West Harbour GO Station

As the primary mobility hub for 2015 Pan Am Game events in Hamilton, this project served as a gateway to the city for citizens, athletes and spectators. Now finished, an urban plaza embellished with landscaped gardens, creates a forecourt to the main station building offering enriched opportunities for special events and casual use for the public.

Embedded in the notion of a transit hub is the organized collision of movement. This project utilizes the sculptural characteristics of steel to guide the movement of light, air and the flow of transit users while simultaneously creating a sense of place. The main façade of the station building punctuated by a perforated zinc screen, in concert with the skeletal structure of the bridge, offers vibrant patterns of light. The building itself operates as an urban scale sculpture, floating gently over the tree line and hovering at street level, 8m above the rail corridor.

Located adjacent to the historic CN Rail building on James Street North, the facility is designed as a landmark for the City of Hamilton, connecting the CN rail service to the U.S. and GO’s Lakeshore West corridor expansion along the main line. The building’s architectural features are scaled to integrate modestly with the neighbourhood setting while celebrating a contemporary engineering vocabulary.