Custom Bus Shelters

Custom bus shelters are designed from the ground up to match heritage districts, campus master plans, brand-controlled streetscapes, and one-off architectural sites where a stock catalogue product won't pass design review. BusShelters.ca's in-house design studio runs the project from schematic through shop drawings, CSA-stamped engineering, fabrication, and installation supervision — typically a 14–22 week programme.

Custom work begins with a design intent meeting where we capture the architectural language (timber-frame, all-glass, perforated cor-ten, terrazzo bench surrounds, integrated public art), the site context (heritage easement, campus master plan, transit-oriented development), the functional brief (heated, smart, accessible, advertising), and the budget envelope. We deliver 3 schematic options at week 2, a single developed design at week 4, and stamped construction documents at week 8. Materials we've used in past custom programmes include western red cedar timber-frame, fritted laminated glass, weathering steel (Cor-Ten A/B), anodized bronze aluminum, terrazzo benches, and glass-fibre-reinforced concrete (GFRC) roofs.

Engineering is stamped by a P.Eng. licensed in the destination province for snow load (NBCC 2020 Ss), wind load (q1/50), seismic Sa values (BC, QC), and footing design to local frost depth. Where the design pushes outside catalogue glazing, we model the IGU thermally and structurally and run a FEM analysis on the frame; expect 2–4 weeks of additional engineering for non-rectilinear geometries.

Past custom programmes include heritage-district shelters in Old Montréal, Old Québec, Gastown (Vancouver), and Distillery District (Toronto); campus shelters at University of Toronto, McGill, UBC, and Université Laval; and brand-controlled installations for Pearson Airport, YVR, MTLPort, and Halifax Stanfield. Pricing typically lands $25,000–$60,000+ per shelter depending on materials and quantity.

Project pricing, milestones, and warranty

Custom programmes are fixed-fee per milestone rather than time-and-material: schematic design $8,500–$14,000, developed design $12,000–$22,000, construction documents $18,000–$45,000 (or rolled into per-unit unit pricing on quantity orders of 10+ shelters), fabrication and installation per shelter $25,000–$60,000+. Milestones are billed 30% on schematic acceptance, 30% on developed-design sign-off, 30% on fabrication start, 10% on substantial completion — the standard CCDC 2 progress-billing format used across Canadian public-sector procurement. Warranty matches our standard product line at 10 years structure / 5 years glazing and bench / 2 years lighting, with bespoke materials (timber, Cor-Ten, GFRC, terrazzo) carrying their respective material-house warranties pass-through. We also provide 5-year design-defect coverage on custom geometry — if the FEM model ever disagrees with field reality, we cover the rework. A dedicated project manager runs each engagement from kickoff through commissioning, with weekly status calls, a shared Smartsheet dashboard, and a single named P.Eng. point of contact for every engineering question.