Albany Transportation Center
Albany, Georgia

Summary
The legacy of the civil rights movement in Albany figured into the plans for this transit hub that will not only improve transportation options, but help revitalize the city’s downtown area. As part of NBA’s context-sensitive design approach, the team met with community members, transportation stakeholders and city officials in an effort to preserve the aesthetic, historic, cultural, and environmental characteristics of the district. The architecture of the Albany Transportation Center harmonizes with the historical elements, while still communicating that ATS is a contemporary transit system. The facility, which houses a transfer island with 12 bays, Greyhound bus slips and terminal, operations and dispatch facilities, also features a computer lab accessible to the public. NBA has designed two exhibits for the multi-modal hub. A wall display inside the main lobby powerfully depicts the lunch-counter sit-ins staged at this former Trailways Bus Terminal in 1961. Just beyond, a plaza commemorates activist Ola Mae Quarterman, known as Albany’s Rosa Parks.