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Commercial Skytrain Station

Location: Vancouver B.C.
Client: Rapid Transit Project 2000 Ltd.
Architect: VIA Architecture Inc.
Awards: Winner of the 2002 CISC Steel Design Award - Architectural Division

Located on the north side of the Grandview Cut between Commercial Drive and the Broadway bridges, Commercial Station is the major transfer point from the Millennium Line to the existing Expo Line Broadway station and the 99B rapid bus service. Whereas most of the Skytrain track is elevated, this station had to run beneath the existing line.

The station's curved roof, timber beams and the tree forms of the station's column/beam connections create soft, organic images that complement the surrounding community and the Cut.

Glotman Simpson kept it light, yet engineered it strong and tough, by designing a ductile concrete frame containing closely spaced, specifically detailed rebar. Usually, structures have shear walls or braces to give them lateral stability. In this case, all the seismic and wind resistance is provided by the concrete moment frame. Initial calculations suggested the station columns would need to be more than a metre in diameter. That would curtail the movement of passengers on the platform. Strength was needed mainly in the longitudinal direction, so the columns were designed to be lozenge-shaped.

The unique location of the Commercial Street Station also led to some substantial reinforcing. Because it perches on the side of the ravine next to an active railway line, the structure required the installation of a crash wall, to protect the station against the impact of a train in the unlikely event of a derailment. About 2.5 feet thick, approximately 6 feet tall and extending nearly 4 feet below grade, this massive bulwark forms the outer length of the station foundation, which is essentially a long rectangular cast-in-place concrete box set into the hillside.