Archinect - News

JR debuts latest Italian commission 'La Nascita' for Milan Design Week

2024-04-11T13:03:00-04:00

French street art pioneer JR has debuted his latest piece, a massive illusory trompe l’oeil piece animating the facade of Milan’s Stazione Centrale railway station, in advance of the start of Milan Design Week in the Italian cultural nexus.

His latest commission is titled La Nascita (Italian for “the birth”) and will run until May 1st, following two previous Italian projects at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and Palazzo Farnese in Rome that were completed in 2021.

“In spaces that have social issues, my work is about bringing people together. In a place like this, a huge range of people come to catch the train. When they find themselves in front of an exhibition, they will suddenly have a different kind of interaction,” he told The Art Newspaper at its unveiling.

More of our coverage of Milan Design Week can be found here.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by JR (@jr)

MAD Architects completes ‘train station in the forest’ in China

2024-02-07T13:38:00-05:00

MAD Architects has completed their overhaul of the Jiaxing Train Station in China, described by the firm as a “train station in the forest.” Located in the city of Jiaxing, 60 miles southwest of Shanghai, the project included the replacement of an outdated train station that occupied the site from 1995 to 2019.

Image credit: Lu Bing

Image credit: AC

MAD’s approach saw the full-scale recreation of an original 1907 station that stood on the site alongside a “floating” metal roof above an expanded site. In order to reconstruct the old station, the firm collaborated with architectural experts and scholars to analyze a large amount of historical data, with the 210,000 red and green bricks used to construct the station made of mud sourced from the nearby South Lake.

Image credit: CreatAR Images

Image credit: AC

Surrounding the reconstructed station, MAD sought to create a complex “more humane and efficient than its predecessor.” The interior of the new hub maintains a dialogue with the recrea...

SOM begins $550 million Gray 30th Street Station redevelopment in Philadelphia

2024-01-29T13:57:00-05:00

The groundbreaking on SOM’s $550 million William H. Gray III 30th Street Station redevelopment was held in Philadelphia this month in advance of the next 50-year leg of the historic building’s journey in service to commuters who first began making use of it in 1933.

Gilbane will be directing the design-build for the project, which will last at the station through the end of 2027. By that time, its passenger capacity will have doubled to 25 million per year. The project covers approximately 500,000 square feet overall and is part of a larger $10 billion District Plan that will add retail amenities and other improvements to the Market Street Plaza outside.

Image courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)

According to Amtrak, the scope of the redevelopment includes:

modernizing and expanding station food & beverage and retail offerings
improving station operations and enhancing the customer experience
upgrading The Porch landscaping and commun...

Foster + Partners finishes work on revamped Penn Station entrance

2023-11-20T16:49:00-05:00

A dramatic new makeover of Penn Station’s entrance at 7th Avenue and 32nd Street in Manhattan has been completed by Foster + Partners and AECOM for clients Amtrak and the Vornado Realty Trust.

The rebuilding project expands the entrance’s width by 50 percent while making it safer and fully ADA-accessible for 600,000 daily users of what is considered the nation’s busiest train station.

Image: Fernando Sandoval/MW

A new canopy and LED display were constructed at the entryway, which now features a wider staircase, new interior lighting feature, improved elevator access, and an added third escalator for enhanced circulation. Outside sidewalks and the surrounding plaza were also expanded. The project complements part of Vornado and MdeAS Architects’ redevelopment of the adjacent PENN 2 Tower while creating what Amtrak describes as a “sense of place and civic monumentality.”

Image: Fernando Sandoval/MW

In a press statement, Foster + Partners’ Head of Studio, Nigel Dancey, commented: “We h...

Foster + Partners and Arup to deliver first four California High-Speed Rail stations

2023-04-05T17:45:00-04:00

A joint venture of Foster + Partners and Arup will design the first four California High-Speed Rail stations in the state’s Central Valley region, the firms announced this week.

The plans they are developing for the transit organization will eventually deliver stations in Fresno, Kings/Tulare, Merced, and Bakersfield, serving the ambitious but still heavily scrutinized project’s initial 171-mile segment in an area that’s home to roughly 6.5 million people.

The joint venture announced its intentions of working with local interests during the two-stage Notice to Proceed (NTP) design and development process following the delivery of a "system-wide vision plan" for the proposed 500-mile project that will become America's first-ever high-speed railway.

Image courtesy Foster + Partners

Stefan Behling, Head of Studio for Foster + Partners, said: "After delivering our systemwide vision plan, we are now delighted to be working with Arup on detailed designs for the network’s first four station...

Chicago will receive $185 million for long-awaited CTA station accessibility upgrades

2022-12-27T13:40:00-05:00

Chicago will receive a total of $185 million in federal funding to make several of its Chicago Transit Authority and Metra stations accessible for disabled riders, officials announced Monday as part of a new program tucked into the bipartisan infrastructure law signed by President Joe Biden last year.

The money is part of the larger $1.75 billion provision set aside for accessibility improvements in various urban transit agencies by the federal infrastructure bill from last year. New York is the only city to receive more. Per the Tribune, a total of 42 of the CTA’s 145 stations are not currently compliant with the ADA’s design standards. Nationwide, the number is thought to be around 900.

“It’s a sorry state,” disabled Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Army veteran who asked for twice the amount of funding before the bill was watered down in congress, told the paper. “I don’t take the ‘L’ in Chicago because I never know if a station is going to be fully accessible for my wheelchair or not.”

New public art commissions for NYC's soon-to-open Grand Central Madison expansion include mosaics by Yayoi Kusama and Kiki Smith

2022-10-24T18:30:00-04:00

The terminal will also be an underground gallery of sorts, featuring enormous mosaics by two female artists with strong New York City connections, M.T.A. Arts & Design, which commissions art for the transit authority, is announcing Friday: Kiki Smith, a longtime resident known for her figurative work, and Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese sculptor and installation artist who lived in the city from 1958 to 1975.

The $11 billion transportation project opens in December after a lengthy 16-year construction period. Kusama’s past public installations have drawn the admiration of millions from outside the art and design worlds, while the German-born and New York-based Smith is considered a leading figure of the Downtown scene that was popular in the city throughout the 1980s and 90s. Both will be tasked with creating floor-to-ceiling mosaics covering 2,400 square feet total, according to the New York Times.

“Whether it’s the constellation ceiling or the Tiffany clock or the statue of Mercury — the art and design make the terminal a true landmark and a destination,” MTA CEO Janno Lieber said last week in a statement. “The new LIRR Grand Central Madison facility below the existing terminal carries this tradition forward with art that elevates the travel experience and creates a sense of place. These 2,400 sq. ft of floor-to-ceiling mosaics are permanent gifts to the people of New York.”

...

Grimshaw and Arup unveil designs for their massive Union Station revamp in D.C.

2022-07-26T18:35:00-04:00

A short month removed from its last update on the $10 billion project, Grimshaw Architects has unveiled renderings for the expansion of Union Station in Washington, D.C. that provide a clearer picture of how the revised plan will take shape over the coming two decades.

At the center of the design is the new train concourse defined by a clear-span roof canopy and beset with a series of skylight features lying directly north of the existing Beaux-Arts hall from 1907. Much of that original structure has been left untouched, while transportation upgrades are present in the form of expanded rail platforms, an elevated and greenery-lined new drop-off area, and new entry portals that alleviate crowding from the Columbus Circle side while allowing access to the nearby H Street corridor.

Image courtesy Federal Railroad Administration via U.S. Commission of Fine Arts

Image courtesy Federal Railroad Administration v...

Arup will lead Penn Station’s new $73 million expansion project

2022-06-30T09:00:00-04:00

Arup has been placed in the lead for MTA/NJ Transit and Amtrak’s planned redevelopment and expansion of Penn Station in New York City. The tender was announced recently by the rail service and is part of a larger Gateway Program aimed at improving a critical infrastructure clog situated in a ten-mile stretch along Amtrak’s overworked Northeast Corridor.

The multinational engineering concern is now tasked with designing the first new tracks, platforms, and concourses at the 117-year-old station in over a century. The project will relieve an ugly bottleneck at the western end of Penn Station, doubling its capacity in a process that also generates a much-improved customer experience for commuters to the country’s busiest transportation hub.

Previously on Archinect: Gov. Cuomo's renovation plan for NYC’S Penn Station takes shape

New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said: “This announcement represents significant progress in the much-needed expansion of Penn Station and the modernization of our...

