10.6.09 | Los Angeles, CA | Santa Monica's Big Blue Buses have finally rolled into their new environmentally friendly maintenance facility designed by the Los Angeles Office of HOK.

The new 66,000-sq.-ft. facility incorporates numerous sustainable features including the use of high-albedo concrete -- a highly reflective concrete paving -- in the vehicle maintenance yard used to keep the facility's microclimate cooler; 80-kilowatt photovoltaic panels on the roof; an urban runoff system to filter storm water; electric vehicle charging stations; open repair bays designed and oriented to take advantage of the natural breezes and natural sunlight, resulting in a facility which uses little or no air conditioning.

These improvements in sustainable design will enable the City of Santa Monica to reduce energy costs by up to 15 percent per year. The new facility also incorporates many of the strategies identified by the City's Office of Sustainability and the Environment building guidelines.

"This project has exceeded our expectations, both in its environmental and functional design and in its overall execution," says Santa Monica City manager P. Lamont Ewell. "This new facility and its increased capacity yard will allow the Big Blue Bus to smoothly transition into the future so we can better serve the community for many years to come."

"The design of the Big Blue Bus Facility had to fulfill many different needs of the City," says Ernest Cirangle, senior vice president, design principal, for HOK. "The new maintenance building was necessary for Big Blue Bus to expand its current bus fleet size to better serve the surrounding communities, be a distinctive landmark for the City, and a showcase for the Big Blue Bus transportation program and the City's commitment to sustainability."

The facility contains a new bus maintenance building, bus parking, and a maintenance yard to accommodate a diverse fleet of 204 buses. City employees will be able to maintain and repair up to 20 buses a day at the site which has three extended bays to service the new 60-ft. articulated buses and two bays dedicated to maintaining Santa Monica Fire Department vehicles. The facility will operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The dynamic blue wall along the length of Colorado Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets was a collaborative design between architect and artist. Designed by Ernest Cirangle, the wall is a series of curved segments composed of deep blue glass and silver metal. The wall incorporates a new bus stop, a public art piece by artist Dan Corson, and creates a pedestrian friendly urban edge along the northern side of the Big Blue Bus facility. 

According to Corson, "The Digital Divide is an artwork utilizing special glass that switches between transparency and translucency in milliseconds. The glass wall is a deep frosted blue curving surface that becomes transparent deep blue through individually controlled panels. Dynamic sequences will be programmed into the wall to create ever-moving dynamic patterns, coded messages and visual jazz."