Get to know the Silver Spring Transit Center

Transit

Get to know the Silver Spring Transit Center

by Dan Malouff • May 12, 2011 10:45 am

With construction well under way, Silver Spring's new multimodal transit center is rising quickly from the ground. It seems a good time to share details of this important project.

The new center will consolidate just about every mode of transit imaginable into a single station, to be named for former US Senator Paul Sarbanes. It will include:

34 bus bays for use by local, commuter, and intercity buses.
Kiss & Ride facilities for cars.
A taxi stand.
The Metropolitan Branch bike/ped trail.
Bike racks (and maybe a bikesharing station, if Montgomery County joins Capital Bikeshare).
Improved connections to the existing MARC and Metrorail platforms.
A commuter store.
Three major parks/plazas for civic use and passenger waiting.

Overall, Sarbanes Station will become the second largest multimodal transportation depot in the Washington region, after Union Station.

Plans and renderings of the project are below, courtesy of Montgomery County.

Overview rendering, showing Metro at bottom right and Colesville Rd at bottom left.	Lower level plan, showing plazas at the Metro entrance and Wayne Avenue, bus bays, the transit store, and the trail.
Middle level plan, showing bus bays and the Wayne Avenue entrance/park.	Upper level plan, showing Kiss & Ride and taxi facilities.
Two views of the plaza in front of the Metro station entrance.
The trail, in its temporary pre-Purple line location.	The future Purple Line's addition.
View of mid-level bus bays.	View of mid-level plaza.

The design under construction is at least the third iteration. The previous two versions of the design were both quite different. For the sake of posterity, here they are:

The original design featured a grand stair, but
didn't leave room for the Purple Line.

The second design was focused around a luxurious "hanging garden"
waiting room. Courtesy of Torti Gallas.

Cross-posted at BeyondDC.

17 comments

Tags: Maryland, Montgomery, Silver Spring, Silver Spring Transit Center, transit

How the Purple Line will fit through the Silver Spring Transit Center (Nov 11, 2009)
What'll surround Silver Spring's transit center? (Dec 3, 2009)
Silver Spring bike station gets planning money (Nov 3, 2010)
Urbanism in the public realm: the Silver Spring library (Nov 11, 2008)
Silver Spring library gets cheaper, better design (Dec 3, 2010)

Dan Malouff is a professional transportation planner for the Arlington County Department of Transportation. He has a degree in Urban Planning from the University of Colorado, and lives a car-free lifestyle in Northwest Washington. His posts are his own opinions and do not represent the views of his employer in any way. He runs the blog BeyondDC and also contributes to the Washington Post Local Opinions blog.

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Haven't been following the project, but yikes. The design sure got uglier and uglier with every iteration.

by andrew on May 12, 2011 10:58 am • link • report

@andrew,

I agree. It looks like it shifted from a grand transportation concourse into a bus garage.

by Joey on May 12, 2011 11:35 am • link • report

@andrew:

Agreed. While I'm glad the transit center is being built, I really wish the aesthetics of the project had been more carefully considered the decision-makers. The first two designs create a much better sense of place than the chosen design, which looks like a pile of concrete.

Downtown Silver Spring is a great place to live, but most of its buildings are nothing special architecturally. This was an opportunity to create something iconic and symbolic of downtown Silver Spring, and they definitely blew it.

by R. on May 12, 2011 11:39 am • link • report

Why did they name it after Sarbanes? He's from the Eastern shore and B'more.

by TGEoA on May 12, 2011 12:00 pm • link • report

I agree with andrew and Joey. Why can't they seem to create anything architecturally unique in Silver Spring? Veteran's Plaza is not as plain as these designs, but they did miss a golden opportunity here.

