Archinect - News

Dodger Stadium gondola plan gains LA Metro Board approval

2024-02-24T08:00:00-05:00

The LA Metro Board of Directors has given their final go-ahead for a controversial gondola project in Los Angeles that would offer an alternative transportation route from downtown Union Station to Dodger Stadium to baseball fans by the start of the 2028 Summer Olympics. The board voted unanimously in favor of the final version of the plan’s Environmental Impact Report on Thursday.

As was pointed out by LAist, the proposal still needs approvals from Los Angeles City Council, Caltrans, and California State Parks to begin construction. The Metro’s decision came with a steep set of 31 conditions, which include a fund for affordable housing plus marketing opportunities and other concessions directed to small business owners in Elysian Park and Chinatown.

The proposal is marketed as being able to transport a total of 5,000 people per hour on a 7-minute ride with three stations along a 1.2-mile path. The Dodgers say this will reduce traffic by 3,000 cars for each of their 81 home games pe...

Dodger Stadium gondola project clears major legal hurdle as challenges remain

2023-01-18T15:40:00-05:00

On Monday, Jan. 9, [Frank] McCourt scored a court victory when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff sided with proponents. Beckloff rejected a challenge to the unusual relationship between McCourt’s private company and the county’s public mega transit agency, LA Metro, which was struck without competitive bidding.

The former Dodgers owner was behind the leadership team that had been selling the project under the guise of environmental concerns (the scheme does reduce traffic by about 3,000 cars for each of the stadium's 81 home games) after cutting an alleged sweetheart deal with Metro Chief Phil Washington. The court ruling cited the Metro’s Office of Extraordinary Innovation policy on unsolicited proposals as a legally-justified means of circumventing the competitive bids process, which in this matter at least had tremendous civic and democratic consequences that touch on gentrification and other hot-button issues.

The plan is under further scrutiny for its role in McCourt’s apparent desire to create an LA Live-type development where the stadium's parking lots, which he still owns almost half of, currently exist. Meanwhile, a new study from the UCLA Mobility Lab has called into serious question the 5,000 projected hourly ridership figure that Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies (...

LA ART releases draft environmental report for proposed Dodger Stadium gondola

2022-10-20T12:45:00-04:00

According to the environmental study, maximum capacity on the gondola system would be 5,000 passengers per hour, with an estimated end-to-end trip of seven minutes. Admission to the system is intended to be free with a ticket to a Dodger game, and rides would otherwise be set at the same price as a Metro fare.

The 1.2-mile-long system will be supported by three 195-foot towers and include stops at the stadium, Chinatown, and its origin point in Union Station. The three proposed stations will vary between 74 and 98 feet in height and between 174 and 200 feet in length. Johnson Fain is reportedly one of the local companies that will be affected by the demolition project required to enable the system’s junction structure at 1201 N. Broadway. Construction is expected to begin as soon as 2024, with a 2026 debut likely to coincide with that year's opening day.

Many residents are still active in their vocal opposition to the $125 million project. The full Environmental Impact Report can be accessed here.

LA's divisive Dodger Stadium Gondola proposal gets new management and an updated look

2022-08-11T14:10:00-04:00

The group behind LA's proposed gondola project that would run from Union Station downtown and terminate at Dodger Stadium has revealed new images and a strategic partnership for a project many in the area fear could be used as a tool for gentrification.

Earlier in the week, the Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit (or LA ART) made an announcement that the scheme would be handed over to the local non-profit Climate Resolve and their newly-formed subsidiary called Zero Emissions Transit, which claims to deliver “emissions-free public transit solutions in the Los Angeles region.”

Proposed Union Station/El Pueblo station. Image courtesy LA ART

The group’s announcement included a new batch of updated renderings of the cable cars, station entrances, and elevated platform structures. Their update comes in the face of continued local opposition and the installation of a mockup cabin in the stadium’s parking lot G last week.

Mockup cabin of the proposed gondola. Image courtesy Climate Resolve.

“Be...

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...

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,...

Opponents of Dodger Stadium's gondola project see it as a tool of gentrification, allege inside pitch

2022-03-25T08:30:00-04:00

“It’s just another way that we can’t own our neighborhood and feel safe and quiet here because literally you have something flying over your house all day long, forever, I guess.” said Tany Ling, a singer who offers private lessons at the home she and her sister bought in 2012. McCourt entities are buying up properties in the neighborhood, but the Lings don’t want to move. They started StoptheGondola.org to fight the project.

Frank McCourt, who owned the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2004 to 2011, began proposing the $125 million project back in 2018. The initiative has come up against stiff resistance, especially from those associated with the Los Angeles National Historic Park, which abuts Chinatown.

Previously on Archinect: Plans announced for a gondola to connect LA's Dodger Stadium with Union Station

Their side got help recently from a nonprofit called The California Endowment after it filed a writ of mandate in county superior court this week alleging that the Metropolitan Transit Authority chief Phil Washington had cut a sweetheart deal with McCourt’s LA ART company while acting as a lone intermediary. McCourt has maintained from the get-go that its plan is meant to reduce the legendary traffic caused by Dodger home games, but opponents say the overall effect will only wind up crippling the neighborhood while “[reaping] profit through the occupation on public land.”

Previously on Archinect: LA's propos...

LA's proposed Dodger Stadium-Union Station gondola route revealed

2021-05-24T15:20:00-04:00

The company proposing to build a gondola from Union Station to Dodger Stadium announced Thursday that it has settled on a route that would take the aerial tramway generally above Alameda Street through Chinatown and include a station at the foot of Los Angeles State Historic Park.

Three years after first appearing in the Archinect news, Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit has revealed a more detailed outline for its proposed gondola system that could shuttle thousands of baseball fans from Los Angeles Union Station to Dodger Stadium on game days.

Image: Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit.

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

2019-09-13T19:00:00-04:00

The California High-Speed Rail Authority and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) have reached a funding agreement that will bring $400 million in public funds to the Link Union Station project.

Link US, as the project is widely known, aims to retrofit Los Angeles's Union Station to facilitate the creation of "through-service" regional commuter rail—and in the future, High Speed Rail—routes connecting the station with locations north, south, and east of Los Angeles.

View of the proposed run-through track improvements proposed for the station. Image courtesy of Metro.

Currently, the station's track configuration leaves Union Station as the dead-end of several regional rail systems; When the improvements are completed in coming years, the station will be able to facilitate regional rail travel up and down the California coast while also cutting down on the amount of time trains spend idling at the station. Los Angeles Union Station currently connects r...

L.A's Union Station is getting upgraded in preparation for 2028 Olympics

2019-05-21T18:49:00-04:00

One effort currently underway is Link Union Station, a $2.2-billion project that hopes to make the facility a hub connecting Metro Rail’s intercity subway and light rail lines to allow for a better long-term travel experience — and hopefully stem falling ridership. The project is slated for completion before the Olympics come to Los Angeles in 2028.

As Los Angeles gears up for a slew of global tourism events, including upcoming Super Bowl, World Cup, and Olympic happenings, the city's Union Station is receiving a flood of investment.

Major upgrades include the restoration of historical elements of the complex, the reconfiguration of the main train concourse to allow regional commuter trains to operate run-through service between L.A. and Orange County, pedestrian upgrades along with areas leading to the station, and the completion of several new transit lines running through the site.

When all is said and done, transportation officials hope to double rail usage in the region to 200,000 trips per day by 2040, with many of those passengers passing through Union Station's soaring Art Deco halls.

Plans for aerial tram connecting LA's Dodger Stadium with Union Station move forward

2018-12-11T13:22:00-05:00

Metro CEO Phil Washington announced Thursday that the agency had signed a letter of intent with a company called Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies that plans to build an aerial tram running between Union Station and the stadium. The letter will allow the agency to begin negotiations with the company in order to allow the proposal to move forward.

That crazy-sounding plan to shuttle thousands of baseball fans from Los Angeles Union Station to Dodger Stadium on game days has become slightly less crazy with Metro's decision to take a closer look at the lofty transportation scheme proposed earlier this year by Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies.

Potentially taking them out to the ball game (and back). Image: ARTT LLC.

Meanwhile Boring Car Space Brick guy Elon Musk has proposed his own (not entirely uncontroversial) transit plan for Los Angeles in the hope of alleviating the recurring traffic mess that stifles Dodger Stadium-adjacent neighborhoods on home-game days.

'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."

