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The LPOE at Rouses Point presents a Large Canopy, Main Building, and glazed Connector Bridge linking rail to road. Precedents are Claude-Nicolas Ledoux’s Barrière de Passy and Jean Prouvé’s Maison Tropicale. Barrière for its “weighty” permanence as a gate for the City of Paris and Maison Tropicale for its instrumental “lightness” and environmental “responsiveness”.
The Large Canopy marks the Port’s presence, an extruded section of the Main Building aligns with the Process (of Interview), the glazed Bridge speaks to an ideological idea of transparency. Passengers on the Bridge enjoy views north to the border, east to the Canopy and down to the Port entrance. While traversing the Bridge inbound visitors observe outbound visitors, assuring them of a welcome, safe and secure passage to the US.
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Situated on designated wetlands, constrained by a state highway, an international rail line and the US/Canadian Border, the project’s components were tightly aligned with, and built on, existing non-wetland road and rail Rights of Way. These constraints result in a narrow and elongated building section sequenced to match the in-bound passenger interview and vehicle inspection process. The glazed connector treads lightly on the existing wetlands presenting itself as a bridge.
In a “Handshake with Nature” every design decision is shaped by sustainability and eco-compatibility. As a building financed by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for the Land Ports of Entry, the project uses low embodied carbon materials and considers the Project’s short and long term ecological and environmental impacts.
Mass timber structural columns, beams, and CLT plank are utilized. Decorative acoustic and drywall ceilings are eliminated, replaced with acoustical plywood paneling where required. The building’s windows are louver shaded to mitigate solar gain and promote visibility.
The train platform is wind and sun protected while the “open-air” Connector is ventilated by staggered bi-passing window lites. It is radiant heated only when occupied in winter.
The large canopy, asymmetrically supported by trapezoidal pilons, signals openness and shelters all Port operations close to the multifaceted Headhouse. The companion Port Building, rendered in dark gray large precast panels presents a monumental scale despite its actual narrow and compact footprint complementing its large canopy.
The Port’s continuous strip windows with exterior louvers mimic the knife edge of the large canopy drawing the two Port components, the Canopy and Port Building, together.
Security requirements for the train platform and Connector Bridge serving rail passengers are balanced with a sense of openness and visual connection to the adjacent wetland and woodland landscapes.
As a gateway to the United States, SM+H chose to demonstrate a welcoming experience to visitors and returning citizens by presenting a visibly (and physically) accessible facility, using “green” materials and designing an all-electric facility showcasing the US Government’s commitment to reduce Global Warming.
The SM+H design for the Port of Entry at Rouses Point resolves the complexity of a multimodal transit hub program, constrained by a tight wetland site, into an elegant and welcoming experience for visitors to the United States. The train platform and glass enclosed connector bridge are sensitively designed for minimal impact on the wetland landscape. Passenger vehicles and cyclists are welcomed by a large-scale canopy adjacent to a new meadow landscape. David Polk, GSA Regional Chief Architect
Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects founded by Laurie Hawkinson and Henry Smith-Miller, is a multi-disciplinary architecture and design firm interested in the role(s) that Architecture can play in a Nation’s Culture, creating structures that project an environmentally responsible and optimistic future.
Across the United States and abroad, Smith-Miller + Hawkinson has designed and built projects including government facilities, workplaces, transportation terminals, academic buildings, research centers, technology innovation hubs, cultural facilities, museums, performing arts centers and parks.
The practice “anticipates change and invites alteration, often brings in rather than leaves out, questions the priorities of style and taste, constructs a cycle of repair and discovery and seeks to make the permanent temporary, and to have no end in sight”.
- text from “Imperfect Utopia” a collaborative project for the North Carolina State Museum of Art, with Barbara Kruger, artist
