Project Location: Buffalo, NY
Architectural Resources collaborated with the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority on the comprehensive design for highly visible and adaptable transit shelters for the entire Buffalo- Niagara region. These new shelters enhance the user experience, contribute to the aesthetic quality of place, and reinforce a positive image and identity of the NFTA. An essential design component of the built bus shelter design is to be highly adaptable by implementing a ‘kit-of-parts’ approach. These versatile components include interfaces for real-time information, solar power, a green roof, enhanced signage, and more as options to be included for specific locations and system demands. An identifiable marker with cultural iconography of the area is also present on the shelters, creating a “customization of place” available to each specific installation.
This adaptive reuse project in SUNY Polytechnic’s Kunsela Hall provides three high-tech, specialized classrooms and the addition of a welcoming, accessible entrance for the renovated space. The new learning environment’s design is student centered; It includes program elements that support traditional learning in a lecture-style configuration while also offering flexibility for different learning and teaching styles. Smart technology in the classrooms includes multiple projectors, interactive smart boards, distance learning cameras, and large format monitors and screens. Directly adjacent to the classrooms, break out spaces provide the opportunity for student to student collaboration or for more informal teacher and student interaction. Together, these design features and technological features accommodate active learning as well as asynchronous learning.
