More than a light rail station, the Sound Transit’s University of Washington Station, designed by LMN Architects, adds multiple facets to the urban fabric at the intersection of Montlake Boulevard and Pacific Street.
Photography: Kevin Scott
Knitting together transportation modalities from bike to bus to pedestrians to trains, the multi-disciplinary design of the 156,000-square-foot station creates a unified mobility solution at a problematic street intersection, one of the busiest in Seattle, and provides a unique gateway to the UW campus through its above and below-grade experiences.

The project includes a train platform 100 feet underground, accessed by escalators and elevators from a two-level glass entrance structure at grade. Along the way, users pass through a tall, vertical circulation chamber featuring “Subterraneum,” an art installation by Leo Saul Berk, who worked with LMN to blend architecture and sculpture in expressing the geological layers of soil surrounding the station walls. Photography: Kevin Scott
The station’s new bicycle and pedestrian bridge — with stairs, escalators, and ramps connecting both levels of the entrance structure — curves gently as it spans over Montlake Boulevard to land on the university campus.

Each element of the project is carefully considered as a component of a larger whole, set within a complex web of uses that encompasses the campus, the surrounding neighborhoods, and important universit...