New image renders of DC's Union Station redevelopment paint a picture for this $10 billion project

2022-06-16T14:57:00-04:00

A general picture of the proposed $10 billion overhaul of Washington, D.C. Union Station is bit clearer this week after the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts released renderings of a revised plan from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

Earlier in May, the FRA scrapped parts of that plan that included a six-story car park and alternate reconfiguration of the station’s aging bus terminal. That agency has now formally resubmitted its amended proposal, which still calls to add a variety of new features to the historic 115-year-old station, for the Commission's approval. As reported by The Washington Post, the revisions are expected to add to the project's total cost.

Image courtesy Federal Railroad Administration via U.S. Commission of Fine Arts

Amongst the more significant changes, the planned car park has been moved underground, freeing up public areas around the station’s train hall and Columbus Circle-a...

All aboard for the next phase of Union Station reconstruction in LA

2022-06-02T09:00:00-04:00

The L.A. Metro system’s planned revitalization of Los Angeles Union Station is another step closer to reality following a vote last week that cleared the way for the $2.3 billion megaproject’s further advancement downtown.

Local outlets are reporting that the recent Board of Directors meeting resulted in an approval of a funding agreement between the Metro and California High-Speed Rail Authority which is expected to cover the first phase of development called Link Union Station. The initial project is itself the expanded version of an earlier scheme that would clear a bottleneck at one end of the tracks in addition to providing a new viaduct and railway span over the adjoining 101 Freeway.

Previously on Archinect: L.A.'s Union Station overhaul receives $400 million from California High Speed Rail

A total of $423.3 million will be allocated in the first phase, with another $297.8 million provided for preliminary work. Including the most recent influx of monies from the Rail Authority,...

Updated designs of the HS2 London Euston high-speed railway station released

2022-03-28T15:28:00-04:00

HS2 Ltd., the British non-departmental public body behind the development of High Speed 2 (HS2) national high-speed railway, has released an updated design for its new terminus station at London Euston.

Two new images, updated from 2015, show the concept design for the interior and exterior of the station. They were drafted by a design consortium made up of Arup, WSP, Grimshaw Architects, Haptic, and LDA Design, alongside HS2’s Station Construction Partner, Mace Dragados JV (MDJV).

Previously on Archinect: Grimshaw and Arup release designs for new high-speed rail hub in central London

One of the station’s defining features is a bold, geometric roof that will allow natural light to infiltrate the interior while also emphasizing its north-south alignment. According to HS2, elements of the roof can be prefabricated off-site and installed using modular construction techniques. The station, itself, will span three levels, with ten 450-meter-long subsurface platforms. At peak operation, ...

Foster + Partners-led team chosen to design new mixed-use Stockholm Central Station

2022-01-18T14:51:00-05:00

A team led by Foster + Partners in collaboration with Swedish firm Marge Arkitekter has been unveiled as the winners of the competition for the development of Stockholm Central Station in Stockholm, Sweden. The pair is joined by LAND Arkitektur, Thornton Tomasetti, Ramboll, Wenanders, and TAM Group. Together their proposal will see the creation of an integrated transport hub for a new pedestrian-friendly mixed-use urban district.

“As the world’s collective focus shifts to more sustainable ways of living, working and traveling, it is vital that we enhance and redevelop our transport nodes and repair and connect the urban fabric around them,” said Luke Fox, Head of Studio at Foster + Partners. “We look forward to developing these proposals with Jernhusen, Trafikverket and the City of Stockholm over the coming months.”

Originally opened in 1871, Stockholm Central Station sits in the heart of the city, serving as Sweden’s largest transportation hub. The new district will accommodate fut...

SOM and TranSystems reimagine one of Chicago's oldest and busiest train stations

2021-06-10T16:41:00-04:00

The City of Chicago, Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) and Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) revealed preliminary designs for a renovation of the city’s State/Lake elevated station.

Located in the heart of downtown, this is the second busiest station in the CTA network, located at a vital junction within the Chicago Loop. Built in 1895, it is one of the oldest stations in Chicago’s elevated rail network. The station serves six of Chicago’s eight train lines and connects to pedestrian and bus routes. The design is led by SOM and TranSystems, a design firm focused on transportation infrastructure, and a local consultant team with expertise in transit and historic preservation. The project is also guided by input from neighboring property owners, along with civic and preservation organizations.

The proposed $180 million design includes wider, safer platforms, a sweeping glass canopy to protect passengers from the elements, a new accessible fly-over connection bridge, new elev...

