Beyond Passing: Reimagining Sites Adjacent to Transit Lines

Abstract

Transit lines often generate non-places—spaces of movement—shaped by efficiency and separated from civic life. This project explores how such spaces can be reimagined through continuity rather than interruption. By extending movement and allowing it to slow, overlap, and engage, transitional space becomes a threshold that supports presence and everyday life. The project looks at agora to understand how programs can be organized through historical and contemporary examples, such as arcades and courtyards, that show how movement shapes space. In doing so, it shifts the understanding from a purely functional definition toward grounded in programmatic interaction. Parking garages are studied as precedents where continuous movement defines form without fostering interaction. The thesis focuses on Gateway Station on the Expo Line in Surrey, BC—a growing transit hub with limited civic space—proposing the transformation of a transit-adjacent non-place into a civic environment responsive to urban rhythms and public needs.