American studio SOM has created a "vertical campus" for the US Department of Transportation in Massachusetts that features aluminium fins on its sides and a landscape installation by designer Maya Lin.
Completed last year, the James A Volpe National Transportation Center brings all of the US Department of Transportation's (DOT) operations under one roof in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
It also serves as an innovation centre for the DOT, which has been operating since the 1970s.
SOM has designed a research facility for DOT in Cambridge, Massachusetts
SOM described the building as a "vertical campus" and said its architecture "puts the institution on display through several strategies."
It wanted its design for the transportation centre to open up the building to its surroundings, while still respecting security concerns by setting the structure back from the perimeter of the site. In the grass sections nearest the entrance-side street, designer Maya Lin created a series of undulating mounds.
The studio opted for a vertical approach to the building, landing on a 13-storey building with a wide base and a set-back tower. The tower is set back at different heights on each side.
It has a glass-and-aluminium facade
The first setback creates a greenspace directly on top of the base, while the second, higher setback forms an outdoor space that wraps around three sides of the tower's middle. For security reasons, the crown of the building had to be blast-res...