Dramatic timber roof defines BIG’s Västerås Travel Center design

2021-05-26T13:51:00-04:00

BIG has unveiled updated plans for a new transportation hub in the heart of the Swedish city of Västerås. Named the Västerås Travel Center, the 17,000-square-meter structure will bring together all of the city’s transport infrastructure in one continuous landscape, under a dramatic, curved roof.

Image: BIG

BIG has proposed a building that unites rather than separates functions. It will serve as the central station for trains and buses while providing a bridge between the city center and the nearby Lake Mälaren, areas currently divided by train tracks. The preliminary plan for the project was initially revealed in 2015. Central to the updated design is a more distinct roof that serves to welcome visitors to the city at multiple points while giving the travel center a clear identity. It is a roof that spreads out, invites from all directions, and creates spatial contexts.

Image: BIG and Playtime

"We have designed the defining feature of Västerås Travel Center, the floating roof, as a r...

MAD Architects unveils design for Jiaxing's "Train Station in the Forest"

2021-01-08T13:16:00-05:00

MAD Architects has unveiled their design for Jiaxing’s “Train Station in the Forest.” The project began construction near the end of 2019 and is expected to be completed by July 1st, 2021. The train station is located in the center of Jiaxing and the project as a whole covers an area of 35.4 hectares, which includes the Jiaxing Train Station, plazas to the north and south, and a renovation of the adjacent People's Park.

MAD's proposal drew inspiration from Jiaxing's history and culture. It includes a 1:1 rebuilding of the historic station building derived from archival investigations and a new underground train station.

The placement of the busy transportation junction underground frees space on the ground floor, allowing the People's Park to stretch through the site. In front reconstruction old station, a large collection of trees have been planted to provide natural shade and coverage for the plaza.

The original Jiaxing Train Station was built in 1907, and opened in 1909 as an imp...

More than two decades in the making, SOM's new Moynihan Train Hall opens in NYC

2021-01-05T19:12:00-05:00

With the beginning of the new year, New York City also celebrated the opening of a major infrastructure project: the Moynihan Train Hall, situated between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and West 31st and 33rd Streets, expands the notoriously crowded Pennsylvania Station complex with a 225,000-square-foot rail hub inside the landmark James A. Farley Post Office Building.

Photo: Lucas Blair Simpson © SOM

The new rail hub's signature feature is the vast skylight arching over the 31,000-square-foot train hall, the former mail sorting room, as a direct reference to the architectural heritage of the original Pennsylvania Station demolished half a century ago.

Photo: Lucas Blair Simpson © SOM

"We’ve designed a place that evokes the majesty of the original Penn Station, all while serving as a practical solution to the issues that commuters in, to and from New York have endured for too long," said Colin Koop, Partner at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the architecture firm that has been working on the...

DeZwarteHond & Powerhouse Company place giant triangular roof on top of new transit station

2020-07-06T19:24:00-04:00

The historic Assen Station in the Netherlands has been transformed by a massive triangular wooden roof and the addition of a new station building below it. Designed by De Zwarte Hond and Powerhouse Company for the NS, ProRail, and Assen city council, the new station provides a striking gateway into the city.

Photo by Egbert de Boer.

Photo by Sebastian van Damme.

The city asked for a transparent and inviting station that would seamlessly connect visitors to the surrounding neighborhoods. The triangular geometry of the roof gives the building below a dynamic cap while also organizing the programmatic qualities of the station, creating a subtle tunnel for travelers to pass through and keeping both the neighborhood and urban sectors intertwined.

Photos by Sebastian van Damme.

At 3,000 square meters, the roof is made entirely of wood and rises 10 meters at its high point. The shape is a scalene triangle, where each side is a different length with measurements of 78, 88, and 90 meters respec...

Gov. Cuomo's renovation plan for NYC’S Penn Station takes shape

2020-01-09T09:00:00-05:00

Empire Station

New York State officials led by Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled a plan this week to expand rail capacity at Penn Station in New York City by as much as 40% through the addition of a new bay of passenger rail concourses just south of the existing station.

