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| Annie Scheel |
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| Annie Scheel |
From Inhabitat: Proposed for a central location at 13th & Market, BIKE is a public amenity for the people of Philly. The structure includes bike storage, a bike shop, a restaurant, a courtyard, showers, meeting rooms, bike sharing and even bike rentals for tourists. Its location provides easy access to the central business district, public transportation lines, and tourist attractions.
Scheel’s design would take over an existing parking lot, repurposing half of it into a bicycle facility and developing the other half for commercial purposes. The bike transit center consists of an L-shaped building in the back with offices, rooms, showers, stores and restaurants. The street is lined with a multi-story bike storage system, which closes off the central courtyard and green space. This courtyard design helps ease the urban heat island effect while providing natural daylighting and ventilation.
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| Annie Scheel |
As interest in bike commuting increases, Scheel’s design has room to expand and would take over additional parking lot or infill lots strategically located throughout the city for similar facilities. The relative generic nature of this design means that it this a concept could easily be rolled out to other cities across the US. In a stagnent real estate climate, large brownfield sites in strategic city centre locations are often left idle until the upturn materializes. This design could easily occupy these sites temporarily and put them to good use, reducing congestion and pollution in the city simultaneously.
more info: view the competition results here