The new Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC) sets a precedent for civic-minded transit hubs in the United States. HOK designed ARTIC, which represents the next generation of public transportation in Southern California, as an innovative new transit station that serves as a destination in itself. The grand opening ceremony for the community was on Dec. 13.
“ARTIC is a community-focused building that will change how people think about public transportation,” said Ernest Cirangle, FAIA, LEED AP, Design Principal for HOK’s Los Angeles office. “This iconic facility is a symbol of a new era of public transit and was only made possible because of city leaders’ unwavering commitment to a contemporary and bold design.”
Projected to serve the transportation needs of more than three million people annually in the coming years, the 67,000-sf transit hub links commuter and regional rail service and intercity bus systems including Amtrak, Metrolink, OCTA bus service, Anaheim Resort Transportation (ART), Megabus.com, and Greyhound.
ARTIC’s flexible design ensures that it can serve as a southern terminus for California’s future high-speed rail system. In addition to accommodating passenger arrivals, departures and transfers, ARTIC integrates amenities such as transit-oriented retail, Wi-Fi and charging stations, parking, bike racks, lockers, community space and specialty dining.
HOK won an international competition to design the project. Officials challenged the team to create an icon that would welcome a new age of public transportation into the region. The station also was conceived as a catalyst for transforming Anaheim’s core into a pedestrian-friendly zone that promotes connectivity and a vibrant, mixed-use environment. Known as the “Platinum Triangle,” the area around the station includes destinations such as Angel Stadium, the Honda Center, the HOK-designed Anaheim Convention Center and nearby Disneyland.
“The master plan establishes a clear pedestrian pathway flanked by future, mixed-use development with ARTIC as the primary destination,” said Cirangle. “The extroverted building has a significant but welcoming presence and will help spur transit-oriented development.”
Drawing inspiration from classic grand transit halls including Grand Central Terminal in New York, along with the structural elegance of local airship hangars, the team developed a 21st-century design concept for the forward-looking transit facility. The design achieves ARTIC’s signature parabolic form by employing a diagrid structural system of diamond-shaped steel arches infilled with translucent ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) pillows. At the north and south ends, freestanding curtain walls bring in daylight and open the building to views. The long-span, grid shell structure creates a grand, light-filled atrium space that accommodates open circulation.
The design team used building information modeling (BIM) to develop ARTIC’s complex form, geometry and functions, to navigate the complexities of the building systems, and to study the building’s tolerances and environmental performance. “By using BIM, we were able to optimize and coordinate the precise geometry of the vaulted diagrid shell, ETFE facade technology, metal panel rain screen systems and glass,” said Albert Kaneshiro, AIA, LEED AP, HOK’s project manager. “BIM allowed us to match ETFE connections with the geometry of the steel in a structure that is constantly expanding and contracting.”
Based on the city’s goals for sustainability, the team designed ARTIC for U.S. Green Building Council LEED Platinum certification. The vault-shaped structure acts in concert with advanced mechanical systems to optimize energy efficiency. Inflated ETFE cushions cast a soft, translucent light throughout the great hall, while the additional frit pattern on the outer layer reduces solar heat gain. Convection currents naturally ventilate the building as heat rises from the lower south end up to the north side and out through operable louvers. The radiant heating and cooling floor system and optimized HVAC system will help reduce ARTIC’s energy consumption by 50 percent.
LEDs mounted on the diagrid structure illuminate the ETFE pillows in gradations of shifting colors, providing a striking presence on the night skyline. As darkness falls, ARTIC becomes lit from within and acts as a beacon from the freeways and local streets.
HOK provided architecture, interior design, master planning and urban design services. Parsons Brinckerhoff was the project manager and served as the rail and civil engineer. Other consultants include Thornton Tomasetti as structural engineer, Buro Happold as MEP and enclosure engineering, SWA as landscape designer, and Clark Construction as general contractor.
Related Stories
| Dec 10, 2013
16 great solutions for architects, engineers, and contractors
From a crowd-funded smart shovel to a why-didn’t-someone-do-this-sooner scheme for managing traffic in public restrooms, these ideas are noteworthy for creative problem-solving. Here are some of the most intriguing innovations the BD+C community has brought to our attention this year.
| Nov 27, 2013
Wonder walls: 13 choices for the building envelope
BD+C editors present a roundup of the latest technologies and applications in exterior wall systems, from a tapered metal wall installation in Oklahoma to a textured precast concrete solution in North Carolina.
| Nov 26, 2013
Construction costs rise for 22nd straight month in November
Construction costs in North America rose for the 22nd consecutive month in November as labor costs continued to increase, amid growing industry concern over the tight availability of skilled workers.
| Nov 25, 2013
Building Teams need to help owners avoid 'operational stray'
"Operational stray" occurs when a building’s MEP systems don’t work the way they should. Even the most well-designed and constructed building can stray from perfection—and that can cost the owner a ton in unnecessary utility costs. But help is on the way.
| Nov 19, 2013
Top 10 green building products for 2014
Assa Abloy's power-over-ethernet access-control locks and Schüco's retrofit façade system are among the products to make BuildingGreen Inc.'s annual Top-10 Green Building Products list.
| Nov 15, 2013
Metal makes its mark on interior spaces
Beyond its long-standing role as a preferred material for a building’s structure and roof, metal is making its mark on interior spaces as well.
| Nov 13, 2013
Installed capacity of geothermal heat pumps to grow by 150% by 2020, says study
The worldwide installed capacity of GHP systems will reach 127.4 gigawatts-thermal over the next seven years, growth of nearly 150%, according to a recent report from Navigant Research.
| Oct 30, 2013
11 hot BIM/VDC topics for 2013
If you like to geek out on building information modeling and virtual design and construction, you should enjoy this overview of the top BIM/VDC topics.
| Oct 18, 2013
Researchers discover tension-fusing properties of metal
When a group of MIT researchers recently discovered that stress can cause metal alloy to fuse rather than break apart, they assumed it must be a mistake. It wasn't. The surprising finding could lead to self-healing materials that repair early damage before it has a chance to spread.
| Sep 30, 2013
Smart building systems key to new Wisconsin general aviation terminal’s net zero target
The Outagamie County Regional Airport’s new 8,000 sf general aviation terminal was designed to achieve net zero.