SPOKANE — Four master of architecture students from Washington State University Spokane didn’t have a typical summer break. Instead the four-man team of Colin Anderson, Blake Bural, Nicholas Carpenter and Ben Fields spent their time in the lab designing the winning entry for a new Walla Walla Market Station. They entered the competition on their own outside of school curriculum to gain real-world design experience and in the process beat out 15 other teams including professional designers.
“We never fathomed we would place, and are ecstatic to have been chosen as the winner,” said Bural, spokesman for the team.
“By holding a design competition, Walla Walla demonstrates its commitment to design excellence in public projects, and opens opportunities for young, unknown talents like our Spokane students,” said Matt Cohen, assistant professor of architecture at WSU Spokane. “We are very proud of these students and the initiative they have taken in applying what they’ve learned in the classroom.”
The contest asked designers to explore the possibilities of a new Walla Walla Market Station, calling for the integration of a farmer’s market venue and transit center. In addition to these two key areas, designers were to address retail opportunities, visitor information kiosks, public space, parking, and pedestrian and traffic flow.
“The result of our design was a complex project that extended the urban edge of downtown with a two-story façade of low-rise mixed-use structures in a modern vernacular style,” said Bural. “We created a building that wraps around three edgespromoting the sense of building a community. This design also created an inner courtyard that encloses a market to encourage sustainable development through local food production. And because the project includes a bus station it also promotes mass transportation.”
According to the final jury comments, the design contained a strong urban edge and included possibilities for retail activity and upper level residential growth, which provides the opportunity for public-private partnership developments.
As a result of the team’s hard work, they were awarded $3,000 for first place in addition to the $5,000 they won for making it to the semi-final round.
Web sites:
-Walla Walla Competition Site:
www.wallawalladesign.com/competition_arch.php
-Interdisciplinary Design Institute:
www.idi.spokane.wsu.edu
-WSU Spokane:
www.spokane.wsu.edu
