The current station is remarkable in that it connects rail, mass transit, aviation, and marine services – albeit in a chaotic fashion – within a single city block.

Perkins&Will, one of Sidara’s leading design specialists, applied six principles for Future Stations, in a study that reimagined the Waterfront Station into a symbolically appropriate ‘gateway’ that is boundaryless, equitable and inclusive.

This visioning project designs a new ‘super-modal’ hub featuring the seamless integration of existing and future transit modes, with an enhanced connection to the downtown through the creation of a vibrant public realm.

Through a well-defined design framework, the study demonstrates how modal integration can be achieved in a way that maximizes efficiency and dramatically improves the experience of those traveling both to and through the city.

A key means of increasing access and use was making the station boundaries porous and extending the axis of the main urban thoroughfare – Granville Street – all the way through the site via a concourse level, re-connecting the city to the water. The framework also introduces pedestrian and cycle paths, connecting to new public parks and amenities along the revived waterfront.

The station itself is imagined as a covered outdoor public space, with an extensive roof optimized for renewable energy generation that would potentially allow the site and development to be carbon positive.

A heroic expression of future potential

Given the pace of technological change and the rapidly evolving needs of the city’s population, making clear provision for future modes of transit – even before they are fully operating at scale – is critical.

For this reason, the vision includes detailed provisions for autonomous vehicles, a high-speed rail connection and Advanced Air Mobility, together with necessary supporting infrastructure to make them a reality. With the typical timeframe for any major masterplan redevelopment taking up to two decades, the need to flex to accommodate innovations of tomorrow is critical.

The station of the future is no longer a standalone space, but one that is integrated into the urban and cultural fabric of an increasingly complex public realm.

By demonstrating the extraordinary potential of the waterfront precinct, we have reimagined a future station that is adaptable, user-centric, environmentally and socially beneficial, and modally integrated.