Remember those stylish, streamlined mid-century modern buses, aircraft, and trains? That design aesthetic was the inspiration for this facility, helping deliver a unique building that promotes the SMART brand and has become a recognizable part of the community.
The building’s windows, functional for daylighting and views, are grouped with colored horizontal bands to convey a sense of motion. At the heart of the facility, a common circulation area was designed to encourage rapport among operations, fleet services, and drivers, while enabling teams to function individually in separate areas.
The four-acre site serves the City of Wilsonville’s Transit Fleet, Public Works' vehicles, and administration of transit operations. The city requested that the design team explore budget-sensitive, sustainable strategies to increase efficiency and reduce the environmental footprint. This resulted in a number of green approaches including passive cooling, high-efficiency heating systems, daylighting, low-energy lighting, and selection of low-maintenance, quality materials to lower the building’s life cycle costs. The facility was also designed to promote the organization’s commitment to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fueling, as an alternative to diesel fuel.
