Phoenix sky train
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On 8 April, 2013, HOK joined airport and community representatives in celebrating the opening of Stage 1 of the new PHX Sky Train™, one of the worlds’s most advanced and energy-efficient automated people movers. The all-electric PHX Sky Train™ is the result of eight-year collaboration between the Los Angeles office of international architecture firm HOK and transportation design and engineering firm Gannett Fleming. 1.7-mile route linking Phoenix’s METRO light-rail station with the airport’s economy parking structure and the 88-gate Terminal 4. It is expected that 2.5 million passengers will ride Stage 1 in the first year of operation. By bringing transit directly into one of the nation’s busiest and most urban airports - Sky Harbor is located just three miles from downtown Phoenix - the PHX Sky Train™ serves as more than just a hub for smart transit or transit-oriented development. By better connecting Phoenix’s growing downtown with Sky Harbor it establishes a new framework for the city’s long-term growth. HOK designed the new 44th Street station, the station inside Terminal 4 and an outdoor station in the economy parking area. The simple beauty of aircraft design inspired the architectural form of the 44th Street station, which provides an iconic public gateway to the airport. The elliptical form of the station, while easily identifiable, is more than a symbolic gesture. Because the shape is structurally more efficient, it allows for a 30% reduction in steel when compared to more conventional structures. This was a significant carbon footprint-reducing measure. The elliptical shell also functions as a high-performance envelope, protecting passengers from the extremes of the desert climate. Set between this envelope and below the platform is the covered, open-air breezeway. The entire project has achieved a rating of LEED-NC Gold, making it the first automated people mover system to receive such a rating.
HOK