible “as-of-right” process
- Keep normal operations going throughout the construction process
For more information on the competition and the five finalists, visit the competition site, here.
