A block from the Allen Metro Station, along a mostly moribund, one-story, car-focused retail street, (Walnut Avenue), the design responded to the transit opportunity and proposed a positive reversal of density and pedestrian activation.

Given the scale of the site, a generous lining of sidewalk retail and courtyards proved feasible, while still allowing some internal surface parking, with the balance of the parking subterranean.

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The tonal and rhythmic brightness of the project is an intentional counterpoint to the suburban historic mimicry that has marked Pasadena's outer urban corridors.

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Dense only by Pasadena standards, the project offers a bell-weather thesis: Architecture along the region's still-stingy mass transit-ways can be a celebration of transparency and compact sustainability, accelerating human connectivity and human development.

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