The structure serves as administrative offices, logistics center and public interface for a bus transit agency of a small city. It is to represent to the public an image of service through professionalism and efficiency. The users charge was simple; “Don’t let us look like a shop office stuck on a bus barn.”

Overall, the building is treated as a machine of parts and purpose. The design encompasses queues of the bus, from the public “entry well” to the individual offices behind a streamlined series of apertures. Examples of efficiencies realized include the stacking of the program elements as well as the unique heating system that is supported by the captured waste heat of the nearby university power plant. The building serves as a radiator of a system larger than itself, a component that led to it earning the first municipal structure to achieve LEED Gold status in the State of Iowa.

 

Location:  Ames, IA

Program:  Office / Transportation

Area:  10,000 SF Addition

Client:  Ames Transit Authority

Photo Credits: Cameron Campbell Integrated Studio