As the blocks south of Market Street groan from the press of concrete and commotion, gridlock and cranes, there’s one island of near-tropical calm.

A bus station, no less.

The oasis is the Transbay temporary terminal at Howard and Beale streets, a block of awning-shaded bus stops amid palm trees that will be dismantled after the permanent station opens late next year. In the larger context of San Francisco and the Bay Area, the trade-off makes perfect sense. But I’ll miss it when it’s gone, if only as a reminder that cities can benefit from the light touch as well as the big move.

Six years after it opened, the temporary terminal remains inviting and fresh. It’s not just that the stops are clearly marked, or that AC Transit employees are deployed to help you get where you need to go (and keep you from jaywalking in front of a bus). It’s that the block feels orderly and calm — two emotions in short supply of late, at least in this part of town.

The sidewalks around it are generous, as is the central plaza with its 10 mature palms salvaged from AC Transit land in Fremont. People stand in single file as they wait for their buses to arrive. Buses stop for commuters in the internal crosswalks, and the regulars repay the favor.

“The lines can be confusing but everyone’s so civil,” said Fred Kaye of El Cerrito, waiting on Monday afternoon to catch the L. He could easily walk to BART from his home, but “I love my bus. You pay an extra 15 cents but you usually get a seat. And it doesn’t get too crowded if you do have to stand.”

When I reviewed the transportation pop-up in 2010, some readers complained that the vinyl canopies didn’t provide much in the way of protection from the (occasional winter) elements, given their angle and height. An AC Transit worker made the same comment to me on Monday. Kaye is more forgiving.

“Even when it’s raining it’s not really bad. You bring an umbrella,” he said. He’ll take the current scene over the feel of the thick-columned terminal demolished in 2011: “That to me was dark and filled with fumes. ... Standing here is nice. I enjoy it for the sun.”

If you don’t feel like sunbathing when the fog allows, soak in the flux of change. Glassy new towers flank it to the south and west, with another soon to rise on the north, yet the block itself is open and low. Across the way at Folsom and Beale streets, there’s a Philz Coffee that has been filled with customers since it opened last winter, proof that things here aren’t as remote as they seem. Populations will emerge when the lures are seductive or convenient enough.

You also can see the rounded rump of the terminal-to-be, perched on clusters of trunk-like columns above Beale between Minna and Natoma streets.

If the temporary terminal is a low-slung improvisation, the permanent structure scheduled to be completed by 2018 is the biggest move around — an elongated and elevated destination that stretches from Beale almost to Second Street, leapfrogging Fremont and First streets along the way.

I look forward to exploring a well-designed exercise in streamlined awe, where buses pull in directly from the Bay Bridge and disgorge commuters onto sun-dappled platforms above a concourse where the terrazzo floors will be inlaid with floral designs by San Francisco’s Julia Chang. Outside, a glistening scrim of perforated white metal panels already is being installed at First Street. There will be a quarter-mile-long park on top.

But all this comes with a $2.1 billion price tag — the cost of the first phase of the terminal when you include the $400 million subterranean shell where, crossed fingers, high-speed trains someday will arrive from Los Angeles. The temporary station that opened in August of 2010 was chump change by comparison, a mere $18 million — a bargain.

The appeal of the permanent terminal is clear-cut: It’s an investment in the region’s future, a physical testament to the importance of making alternatives to the automobile as enticing as possible. Assuming that Caltrain extends north from its current terminus near Mission Bay and that high-speed rail becomes a reality — the vision embodied in the project’s second phase — train riders from the South Bay and beyond will have the same convenient access to downtown’s action that BART riders now enjoy.

But the temporary terminal has an appeal as well, one that only grows stronger.

American cities are in a catch-up mode. Forward-looking advocates are trying to rebuild our infrastructure at the same time we reverse a mind-set that tamped down the new while making a fetish of the old. In San Francisco this means the tallest towers in 40 years alongside the coming terminal, plus talk of new subways and maybe even a second BART tunnel.

Meanwhile, an ad hoc terrain of awnings and palm trees above still-clean pavement serves roughly 30,000 passengers each day without making a fuss — and actually makes the beginning and end of the day feel pleasant. That’s an accomplishment to celebrate.

Place is a weekly column by John King, The San Francisco Chronicle’s urban design critic. Email: jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @johnkingsfchron