Our team has been deeply involved in the expansion of TransLink’s SkyTrain rapid transit system since 2016. The firm has provided planning, architecture, and community stakeholder engagement, including the “vision integration plan” for the owner’s engineering team, during concept development and business casing. In 2018, VIA served as lead architect for the 30-percent design concept for the new Surrey-Langley Expo line, an 8-station, 16-kilometer advanced light rail system.

This alignment will connect Surrey Metro Centre, Fleetwood Town Centre, and Langley City Centre with fully automated rapid transit, connecting people to more housing, employment, schools, and services, and encouraging higher-density mixed-use development around planned SkyTrain stations.

Working as part of the owner’s engineering team, we supported alignment alternatives and location and configuration for each station, working to integrate the project into sensitive contexts such as the Green Timbers Urban Forest, the Agricultural Land Reserve (Serpentine Valley), and existing low- to mid-density residential neighborhoods.

The design team worked directly with transit authorities and city staff to hold urban design workshops that informed our conceptual design, which is aimed to make public transit investment an opportunity for placemaking at civic locations.

This project was designed by VIA prior to becoming a Perkins Eastman Studio.