ANNUAL VIRGINIA PRIZE ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION 

2022 (Trajan Baker - 3rd year M. Arch Candidate)

Awarded Best in School - Hampton University 

The AIA Virginia Prize is a design charrette that engages students at all of the accredited architecture programs in Virginia.  Conducted simultaneously at each institution, students are given the competition program Friday at 5 p.m. They work over the weekend to create a board presenting their design solution by 9 a.m. the following Monday.  The competition is intended to promote collaboration between the profession, students and professors in Virginia.

SITE

The NRV Passenger Rail Station is to be situated in Christiansburg, Virginia and serve as a multi-modal transit hub for the NRV. It has direct vehicular access to Peppers Ferry Road, foot and bicycle traffic from the Huckleberry Trail, is adjacent to the New River Mall and other restaurant / retail shopping centers, and Christiansburg’s signature park currently under construction. The site offers 1,200ft of track frontage, is 1,200ft x 120ft in dimension, and is centrally located to best serve the local population that comprises the NRV such as the City of Radford, Towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg, and Virginia Tech.

DESIGN CHALLENGE

It is in the spirit of Kahn’s words that you are asked to craft an Architectural Proposition in the form of a passenger rail station to serve Virginia’s New River Valley (NRV).

MY DESIGN PROPOSAL

The proposed River Valley Rail Station will utilize natural and existing site characteristic and to ground the design in a sense. Huckleberry Trail was the primary source of inspiration when determining pedestrian circulation routes in relation to the rail station platform. The ribbon-like form was maintained in the design parti. Much of the existing tree canopy was maintained to connect humans to their sensorial nature. The rail station platform consists of two levels that afford unique and experiential views to the surrounding terrain. 

"...if I could think what I would do, other than architecture, it would be to write the new fairy tale, because from the fairy tale came the airplane, and the locomotive, and the wonderful instruments of our minds....
It all came from Wonder."

Louis Kahn

PROJECT RESOURCES

Railroad Station planning guidelines https://www.greatamericanstations.com/planning-development/station-planning-guidelines/

Christiansburg Signature Park (adjacent to the site) https://www.christiansburg.org/signaturepark

Passenger rail returning to the NRV https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2021/05/05/virginia-rail-new-river-valley/

Huckleberry Trail https://huckleberrytrail.org/

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