More specifically, the so-called Empire Station Complex plan would bring four new train concourses (and eight lengths of track) to an adjacent site currently packed with existing buildings, lending the chronically under-sized Penn Station complex an opportunity to grow and absorb an anticipated jump in rail traffic set to take shape over the next few decades. The plan would take over the entirely of the block situated between 30th and 31st streets and between 7th and 8th avenues immediately south of the station, enabling capacity at the station to grow by an estimated 175,000 passengers per day when fully completed. The station currently funnels over 650,000 commuters through its low-ceilinged and circuitous passages ...

Jean Nouvel and leading French architects call massive Gare du Nord overhaul in Paris 'unacceptable'

2019-09-05T01:00:00-04:00

A group of leading French architects have denounced a plan to renovate the Gare du Nord, one of Paris’s main train stations, calling the designs that would turn the station into a glassy, mammoth, restaurant-filled shopping mall “indecent,” “absurd” and “unacceptable.”

Plans to drastically expand and modernize Paris's foremost train station were unveiled in 2018 with a commitment to meet the increased travel volume during the Olympic Summer Games in 2024 and cope with the more complex arrival procedures of British nationals in the post-Brexit era.

An open letter signed by leading architectural figures, including Pritzker Prize laureate Jean Nouvel, now sharply rebukes the renovation plan.

Image: Valode et Pistre.

"Forcing hundreds of thousands of people to walk through commercial spaces becomes unbearable when this gift to trade goes with long and unnecessarily complicated journeys," recites the New York Times a section of the letter which was published in Le Monde this week. "This project is unacceptable and we demand a rethink from floor to rafters."

Ford Motor Co. to renovate Detroit's Michigan Central Station into “future mobility” research center

2019-07-18T16:48:00-04:00

This all makes what is happening now all the more remarkable. Last summer, Ford Motor Company announced it had bought the building, with plans to invest $740million to transform it into a world-leading research centre for ‘future mobility’. The very industry that signed the station’s death warrant in the first place is now set on resuscitating it as a beacon of sustainable transport.

Oliver Wainwright pens a piece on the upcoming renovation of the Michigan Central Station, which was a celebrated icon of Detroit when it first opened in 1913. After the station closed in 1988 and was abandoned, it became the epitome of the city's ruin porn.

After buying the building last summer, Ford Motor Company will transform the ground floor into a public market-style space, while offices in the upper floors and neighboring buildings will house their 1.2 million square-foot “future mobility” Headquarters and Research Campus, which Snøhetta is designing.

In the article, Ford's construction manager Richard Bardelli tells Wainwright that the renovation project aims to turn Detroit into “the mobility capital of the world”.

Michael Kimmelman reflects on NYC's old Penn Station: 'The gateway it deserved'

2019-04-29T14:49:00-04:00

Conceived to handle fewer than 200,000 passengers, the replacement Penn Station is today the busiest transit hub in the Western Hemisphere, through which more than 600,000 commuters pass each day — an experience as humiliating and bewildering as Grand Central remains inspiring and exalted.

NYT architecture critic Michael Kimmelman takes a look back at the triumphal arrival of the former Pennsylvania Station by McKim, Mead & White in 1910, its steady decline in the following decades, the consequential replacement with the current solution—a disappointing product of mid-century modernist pragmatism—followed by a call for a better gateway.

Aerial view of the former Pennsylvania Station shortly after it opened in 1910.

"When Penn Station became during the mid-1960s a subterranean rat’s maze, the city seemed to be heading very definitely south," Kimmelman writes. "The historic preservation movement, which rose from the vandalized station’s ashes, was born of a new pessimism."

Mecanoo completes Delft City Hall and Train Station

2018-09-28T19:44:00-04:00

Following the construction of the first phase in 2015, the Mecanoo-designed Delft City Hall and Train Station is now fully completed, the Dutch firm recently announced. The 28,320 m2 project sits on top of a train tunnel, which replaced an old concrete viaduct that divided the city since 1965. Now, the project connects Delft's historic city center to the east of the tunnel with the residential neighborhoods to the west.

Photo credit: Mecanoo.

The project's design celebrates the past and present of Delft, Mecanoo describes. As travelers ride the escalators, they can look up to see a gigantic 1877 map of Delft on the ceiling, which Mecanoo designed with Geerdes Ontwerpen. Outside, travelers can see the city and the old station. Walls and columns in the interior are decorated with a contemporary reinterpretation of Delft Blue tiles. The train station also directly connects to the city hall.

Photo credit: Mecanoo.

“Panels of fused glass with len...

