The diminutive Newport Transit Station, on Highway 61 just southeast of St. Paul, is the first step in a much larger redevelopment project: it sits amid 300 acres of former industrial land that local officials hope will one day become a bustling mixed-use complex. Now a stop on an express-bus line, it is a future link to the Red Rock Corridor, a multimodal transport system that will connect the Twin Cities with their southeastern suburbs.

Completed in late 2014, the 1,900-square-foot station “needed to hold its own until the surrounding site was fully developed,” said Matthew Kreilich, principal at Minneapolis-based Snow Kreilich, the project’s architect. To that end, the firm created a long, gently sloping roof that shelters a climate-controlled, glass-enclosed indoor area and an open-air plaza. And, in order to make the station a space that would engage residents beyond its commuter base, the design team provided landscaping, seating, and other amenities that would encourage weekend uses such as a farmers market.