Location:  Gilroy, California.  Client:  California High Speed Rail Authority.  Project Team:  HNTB Corporation.  Urban Design and Planning Lead:  Rick Phillips, AICP, RA.  Station Architectural Lead:  Anko Chen, AIA  Status:  Urban integration exercise performed in 2016.

Description:  The Gilroy High Speed Rail Station will be located in downtown Gilroy adjacent to the historic Southern Pacific Depot and within a block of Gilroy’s historic Monterrey Boulevard commercial corridor. As a special demonstration in the successful interview that led to HNTB winning the project, Rick Phillips presented a “brainstorm” urban design analysis, integrating the historic downtown with the elevated station and rail corridor. The demonstration used a “mash-up” of hand-sketched images and “rapid prototyping” of urban forms and patterns, leveraging the 3-D modeling capabilities of the Google Earth platform.