Lynnwood City Center Station
Sound Transit

Location

Lynnwood, Washington

Owner

Sound Transit

Collaborators +

Project Size

12,384 square feet

Project Status

Completed

Certifications

Certified LEED Transit Gold

Services

Architecture, Planning, Urban Design

Since 1996, the Seattle metropolitan region has been developing one of the largest transit systems in the country with its Sound Transit Link light rail. Now, Sound Transit is expanding north with the Lynnwood Link Extension, connecting existing stations at Sea-Tac Airport, downtown Seattle and the University of Washington with Snohomish County. The extension includes four new multimodal stations, with an approved fifth infill station under construction. LMN served as architectural design lead for the extension, led design oversight across all station architecture, and was primary architect on three stations.

Lynnwood City Center is the northernmost station on the extension, knitting into an automobile-oriented zone that is rapidly densifying into a district of commercial and multifamily residential developments. The station includes a series of plazas that serve as an amenity and organizing feature within the neighborhood, offering multiple station access points and connecting to Scriber Creek, the existing bus transit hub, and nearby commercial activities. The station creates a multimodal transit node, linking light rail with enhanced bus, vehicle, and bike networks and the nearby Interurban Trail. The elevated station straddles the I-5 access ramp, utilizing changes in the topography to lower the guideway and nestle the station entries into the site, decreasing its overall massing and screening the new, detached five-story parking garage. Blue elevator towers and perforated metal-clad stair and escalator runs provide distinct circulation paths to the station platform, while a peach-colored platform canopy provides weather protection and distinguishes the station within the larger network. The peach and blue accents reflect Lynnwood’s identity and city colors, while the pattern of the metal panel screening is inspired by the rings of the Western Red Cedar tree. Artworks by regional artists animate the station, including a series of neon road sign-inspired sculptures by Claudia Fitch, platform windscreens with imagery inspired by artist Preston Singletary’s Tlingit heritage, and five colorful tail-track column banners by Lynnwood artists Long Gao and Sam Trout. Lynnwood City Center Station has been certified LEED Transit Gold, the first station in Sound Transit’s Link light rail system to achieve this rating.