The Riverhead Transit Oriented Development responds to a need for the site to serve as both a catalyst for further redevelopment of a vast array of surface parkings lots nearby and as a linkage to the evolving town center and the underutilized Long Island Railroad Station and
associated intermodal transportation networks. Situated on one of these large parking lots occupying a full city block, the proposal prioritizes public space and amenity above all else by utilizing a series of building massings organized so as to articulate a dynamic civic central plaza as well as pedestrian access from all directions and all types of users. The proposal includes the implementation of strong street tree and street lighting programs that run
along key routes occupied by these additional sites to further tie the downtown together.
The main plaza is framed to the west by both residential and hotel functions and to the south by the community and cultural oriented building. Between these two is a pedestrian corridor activated on both sides by spill-out retail, food, and beverage establishments from the hotel
building and flexible market vendors, seasonal events and other communal functions able to spill out through large glass overhead doors of the market. The residential and hotel buildings offer a reference to the materiality of the masonry buildings of downtown while the cultural/community center responds to the gabled mass timber typologies of barns, event halls, and churches common to the area; both of which take these references and manifest them in a contemporary aesthetic. The cultural/community building is divided into two main large volumes that splay away from each other echoing the form of the two forks of Long Island that originate from the mouth of the river located at the heart of town. From here this space offers an interior stair that accesses an intimate glass widow’s-walk like space with an even higher vantage point for visitors to engage with that glows like a lantern, offering a visible local landmark for Riverhead.
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