The overall strategy for the former Concordia Norte Station site is based on two premises:
- Optimize the efficiency and minimize the urban impact of transportation infrastructure.
- Maximize the quantity and quality of new public space.
Bus and train access points are located on the northern portion of the site. The smallest possible area is allocated to circulation and maneuvering, achieving the greatest operational efficiency.
Tte. Ibáñez Street is proposed as the main urban connection between both sides of the site, and it also concentrates all access to the Station via public transport, private transport, and on foot.
The Public Park is defined as a cultural construction that reinforces Concordia’s identity and creates a new destination within the city; it is defined by three basic characteristics:
- The reinterpretation of the organic character of the Entre Ríos landscape, with its gentle rolling hills and the richness of its native flora.
- The site’s railway history and the logic of its geometries and materials.
- The need to house and enhance the cultural and recreational expressions typical of city life.
The soil excavated from the underground parking lot is reshaped into a series of rolling mounds that create a new topography on the site, helping to define use zones and landscapes.
A series of paths that take on the geometry of the old train tracks run through the entire site, creating an open circulation network that relates to the surrounding urban fabric. This network of straight and curved paths enables a variety of routes and emergent uses, using the diagonal crossing of the site and the joining of curves as the geometric devices that organize it.
Within this system of paths sits a large central esplanade that serves as the venue for large public gatherings (festivals, parades, carnivals), reinforcing Concordia’s tourist appeal.
Beneath this large esplanade is the underground parking lot, taking advantage of the fact that vegetation cannot be placed above it.
One of the existing sheds (the one of greatest architectural interest) is reused. Once restored and relocated, it is proposed for use as a bar and Center for Contemporary Expressions, housing non-traditional artistic expressions.
In certain areas of the Park, the old track bed literally rises up to four meters in height to form a pergola of rails and sleepers that engages in dialogue with the site’s railway memory and creates an unprecedented landscape experience. It is also taken into account that pergolas can provide shaded areas far more quickly than trees can.
Priority is given to the use of native vegetation, achieving a sustainable ensemble that respects the site’s conditions. In different areas of the Park, different plant groupings generate landscape situations of varying type and density.
In the “Jardín de las Américas” plaza, more palm trees are proposed to be planted, creating an area resembling the native palm groves of Entre Ríos.
A new paved surface unifies the plaza’s scattered elements and, in turn, relates to the park’s path system.
The old train station building is restored to its original state. The new expansion unbalances its symmetry and enriches its volumetry. With the Multi-Purpose Hall annex, the aim is for the activities it houses to keep its former importance alive.
The Transportation Station is defined based on its functionality. The gentle angle the train describes as it enters the site allows for better use of the platform lengths and the maneuvering areas.
In turn, the oblique relationship between the buildings creates a void between the two stations that serves as an atrium and connection, enriching the experience of arriving in and departing from the city of Concordia. The park extends into the void between the buildings, creating the Traveler’s Plaza, where the bar and waiting areas find room to expand. This new urban space also serves as an independent access point to the station’s commercial and service sector.
Each building has a clear, compact functioning, generating smooth circulation flows.