Creating public space at a transit stop
Montclair is a city in the “Inland Empire” of California, built entirely since the second half of the 20th Century, so largely sprawling in its built form. It is also more than two-thirds Latino. The City was connected to commuter rail with the opening of the Montclair Transit Center in 1993, but this was mostly a drive-to service in the midst of suburbia.
A change occurred with the opening of the Village at Montclair, a transit-oriented development (TOD), in late 2025. The project is not big, just a couple of acres and 300 residential units. But it provides urban public spaces modeled on European cities—something Montclair was totally lacking.
The video below, produced by urban designers Torti Gallas + Partners, focuses on the human angle—what the redesign means to people living there. The site started out mostly as a sun-baked parking lot. It includes a green, a paseo, and a central fountain. The video, less than two minutes long, gives some insight into the thinking behind the design. The street proportions and block sizes were modeled on European cities, and the central paseo was inspired by the Piazza San Marco in Venice. “Our focus was on the pedestrian experience, whereas Southern California is very much car-oriented design everywhere,” says Kaitlin Morris, director of development for the Village Partners, the developer. Watch the video:
