SITE:
A former parking lot, a lowland against a background of mountains in a hot climate.

PROGRAM:
A plaza that functions also as a bus station. A clock tower should be visible from a distance, as a sign. Shade should be provided by overhangs and by an abundance of trees.

PROJECT:
Architecture from the ground up: the pavement folds up to make buildings and furniture; the floor of the site turns into roofs
To make continuous shade, trees are planted in rings: the concrete pavement is inscribed in three sets of concentric circles, like targets, alternating rings of red and beige like the soil of the American southwest -- here and there, the pavement folds up to make benches, leaving room for soil and ground-cover and trees.

The pavement spreads from the sidewalk onto the street. Each center of the three sets of circles is a vanishing point for buildings, built in forced perspective. As the pavement folds up to make a roof, another swathe of pavement – this one like brown soil – sweeps in. from the vanishing point, to make the floor.

At the entrance to the Transportation Center, the circular pavement folds up, accordion-like in multiple folds, to make a tower; one fold holds a clock that faces inward, toward theTransportation Center; as the pavement folds up, a cut-out is folded back, to make a doorway -- this fold holds a clock that faces outward, toward the street.

Throughout the Transportation Center, the circular pavement folds up to make the back walls and roofs of different buildings:at one end, a passenger services building, with glass walls (behind the building, pavement folds up to make benches that surround a food court); in the middle, an outdoor gathering place, left free for flexible use; around the edge, three bus shelters on one side and one on the other (inside each shelter, the pavement that comes in from the vanishing point folds up to make a bench). On all the buildings, as the pavement folds up a section of it is folded back, to make an alternate entrance and exit.

The folding pavement turns inward, to form a plaza, and outward, to meet transportation.