Global architecture and design firm Perkins+Will celebrates the official opening of the Evergreen Line, the 11-kilometre extension to Metro Vancouver’s SkyTrain system that connects the communities of Coquitlam and Port Moody to Vancouver. Estimated to carry 70,000 people per day by 2021, this extension renders the SkyTrain system the longest fully automated and driverless rapid transit system in the world.
“We see the Metro Vancouver region as a great model for public transportation and our local work continues to inspire and inform our design projects globally,” says Jeff Doble, Perkins+Will’s director of transportation design. “Our goal is to create an exceptional experience for passengers; to increase ridership by designing pleasurable spaces that are unique, accessible, intuitive to navigate, and safe; and to thoughtfully connect the stations to other modes of transport and the surrounding community.”
This approach is evident in Evergreen’s Lincoln and Burquitlam stations, two on the seven-stop line that were designed by Perkins+Will. These stations not only fit within a family of buildings through the use of repetitive roof elements, structure, and glazing, but add to the firm’s award-winning legacy of transit design, which began nearly 20 years ago.
In 1999, Perkins+Will designed the Millennium Line’s award-winning Gilmore and Brentwood stations, which introduced the use of wood and prefabricated modular roof panels – signature elements that continue to be used across Metro Vancouver’s SkyTrain stations today. The firm further refined its modular kit-of-parts approach during the design of Canada Line stations at Aberdeen, Lansdowne and Richmond-Brighouse. Today, the design of Lincoln and Burquitlam stations on the Evergreen line represent a continued refinement of the firm’s transit work, providing a high-quality, elegant, and economic design that prioritizes the riders’ experience.
“The expansion of Metro Vancouver’s SkyTrain network not only opens up the Tri-City communities to the greater region, but unlocks the potential for future development,” says Ryan Bragg, principal at Perkins+Will who led the Lincoln and Burquitlam stations, as well as the recently opened transit-oriented development Marine Gateway.
“Each of these stations was conceived as a catalyst for future development and designed to complement the surrounding neighbourhood. We look forward to seeing the success of the Evergreen line and its contribution to Metro Vancouver’s world-class role for transit and transit-oriented design.”
