Amanda Bonilla Taylor
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Rethinking the CCTC: Central Campus Transit Center
This project is a vision for a calming and accessible public art space at the University of Michigan’s Central Campus Transit Center (CCTC) that also improves the efficiency and safety of the transit center. This redesign project is informed by ethnographic research, including interviews with people who use and pass through the CCTC, and research on the history of the transit center, similar places like it, and the importance of public spaces such as the CCTC. This led to a better understanding of the main challenges of the existing CCTC and surrounding site. I determined that the space needed to be more experience-based. The new design gives people the opportunity to rest and take in the moment to enjoy their surroundings while waiting for the bus. This would make the transit center not only efficient but also a public art piece that can serve as a meditative space where everyone can use, enjoy, and even relieve some stress.
Original Sketch, 2019
Graphite
9″x12″
My original idea for the central campus transit center’s space. The benches activate the space socially allowing people that use the space to relax while waiting for the bus.
My findings from observational research show that the CCTC does not meet basic bus station needs and is not designed with the user in mind.
Digital Sketch, 2020
Digital file
2000p x 3000p
Digital sketch of the redesigned roof and wall layout for the CCTC, overlaid on a picture of the 3d structure in Rhino.
The interviews I conducted proved the CCTC is uncomfortable and not informative.
Bench Model, 2019
Cardboard
13″ x 4″ x 2.5″
1/18th scale laser-cut cardboard model of my bench design for the CCTC. Great care was taken to make this design as open and non-hostile as possible, giving people the option to; lie down, sit with their backpack on, or have a backing to lean against.
Bench Render, 2020
Digital Render
23′ 11″ x 4′ 7 1/4″ x 2′ 7″
Digital rendering of one of three final bench designs, made in Rhino and rendered in Twinmotion.
CCTC at 7:30, 2020
Digital Render
2000p x 3000p
Benches inside of the fully designed and rendered CCTC.
The literary research I looked to were from a variety of disciplines in order to bridge the space as not only a public space/structure, but also a public work of art. A bus station calls for efficiency and information, while art calls for an experience.
CCTC, 2020
Digital Render
2000p x 3000p
Overview of the CCTC redesign.
Rethinking the CCTC
Digitally Rendered Video with Audio
Audio by Sam Burck
Immersive video encapsulating the experience of being inside the redesigned space. The space would have the audio playing as well as an announcer saying the times of the buses arriving, making the space both visually and audibly informative.