Port Authority Bus Terminal International

Design + Delivery Competition

LERA was part of the design team for this submission to the Port Authority Bus Terminal International Design + Delivery Competition, which challenged teams to totally reimagine one of Manhattan’s most central transit hubs. The team’s design aimed to elevate the bus terminal from a mere transportation facility to the epicenter of urban life for a rapidly developing mixed-use neighborhood.

One of the alternatives under consideration was a top-down approach to rebuilding the terminal in place. By coordinating the build-in-place structural design with interim bus operations and necessary MEP equipment relocations, the design would limit top-down construction to the South Wing, and the number of new floors to be hung from trusses would be minimized. In addition, the use of concrete-filled high-strength steel trusses for the South Wing top-down construction would reduce the amount of steel required by 60%, as well as mitigating safety and operational risks associated with erection over the operating bus levels. New ramping and operational configurations created by the top-down solution would also allow for a more central configuration of the building infrastructure.