South Bellevue Station: Site Inspiration
The South Bellevue Station is part of Sound Transit’s East Link Light Rail Extension. This line starts in Seattle, crosses Lake Washington, turns north through Bellevue, ending in Redmond, home of the headquarters of Microsoft. This corridor is known for both natural beauty and technological innovation. The trip to the South Bellevue Station is shown first in the video below (1:13-2:30).
The South Bellevue Station sits next to the Mercer Slough
The station will be built on the site currently occupied by a Park and Ride. The new light rail line will add a layer of connectivity to the Eastside. The station sits next to the Mercer Slough and its surrounding wetlands, fields and green park spaces. Our work started with extensive site documentation to gather inspiration.
The Mercer Slough is famous for its Blueberry Fields
The slough has slow back waters full of water lilies.
The duck weed floats in amongst the water lilies.
The trails in the park meander through stands of poplar trees.
The patterns for the aesthetic enhancements directly transform natural imagery through technology to create a contemporary expression.
We used Grasshopper, a plugin for the 3D modeling and CAD program Rhino that we use in the office for modeling and drafting, to build a tool to transform images from the site into abstract patterns based on hexagons. This meeting of nature and technology was inspired directly by the circumstances of the site.
Team Credits:
Alexandr Polzin
Client: