Completion Date:     12/4/2014

Square Footage:      67000

Building Use:           Multi-modal transportation hub, connecting rail, bus, automobiles, bikes, and pedestrians

Location:                 2626 East Katella Ave., Anaheim, CA 92806

Project Description:

From the beginning, the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC ) was envisioned as a precedent-setting public facility, an intermodal transportation hub that would bring ten modes of transportation together in a new “gateway to Orange County,” a facility of grand proportions and ambitions like New York City’s original Penn Station and Philadelphia’s Broad Street Station. This is the vision that enabled the project team to win the international competition for the station in 2009.

The flexible station design and master plan expands the definition of transit, fitting it into a larger vision for a more urban and mixed-use future, a station that is more than a station. ARTIC is a catalyst for change. Beyond being a design, engineering, and construction achievement, ARTIC is a major achievement at the civic and community level, a community-focused project that is changing the character of central Anaheim from an automobile-centered area to a transit-, bicycle-, and pedestrian-friendly zone, connected to a regional bike trail. The realization of the station is the fulfillment of the City of Anaheim’s long-term regional goal of bringing advanced transit solutions to the city as it anticipates population growth and the arrival of over 40 million visitors annually. The civic-minded master plan establishes a clear pedestrian pathway flanked by future mixed-use development with ARTIC as the focal point and primary destination.

The project serves the public good as one of the most advanced transit centers in the world, employing a high-tech ETFE cladding system for maximum daylighting and environmental control. Every aspect of the design was carefully considered for its energy and environmental performance. On target to achieve LEED Platinum, the building’s ETFE primary shell, combined with operable louvers in the north and south curtain walls, works in concert with heating and cooling radiant floor technology to provide a comfortable, naturally-lit indoor environment.

One of the major achievements of ARTIC is this elegant, functional, and lightweight structural and cladding system. Designing and engineering the structure and façade system involved the close and constant collaboration between the architects and engineers. The engineering and design teams collaborated to work out how the structure, cladding system, and environmental strategies would all come together. To turn it into a constructible system, the engineering team used CATIA with customized scripts, defining the primary geometry and articulating all connections for the steel diagrid shell, ETFE façade technology, metal panel rain screen systems, and glass, for a structure that is constantly expanding and contracting. To achieve this, custom components had to be designed, developed, and fabricated. A Revit model was developed to coordinate all aspects of the building’s structure and systems throughout the design and construction process.

ARTIC is the largest ETFE project in North America, using over 200,000 square feet of the membrane system for its primary shell. This lightweight system and the arching structural shell also allowed for open, column-free public spaces throughout the terminal. The installation of this system required specially-trained workers who could scale the structure with ropes and harnesses.

C.O.T.E. | Committee on the Environment

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