TxDOT Wichita County Rest Stop

HCA was contracted by the Texas Department of Transportation to design a new Safety Rest Area in Iowa Park just outside of Wichita Falls that replaces the original small restroom buildings and picnic structures from the 1950’s.  The regionally aesthetic designs of these new Safety Rest Areas throughout the state are intended to draw public interest in the buildings and entice drivers to stop by to experience the architecture, thus providing a break in their driving time and mitigating dangerous driving fatigue.

For the Wichita Falls Safety Rest Area, HCA spent several trips to the site to document the existing conditions of the assigned sites (one Northbound and one Southbound facility) and touring the historic Wichita Falls downtown and it’s surrounding areas to pick up inspiration for regionally-inspired design clues.  On these trips, and in subsequent research efforts, we began to note the abundance of delicate and sometimes intricate brick masonry design on a number of the older buildings.  These also tended towards common red and light tan colors.  The area is also known for its ranching and homesteading heritage, oil boom days and industrial expansion.

Our design centered around a traditional “dog-trot” plan concept, with functional blocks on either end of the building separated by an enclosed glass central area and supporting a single, continuous roof structure.  In deference to the mid-century modern design of the original restroom structures that include clerestory gaps above the walls for ventilation below their flat roof structures, we included clerestory glass at the wall-to-roof connections that floats a majority of the “V” roof design.  We selected a matching tan brick color prevalent in the Historic District of Wichita Falls and developed a unique brick pattern for the end masses of the building as a nod to the amazing historic brick masonry work in the area.  The floors are polished concrete with exposed aggregate sourced from a long-standing local gravel quarry.  We used Cross-laminated timber panels for the roof deck over exposed black steel structure, providing for an amazingly quick installation and resulting in a beautiful finished wood interior deck.  Exposed steel slatted canopies and picnic arbors provide partial shade and intricate shadow patterns on the surrounding surfaces as the sun moves during the day.  In the evening, embedded ground-lighting washes the undulating brick surfaces, providing a unique and dynamic visual pattern as a beacon for passing drivers.