I often feel the same way about the Ellsworth Drive development. They could have integrated much more of the art deco flavor that the nearby buildings (Lee Building, original shopping center, etc) have, but instead it became sterile and boring (architecturally).

by engrish_major on May 12, 2011 12:38 pm • link • report

It def. is just a pile a concrete right now, but considering it's going to be surrounded by buildings, I honestly don't mind that they don't spend the $$ to doll it up. If it ends up looking like the top rendering and manages the bazillion buses in DTSS smoothly, that's perfectly fine by me.

by jag on May 12, 2011 12:50 pm • link • report

I hope Montgomery County gets CaBi. I live in Takoma on the DC side and the closest CaBi Station is 2.5 miles away. I emailed Councilwoman Bowser's office and they told me that they are trying to get CaBi Stations at Upshur and Georgia Ave and the Ft. Totten Metro. That's still nowhere near me. I asked Bowser's office to work with Montgomery County because that would place her district more in the center of the CaBi area rather than the periphery. No response. Unless Montgomery County gets CaBi there won't be a station in the Walter Reed/Takoma area for a long time.

by Nick on May 12, 2011 12:55 pm • link • report

Bog standard, as the Brits might say.

This could've been Silver Spring's Union Station, a hub around which a burgeoning downtown could gather. Instead it just looks like a repurposed parking garage.

But at least it's a transit center - they were desparately in need of that.

by OctaviusIII on May 12, 2011 12:58 pm • link • report

Watch MoCo go with their own unique proprietary cabi-like system so that it won't integrate (see Ride On).

Silver Spring will never be what GGW writers like to call "human scale" neighborhood. SS has all the makings of a walkable area, but it's really just too spread out from a walkability standpoint. There are sections that are highly walkable, but then it's a hike to the next section. They desperately need a single track trolley. I haven't seen the purple line plans in a while, maybe that's a solution.

by eb on May 12, 2011 3:14 pm • link • report

Normally, I'd err on the side of limiting cost, but creating a more attractive space to mitigate the depressing character of the area and create more comfort and safety would be an improvement. Some retail/restaurant development would have bridged the nearby commercial area. SS is a patchwork of mostly bad development ideas from the 30s to the 80s and would benefit from something that helped knit different pieces together. the park might do the opposite. The hotel seems destined to underperform--SS already has several underperforming hotels.

by Rich on May 12, 2011 8:13 pm • link • report

@Nick,
@eb,

I too am very much hoping that Montgomery County can find a way to join CaBi (its municipalities could, too). The good news is that contract is set up such that jurisdictions in the region can opt in and get the same deal as the others (whether we have the sense to do so is perhaps another matter, not to mention finding a way to fund it).

An excellent opportunity to make exactly this point is just about to happen: Saturday morning's Montgomery Bicycling Conference in Rockville (see PDFs of flyer and schedule of events on the Civic Federation website).

I am planning on being there for that purpose.

by cabi addict on May 12, 2011 8:48 pm • link • report

How many elevators will it have ?

The area where I assume escalators, perhaps steps are could really use a elevator which seems to lack.

by kk on May 12, 2011 11:41 pm • link • report

looking at the construction from the noaa building, it looks like there will be between 2 and 4 elevators from the top level on down. when's this thing supposed to be finished anyway?

by JessMan on May 13, 2011 9:34 am • link • report

Why didn't they plan a straight path from the transit to Bonifant? People will always take the most direct path, so I never understand why planners make these round-about paths instead of straight-line paths...

by m on May 13, 2011 9:35 am • link • report

@m:
Bonifant Street is 3 levels above the entrance to the Red Line station, because of the grade change. The transit center couldn't have been as large if it was turned to be parallel to Bonifant Street. So, the maximum space is found by orienting the structure to be parallel to the Red Line. A straight line path wouldn't be easy anyway, due to the grade.

by Matt Johnson on May 13, 2011 9:47 am • link • report

The last I read, the transit center is scheduled to open in December. I pray that the following spring, we will see the groundbreaking of one or all of the buildlings that are proposed to wrap around the intersection of Colesville Rd. and 'hide' the transit center. Until then, the structure will like like a giant three-story (very functional) concrete barge surrounded by a grassy field. I, too would have preferred the grand vision of the original designs, but I think that once the site is fully built out (and IF the new buildings are attractive), then many of the aesthetic concerns will be moot--at least from the street view. And if they Purple Line/Capital Crescent Trail/Metropolitan Branch Trails are built, then this area will be one bad mamma-jamma transit node.

by Woodsider on May 13, 2011 12:36 pm • link • report

@above

Yeah we all wish that they chose one of those other designs but, those easily would have cost twice as much $$$. I think the current design is fine. It's similar to what a similar project would look like in the New York area--high on practicality/efficiency, low on aesthetics.

by TerrapinKing on May 15, 2011 1:37 pm • link • report