Walla Walla Transit Station

The Downtown Walla Walla Foundation and Valley Transit, in partnership with the Walla Walla Valley Farmers Market Association and the City of Walla Walla, today announced an international competition to design a transit center station that accommodates the growing Farmers Market presence at 4th and Main Streets. Details of the competition, which is open to all designers, architects, and urban planners, are available at http://www.wallawalladesign.com.

The program calls for a transit station, called Walla Walla Market Station, to accommodate Valley Transit’s bus operations while adding passenger waiting space, a retail operation, visitor information, and Farmers Market-related facilities. Farmers Market needs include expanded restrooms, storage, and the exploration of a community/demonstration kitchen.

Competition organizers encourage entrants to develop creative solutions incorporating great architecture, “sustainable design” solutions, and art. “We seek a design solution that adheres to the Downtown Master Plan and Design Standards, yet demonstrates that the goal of both is sensible development and good design. Ideally, we want to build a transit station that future generations will value and want to preserve much as we do the historic buildings downtown today.”

The City of Walla Walla has expressed support for a competition encouraging designers to creatively look at urban design solutions that move beyond the traditional view of the site. “Obviously parking is always a concern and consideration downtown, but inviting and entertaining new ideas and solutions is good policy.”

The project represents successful collaboration between the Foundation and Valley Transit in pursuing and successfully procuring grant funds to design a transit project that accommodates proposed Farmers Market expansion. Importantly, the competition provides the first chance for the Foundation to define its relationship with the recently formed Walla Walla Valley Farmers Market Association, who will run the market this season.

Larry Nelson, Downtown Walla Walla Foundation Vice President and former chair of the Foundation’s Farmers Market Committee (since 1997) expressed strong support of the collaboration. “A vibrant Farmers Market is great for downtown, and this project is an exciting chance to improve the means of bringing people downtown with transit and the goal of keeping them there to experience a state of the art Farmers Market facility.”

The competition, which features $19,000 in prize money, will draw attention from architects, urban planners and other design professionals. The public is invited to watch the project web site (http://www.wallawalladesign.com) evolve as entrants post design questions and see official replies. Early registration extends through mid-April, but late registration is available through the June competition deadline.

A distinguished panel of jurors will study the entries and award first round prize money of $16,000 at a gala public exhibit in June. A second round of competition among will award another $3,000 for the winning design, which will be announced in July, 2007.