Looks Like a Tiny Little Pottery Barn

Fortunately, it won't cost us anything to fix shelters -- all that maintenance stuff is paid for by CBS Outdoor, the vendor, since they make so much money on the advertising.

I agree that these models, while nice, seem to ignore the fact that bus shelters in SF take lots of abuse. Even if CBS Outdoor pays the tab for maintenance, it's still wasteful to build fancy Pottery-Barn-esque shelters with frosted glass. They should wise up and just make them functional, with vandal-resistant materials and possibly guard dogs.

It's great to see everyone is thinking ahead to how the shelters will stand up to abuse, but it's not fair to just pass the buck when it comes to maintenance off to the vender.

I'm pretty sure Muni is getting a cut of the profit, include a share from the power generated by the shelters, which means maintenance costs will cut into Muni funding. And even if you have something against big corporate venders, or any of these companies in particular because I know a lot of readers have a stick-it-to-the-man sentiment, remember the more materials which need to be replace, the larger their carbon footprint is going to be.

And Just to clarify, CBS outdoors is one of three companies competing for the contract and the shelter MattyMatt included in this story is not one of their designs.

where do i vote "they all suck"?

as for the maintenance/$$/abuse debate: it has to be glass because otherwise it would be an ugly, dark, cramped box.

oviously it's smart of them to have taken out the pay phone, but it would be cool if they could work an emergency phone (like on the highway) into the design.

No, it doesn't have to be glass. Some Caltrain stations (e.g. Sunnyvale, for example) have shelters that are basically attractive wire mesh. They let the air and light through yet have a roof that provides shelter from rain.

And if somebody comes along and sprays graffiti all over 'em, they can be properly (and cheaply) painted over the next day.

I'm all for MUNI shelters made of glass in areas that don't have big vandalism issues, but some areas (Tenderloin, Sixth Street, etc.) it'd be a huge shame to put up these cute shelters only to see them demolished regularly by the local crazies.

They are not all bad. My favorite is the one with the wrinkled top and foggy glass (1H).

Glass is good. It allows the city to be seen, brings in light and provides shelter and an approximation of safety.

If you are a transit shelter design geek, you recognize the 2B1 and 2B2 as versions of the one Nicholas Grimshaw did for The New York City Department of Transportation. I'm sure that his designs can withstand SF crazies, if they are good enough for NY crazies. But do we want hand me down shelter designs from the east coast? I think not.

The "pottery barn" (it is more scandinavyish than pottery barn) shelter sits a little heavy, but I like the idea of using wind turbines to harness SF's windy streets to power the shelter lighting.