This Transit Terminal and auxiliary parking facility with a much needed Visitor Center combined with sorely needed public restrooms occupies the only open parcel on the Galveston Strand which is part of the National Historic Registry. As such, it is governed by National, State and Local historic committees and authorities. In many ways, the project is symbolic of the problem of preservation in America- the balance between how the new invades the old and the old informs the new, Galveston is currently a community under duress by some standards. It has been losing population since the 1970’s and is currently under an important threshold population of 50,000 persons- holding at 48,000. It fights numerous perception issues from bad schools, challenges in providing affordable housing and high crime as well as its perceived risk to storms etc.

This project defines a vision of a future that is different. How do we make it an appealing future given the above? Can we set it up as one piece of a future approach to assuaging the problems both structural and perceptual? Is there an audience for it? It should not go without saying that the center serves the local population perhaps more so than tourists.

The position of this site, at the hinge of the cruise terminal and the Strand, is a site like no other in the district in so far as it is empty. It is not truly, as a corner site “infill” and as one of only three new building sites configured to encompass one half of a full block- only one other historic building does this with a single architectural expression several others come close but it is a minority condition overall- and thus extremely unique.

While contemporary architecture is encouraged according to the guidelines- this site alone demands it. The architectural approach is the only honest, and thus long-lasting integrity -oriented method which bridges a twentieth century building type like a parking garage /transportation terminal into a nineteenth century environment.

The approach balances a clarity and honesty regarding the building’s purpose with the need to allow the façade to fulfill its role as definer of the street wall and thus public space. The challenge is to calibrate its iconography to the context. The design is carefully choreographed to be contextual on every level by;
 The selection of compatible materials
 The alignment with adjacent façade and cornice height
 The careful study of rhythm and cadence of the Strand street walls
 The incorporation of street level retail and concomitant canopy
 The corner plaza that invests in the extension of the covered public realm of downtown

The materials proposed are long term investments- Terra cotta colored pre cast, Stainless Steel, Laminated Glass and custom sized storefront extrusions that far exceed in quality the most recently built projects on the street.
The Strand is a complex narrative that is robust enough to accommodate our building and reducing it to a Disneyland- like fragility of atmosphere is dishonest. It is a fragment of the past living in the present that can and can be nurtured back to vitality through compassionate modernism.