View from below of a suspended airplane model in a modern, multi-level building with curved balconies and a circular skylight.

August 7, 2026

Words: Peter Webster

6 Transportation Projects That Redefine The Future Of Mobility

Planes, trains, and automobiles—six recent North American projects show the continent’s love affair with mobility isn’t slowing down.

These Stellar Designs Take Transportation To New Heights

  • Indoor light rail station with an incoming train on the left, an escalator leading up, and various directional signs overhead.
    Photography A-Frame, courtesy of Arcadis.
  • People walk past a colorful geometric mural and fare gates in a modern, brightly lit subway station.
    Photography A-Frame, courtesy of Arcadis.
  • A person sits on an orange bench in a modern subway station, with people walking and colorful geometric art on the walls in the background.
    Photography A-Frame, courtesy of Arcadis.
  • Colorful abstract tile mural decorates the wall above a modern subway platform with escalators, signs, and people waiting or walking.
    Photography A-Frame, courtesy of Arcadis.
  • Modern subway station with empty train tracks, concrete walls, and large graphic text posters on the upper wall. Overhead signs for elevator and accessibility are visible.
    Photography A-Frame, courtesy of Arcadis.
  • Modern airport interior with white walls, escalators, and signs directing to street, train, and taxi. Several people walking or standing. Large circular artwork decorates the right wall.
    Photography A-Frame, courtesy of Arcadis.

arcadis

project Line 5 Eglinton, Toronto.

standout Built to serve more than 100,000 daily riders, the city’s largest transit expansion in decades delivers 15 underground stations conceived as civic spaces as much as transportation infrastructure. A cohesive design language across the system—warm material palettes, open sightlines, integrated daylight, and consistent wayfinding graphics anchored by signature Eglinton Orange—stitches the 12-mile line together while allowing each station to retain its own neighborhood character. A modular 60-inch framework for wall, floor, and ceiling tiles ensures visual consistency, ease of maintenance, and long-term adaptability. Barrier-free throughout, the stations incorporate tactile guidance, braille signage, and acoustic treatments. Public art by local talents and integrated retail further position the line as a lasting urban asset.

“One station required relocating a 4,000-ton landmarked building—among the largest structural moves ever undertaken in Canada—to enable underground construction”

  • Modern airport terminal with angular roof, large glass windows, and vertical fins at sunset. An airplane is taking off in the clear blue sky above the building.
    Photography Jason O’Rear.
  • People sit and wait in an airport departure lounge with large windows, modern seating, and sunlight streaming in from outside.
    Photography Jason O’Rear.
  • Two people with luggage stand by large airport windows, with an airplane tail and terminals visible outside on a sunny day.
    Photography Jason O’Rear.
  • A person sits by large windows at an airport, reading, with a yellow airplane visible on the tarmac outside.
    Photography Jason O’Rear.
  • A commercial airplane flies above a modern building with angled golden panels and large glass windows under a clear blue sky.
    Photography Jason O’Rear.

woods bagot

project Midfield Satellite Concourse South, Los Angeles International Airport.

standout Timed to expand capacity ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, this 150,000-square-foot addition to Tom Bradley International Terminal delivers eight new narrowbody gates—and a construction story as striking as its architecture. Rather than build on the active airfield, nine modular segments were fabricated 1.75 miles away, then hauled overnight on self-propelled modular transporters and assembled on-site, keeping disruption to a minimum. The completed concourse draws on California’s Case Study Houses for its interior logic: horizontal ceiling slats, floor-to-ceiling glazing, and an emphatic outward orientation toward the surrounding landscape. On the exterior, an angled brise-soleil—its slats decreasing in length diagonally across each volume, shading the upper half while leaving the lower glazing exposed—gives the facade both its solar performance and movie-ready visual identity.

“Demountable seismic joints and coordinated utility infrastructure mean the entire concourse can, if needed in the future, be disassembled and relocated”

  • A woman stands at a counter in an airport terminal, looking at her phone. A digital flight information board is mounted on the wall nearby.
    Photography Eric Laignel.
  • A person with a suitcase stands at the entrance of United Club Fly, an airline lounge, inside an airport terminal.
    Photography Eric Laignel.
  • Modern airport lounge with a blue-accented snack and coffee counter, shelves with drinks and snacks, and a digital flight information display on the wall.
    Photography Eric Laignel.
  • Person with a suitcase walking through an airport boarding gate, facing away from the camera, with digital screens and recycling bins visible.
    Photography Eric Laignel.
  • Person with dark hair, light green jacket, and white pants walks indoors pulling a small rolling suitcase past a bronze column and textured dark vertical wall panels.
    Photography Eric Laignel.

rottet studio

project United Club Fly, George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Houston.

standout A grab-and-go touchdown rather than a traditional sit-and-linger lounge, this 2,500-square-foot space in Terminal B redefines what a premium airport stopover can be for travelers with little time to spare. Clear sightlines and intuitive zoning keep the compact footprint feeling open and legible, while sculptural lighting adds spatial generosity overhead and swaths of United blue reinforce the brand. Warm wood, stone, textiles, and metallic accents strike a well-judged balance between durability and refinement. The strongest move is a dynamic wall that displays the airline’s name as a part of a moving pattern of lights, functioniong as both art installation and identity marker.