Zaha Hadid Architects unveils latest photos of serpentine Napoli Afragola railway station

2018-08-29T15:57:00-04:00

Located about 7 miles north of Naples, the Napoli Afragola railway station designed by Zaha Hadid Architects has been operating for a year now. To mark the occasion, the firm released some new photos of the snake-like building taken by Hufton + Crow.

As part of Italy's expanding high-speed rail network in preparation of growing demands for train travel, the new station is the first part of a multi-phase project expected to be complete in 2022. Inaugurated last year with 18 high-speed trains in each direction, services will increase to 28 trains as new infrastructure is built. Most recently, the train station received the 2018 Surface Travel Award for Transportation.

Located within Italy's new north/south high-speed rail corridor, Napoli Afragola will connect some 15 million of Southern Italy's residents with the national railway network. It will also enable goods and passengers from Europe and northern Italy to have easier access to Italy'...

Paris Gare du Nord station to triple in size to prepare for Brexit and Olympics travel demands

2018-07-16T14:49:00-04:00

France’s rail operator SNCF has unveiled plans to triple the size of Paris’ Gare du Nord station in time for the 2024 Olympic Games. [...] The project, carried out in partnership with developer Ceetrus and architect Denis Valode of Valode et Pistre, will be the largest refurbishment of the station since it was built in 1864. When complete it should increase the capacity of Europe’s largest station from 700,000 to 800,000 people a day.

Image: Valode et Pistre.

Besides accommodating an increase in travel volume during the 2024 Olympic Games, the dramatic expansion of Paris' Gare du Nord terminus station is also preparing necessary spaces for new arrival procedures of British nationals in the post-Brexit era: (soon) no longer EU citizens, UK passengers arriving via the Eurostar train from London will have to undergo yet to be determined immigration and customs inspections. Since dedicated platforms have to be physically walled off from others—treating it like a national border—upgrading transportation facilities to meet the requirements of UK authorities has proven challenging at other European train stations, such as Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Image: Valode et Pistre.

Construction of the Valode et Pistre-designed expansion is expected to be completed by 2024 in time for the Paris Summer Olympics.

'All the grandeur of a Holiday Inn': Blair Kamin on the latest Chicago Union Station expansion plans

2018-06-29T18:24:00-04:00

Daniel Burnham’s ghost and his much-quoted exhortation to “make no little plans” haunt the just-released, utterly underwhelming design for a vertical expansion of Chicago’s Union Station. To put things in Burnham-speak, these plans are little — very little. There’s nothing wrong with the idea of putting a 330-room hotel in the upper floors [...] The trouble is a planned apartment addition that would plunk a squat modernist box atop the existing structure’s neo-classical pedestal.

Tribune critic Blair Kamin comments on the latest expansion plans by Riverside Investment & Development for Chicago's iconic Union Station, which were unveiled Monday night. "The juxtaposition of past and present isn’t as violent as the spaceship-like seating bowl that’s plopped atop the classical colonnades of Soldier Field," writes Kamin. "It’s just banal, which Burnham buildings never are."

Detroit's abandoned Michigan Central Station may soon be bought and redeveloped by Ford

2018-03-23T15:19:00-04:00

Ford Motor Co. is in discussions to purchase the dilapidated Michigan Central Station in Detroit's Corktown neighborhood just outside of downtown, Crain's has learned from multiple sources familiar with the negotiations.

"A redevelopment of the depot, which has been abandoned and blighted for three decades since Amtrak stopped service in 1988, would be one of the most expensive and complex local undertakings in recent history," Crain's reports.

Going from bad to worse: Penn Station's massive tunnel system is aging rapidly

2018-01-11T17:35:00-05:00

I’d been assigned to write a story about Pennsylvania Station, but I wanted to get a caboose-eye view of the decaying tunnels leading up to it, because the only imaginable way the station could be any worse is if it were underwater. Penn, the Western Hemisphere’s busiest train station, serves 430,000 travelers every weekday—more than LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark airports combined.

"As the gateway to America’s largest city," Devin Leonard writes in his piece for Bloomberg Businessweek, "Penn Station should inspire awe, as train stations do in London, Paris, Tokyo, and other competently managed metropolises. Instead, it embodies a particular kind of American failure—the inability to maintain roads, rails, ports, and other necessary conduits."

