Viking Lines

Bruce D. Nagel Architect @ Nagel + Lesser Architects

• Bruce Nagel (BN+PA - Managing Partner) - Project Architect
• Photographer - Louis Checkman

Viking Lines is a mixed-function commercial project located in Montauk, New York with a projected construction start of mid-1989.

The core of Viking Lines is a ferry terminal for fishermen and day-trip passengers going to Block Island. Containing ground floor ticketing and support facilities and a second floor company office, the terminal is the rotated element with an entry kiosk that addresses arrival from the main street intersection, thereby emphasizing its symbolic municipal role.

A restaurant with a second floor bar occupies the far end of the building away from the street. Between these two anchor elements, first and second floor retail and office space is strung out on a circulation system that serves as an observation deck and encloses a piazza-like open space with seat-sized steps for watching arriving and departing boats.

The gable-volume shed forms, derived from traditional fish pier buildings, are twisted, sliced and slid to identify special program, to introduce circulation zones and to respond to site pressures. And the sheds are decorated with inviting symbols - the entry kiosk, the gateway arch, the crane-like elevator, the big shark, and the sign & light bar suturing up the front facade – all of which hint, by their likeness to the decorations on amusement piers, that this place is as much one of festival as of transportation.