The Metro Service & Inspection Facility supports the new Metro Light Rail East End Corridor Line connecting the historic east side of Houston to the Central Business District.

 

The multi-functional facility has four distinct areas: service & inspection area for light rail vehicles (LRV), LRV operators’ area, administrative area, and community meeting area.

 

The design of the facility required careful consideration in integrating the functions of the facility in such a way as to visually express the various activities while simultaneously providing circulation that separates the functions in order to provide maximum functionality, security, and safety.

 

The public area features fritted glass exterior walls with an aluminum framed public entrance, providing natural lighting by day and an activity revealing translucent appearance in the evening.

 

The second floor operators’ area is designed to indicate motion and to emphasize the visual and electronic monitoring of the East End Corridor’s LRVs.

 

The administrative area is more secluded, as indicated by the façade’s punched windows.

 

The service and inspection area is an industrialized space with pits and steel grate mezzanines.  The configuration allows the LRV’s to be serviced from below, ground level, and above.

 

Sustainability is achieved through the use of double pane low-e tinted glass, reflective roofing, aluminum louvers, HVAC design, natural ventilation, and a powder coated aluminum grate for: screening, building graphics, and to reflect the industrial quality of the service and inspection space.