“Seamlessly integrating technology, ergonomics, and performance, the design transforms the club into a refined, efficient sanctuary where time, space, and brand unite”

  • View from below of a suspended airplane model in a modern, multi-level building with curved balconies and a circular skylight.
    Alaska Airlines Global Training Center in Renton, Washington, by NBBJ. Photography: Sean Airhart.
  • Two model airplanes hang from the ceiling in a bright, modern space with large windows and sunlight streaming in.
    Photography Sean Airhart.
  • Four airplane windows on a plain wall, each showing a different aerial view of landscapes and cityscapes through the glass.
    Photography Sean Airhart.
  • A modern exhibition space features interactive displays, informational panels, and visitors observing models and exhibits under bright lighting.
    Photography Sean Airhart.
  • Modern lobby of Alaska Airlines headquarters with a central reception desk, large staircase, wood ceiling accents, and several people walking or using the stairs.
    Photography Sean Airhart.
  • Person walking through a glass door labeled “Flight Op,” under a light wood frame, with a “2 West” sign and tall, vertical wall panels in the background.
  • Numerous airline baggage tags with barcodes and three-letter airport codes are arranged vertically and horizontally in a dense grid pattern on a wall.
    Photography Sean Airhart.

nbbj

project Alaska Airlines Global Training Center, Renton, Washington.

standout A 600,000squarefoot, 1990s lowrise has been recast as a training hub that gathers 18 staff groups under one roof. The soaring atrium lobby—lined with 576 precision-cut, white-oak slats and hung with a suspended aircraft—establishes the ambition of the retrofit. Beyond it, a sequence of purposebuilt spaces supports everything from pilots logging simulator hours to flight attendants practicing emergency evacuations. Aviation DNA is embedded via installations composed of recycled seatbelts, life vests, galley locks, and marshaling wands, while a series of backlit fuselage-frame “windows” pairs aerial photography with a sense of movement. A fully adaptable, 500seat dining hall anchors the social heart of the employee-focused facility.

“Organized around the idea of navigation, the three-wing layout is divided into intuitive pathways and destinations”

  • Modern two-story building with large glass windows and horizontal wooden slats. A light blue convertible and a red car are parked outside on a paved driveway at sunset.
    Photography Glen Allsop.
  • A blue sports car is parked inside a spacious garage, with various other colorful sports cars lined up along the walls and a glass-walled room visible above.
    Photography Glen Allsop.
  • Two white vintage sports cars are parked indoors on a polished concrete floor, with a large horse-shaped lamp in the foreground and modern ceiling lights above.
    Photography Glen Allsop.
  • A classic red Mini Cooper is parked indoors beside a yellow staircase with modern lighting and a large window.
    Photography Glen Allsop.
  • Modern lounge with green sofas, wooden tables, armchairs, large windows with sheer curtains, and pendant lights, overlooking a garden area outside.
    Photography Glen Allsop.

marc thorpe design + architecture 

project Shore Car Club, Ocean Township, New Jersey.

standout A members-only haven for automobile obsessives, the 40,000- square- foot, two-story building’s ground floor is given over almost entirely to a climate-controlled storage facility for nearly 110 classic, exotic, and collector cars, supplemented by 14 private garages and two indoor wash bays. Dubbed the Gallery, the vast double-height space can be viewed through generous glass reveals on the floor above, which houses the social amenities. These include a library, game room, full kitchen, private dining room, two planted terraces, and an open-plan lounge with a central bar—the latter clad in black-and-white terrazzo tile and flanked by Front Design’s life-size equine floor lamp that’s like a witty nod to the horsepower under the hoods of its stablemates.

“More than a car club, the enclave positions itself as a cultural platform for artists, designers, musicians, writers, and chefs—bringing a new kind of hub to the Jersey Shore”

  • A purple light rail train passes modern glass buildings and older brick architecture on a city street lined with trees.
    Photography by Bryan Tarnowski.
  • A modern white office building with vertical blue glass windows, trees in front, and people sitting on benches along the sidewalk.
    Photography by Matt Winquis.
  • A city street scene viewed from above, showing a white and purple bus stopped near a modern glass building, with some trees and people visible nearby.
    Photography by Bryan Tarnowski.
  • A purple tram stops at Van Buren/Central Ave station in front of a modern glass building; one person stands on the platform.
    Photography by Bryan Tarnowski.

multistudio

project Central Station, Phoenix.

standout On a 2.6-acre downtown site, an underperforming bus station and light-rail interchange has been remade as a 1 million-square-foot civic anchor for one of America’s fastest-growing city cores. Two residential towers—33 stories of market-rate units and a 22-story student-housing block—rise from a base conceived as open plaza rather than fortified podium, with bus bays, rail stops, bike facilities, retail, and shaded seating woven together so that transit riders become part of its social life. The towers’ gleaming white synthetic-stucco facades, excellent heat reflectors, are articulated by slab extensions every fourth floor supporting vertical fins on the more forgiving north and south exposures, tightening to self-shading panels on the harsher east and west—cool never looked chicer.

“By retaining city ownership of the land while commercial interests deliver the vertical development, the project demonstrates how public-private partnerships can achieve density without sacrificing mission”

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