Urban Design and Development of a Public Space at theCity of Kitchener’s Intermodal Transit Hub

Abstract

This thesis uses a case study design approach for the proposed Transit Hub for the City of Kitchener. It focuses on opportunities for a high quality public space or square to better integrate a new urban LRT line and a new regional GO/VIA rail station into the surrounding city. The conceptual framework of this thesis seeks to create a public space at a new transit hub in the city centre of Kitchener and to transform that space into a new place where people can experience intimate relationship between public life, infrastructure and people. T. Hall’s proxemics strategy, a non-contact communication that Within the City of Kitchener, much has already been done to establish the presence of urban design at the human scale, to integrate contemporary ideas into the design of buildings, and to enhance historic natural retreats like Victoria Park. Little has been done, a new intermodal transit hub in the heart of that growing downtown core. The design case study and its combination of both of those aspects will seek to create a healthy, people-oriented public and the heritage architecture of Kitchener’s industrial past, the case study demonstrates the typical situation facing most urban centres undertaking LRT and BRT transit expansion in Ontario.