Seattle Monorail Station Concepts

Built in 1962, the Seattle Monorail opened to the public as part of several key expositions for that year’s World Fair. Since then, the monorail has primarily run as a tourist attraction between Westlake and Seattle Center. However, with the exponential growth of Uptown and Key Arena in recent years (and more development planned for the future), there has been a push to reimagine the monorail as viable means of public transit infrastructure; to improve access, service and aesthetics.

In light of these developments, Fast + Epp assisted in the concept design of 19 monorail stations and the guideway supports for the proposed Seattle Monorail Green Line. Each station had a unique and expressive design to reflect the surrounding neighbourhood.

Complementing the station designs were highly sculptural guideway supports, nicknamed the “Iris” for their curvilinear form. These guideway supports were designed to easily respond to the varying topography and alignments along the transit line.