Zaha Hadid's Nordpark Cable Railway stations turn ten

2017-12-27T09:15:00-05:00

Time flies mercilessly, and another iconic example of contemporary architecture is already celebrating its 10th anniversary: designed by the late Dame Hadid and shortlisted for the 2008 RIBA Stirling Prize, the four stations of Innsbruck’s Nordpark Cable Railway opened to the public in December 2007. Since then, over 4.5 million passengers have used the Hungerburg funicular railway between the city center up the Nordkette mountain.

Lowenhaus Station. Photographer: Hélène Binet.

From Zaha Hadid Architects: "The Hungerburg funicular (Hungerburgbahn) is part of Innsbruck’s Nordpark Cable Railway (Nordkettenbahnen) and begins at the Congress underground station in the centre of the city. Trains stop at Lowenhaus Station before crossing the bridge over the River Inn, then climbing to Alpenzoo Station and on to Hungerburg where passengers can continue their journey on the Seegrube and Hafelekar cable cars up to its summit at 2,300m. The Nordkette mountain is within the Karwendel, the large...

LA's Union Station is getting a multi-billion dollar makeover

2017-07-25T15:16:00-04:00

When built, Union Station was called the "Last of the Great Railway Stations." Designed by father and son team John and Donald B. Parkinson, the landmark opened in 1939 at a time when railway service was already beginning to wane. Combining Art Deco, Spanish Colonial, and Mission Revival styles, the site has perhaps become better known for its beauty as an architectural gem—it has starred in movies such as Blade Runner—than for being a site of major transport despite its designation as the largest railroad passenger terminal in the Western United States.

However, Los Angeles' population continues to grow, more and more people are ditching cars, and a high-speed rail line is potentially on the horizon, all of which are expected to cause patronage of the station to explode by 2040. In preparation for the expected growth, LA Metro has been working on a massive master plan alongside Gruen Associates and Grimshaw Architects for the 78-year old transit hub. Visions for its future include...

Archinect - News

JR debuts latest Italian commission 'La Nascita' for Milan Design Week

MAD Architects completes ‘train station in the forest’ in China

SOM begins $550 million Gray 30th Street Station redevelopment in Philadelphia

Foster + Partners finishes work on revamped Penn Station entrance

Foster + Partners​ and Arup to deliver first four California High-Speed Rail stations

Chicago will receive $185 million for long-awaited CTA station accessibility upgrades

New public art commissions for NYC's soon-to-open Grand Central Madison expansion include mosaics by Yayoi Kusama and Kiki Smith

Grimshaw and Arup unveil designs for their massive Union Station revamp in D.C.

Arup will lead Penn Station’s new $73 million expansion project

New image renders of DC's Union Station redevelopment paint a picture for this $10 billion project

All aboard for the next phase of Union Station reconstruction in LA

Updated designs of the HS2 London Euston high-speed railway station released

Foster + Partners-led team chosen to design new mixed-use Stockholm Central Station

SOM and TranSystems reimagine one of Chicago's oldest and busiest train stations

Dramatic timber roof defines BIG’s Västerås Travel Center design

MAD Architects unveils design for Jiaxing's "Train Station in the Forest"

More than two decades in the making, SOM's new Moynihan Train Hall opens in NYC

DeZwarteHond & Powerhouse Company place giant triangular roof on top of new transit station

Gov. Cuomo's renovation plan for NYC’S Penn Station takes shape

Jean Nouvel and leading French architects call massive Gare du Nord overhaul in Paris 'unacceptable'

Ford Motor Co. to renovate Detroit's Michigan Central Station into “future mobility” research center

Michael Kimmelman reflects on NYC's old Penn Station: 'The gateway it deserved'

Mecanoo completes Delft City Hall and Train Station

Zaha Hadid Architects unveils latest photos of serpentine Napoli Afragola railway station

Paris Gare du Nord station to triple in size to prepare for Brexit and Olympics travel demands

'All the grandeur of a Holiday Inn': Blair Kamin on the latest Chicago Union Station expansion plans

Detroit's abandoned Michigan Central Station may soon be bought and redeveloped by Ford

Going from bad to worse: Penn Station's massive tunnel system is aging rapidly

Zaha Hadid's Nordpark Cable Railway stations turn ten

LA's Union Station is getting a multi-billion dollar makeover

Foster + Partners and Arup to deliver first four California High-Speed Rail stations