Plans announced for a gondola to connect LA's Dodger Stadium with Union Station

2018-04-26T17:37:00-04:00

Aerial Rapid Transit Technologies, LLC has announced plans to construct a gondola system that could ferry passengers between Union Station and Dodger Stadium in a five-minute end-to-end ride. Each cabin would be capable of accommodating 30 to 40 passengers, according to an official website, with capacity for up to 5,000 passengers per hour at peak frequencies.

Currently, the only transit service to Dodger Stadium is a bus line operated by the Metro. The new gondola system would be cheaper than stadium parking and would help alleviate traffic congestion in Los Angeles on game days.

Rendering of proposed gondola system. Image: ARTT LLC.

The next steps are seeking approval for the project, including an environmental impact report, and pursuing a lease for the stop at Union Station. Public outreach may begin later this year with a possible route set in 2019 or 2020 and the potential to open in 2022.

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...

Gensler, Jeanne Gang and Cesar Pelli, SOM among firms competing for Chicago Union Station redevelopment

2016-09-15T13:44:00-04:00

Chicago’s Union Station is slated to get a $1 billion facelift that could add up to 3 million sq. ft. of new buildings. Amtrak just announced a shortlist of four contenders for the gig, as reported by Chicago Real Estate Daily.

The shortlist comprises the development firms John Buck, Riverside Investment & Development, Golub and Sterling Bay. Each of the developers has a noted architectural practice on board; respectively, Jeanne Gang and Cesar Pelli, Goettsch Partners, Gensler, and Skidmore Owings & Merrill.

The teams were selected from an RFQ and will now move on to the proposal stage, with plans due by the beginning of 2017. According to Amtrak, the winning proposal will be selected by the end of the first quarter.

The winning firm could build on top of existing buildings, on land owned by Amtrak, or over the train tracks. Amtrak owns 14 acres of land and up to 3 million square feet in air rights.

According to preliminary plans, the development will include office, retail, hotel...

Schools shuffle and museums move forward: Weekly News Round-Up for October 27, 2014

2014-11-03T20:29:00-05:00

Friday, October 31:

New Plan for Architecture School at Wright Foundation: Facing the loss of its accreditation in 2017, the school is considering independent incorporation in order to continue operating.

Thursday, October 30:

Archinect's Lexicon: "Anthropocene": Recognizing that "Architecture notoriously appropriates and invents new language – sometimes to make appeals, sometimes to fill conceptual gaps, sometimes nonsensically", Archinect's new series will create a lexicon of (mostly new) discursive architectural terms.

Wednesday, October 29:

Relocation or Adaptation: São Paulo Nears Collapse as Drought Continues: Partially due to climate change and deforestation, major reservoirs are dangerously low and cities in São Paulo are beginning to go dry.
Snøhetta to take over SF development project near Civic Center: The condo design originally was given to Richard Meier, and may involve relocating the adjacent subway stop at Civic Center in downtown San Francisco.
The Broad Kinda Sorta Has an...

Grimshaw + Gruen's L.A. Union Station Master Plan approved for implementation

2014-10-28T13:20:00-04:00

The L.A. Metro Board of Directors officially approved the Los Angeles Union Station Master Plan in downtown L.A. to advance from planning to implementation. For the past two years, Metro has worked with a consultant team led by Grimshaw Architects and Gruen Associates to expand the iconic station, which is registered as a national historical landmark. Since Union Station opened in 1939, ridership continues to approach 110,000 trips per day and is expected to increase up to nearly 197,000 per day by 2040. L.A. Metro purchased the station in 2011.

The master plan development program consists of 3.25 million sq. feet of the Union Station property. The plan includes the preservation of the historic station, renovations to the station's perimeter, and adding new commercial developments like retail, hotel, and housing.

With today's approval, Metro can begin its initial implementation strategy for near-term projects, which includes a programmatic environmental review of the recommended trans...

Law breakers, prize winners, bird flippers: Weekly News Round-Up for October 20, 2014

2014-10-27T17:53:00-04:00

Friday, October 24:

Architecture in Flux: Reporting from ACADIA Conference, Day 1: The Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture has changed a lot since its inception in the early 1980s; the conference takes a look at the present moment of "digital design" practice, while that term still exists.

Thursday, October 23:

Frank Gehry gives the crowd a piece of his mind (and his middle finger): At a press conference in Oviedo, Spain, in response to a reporter's insinuation that his architecture was "showy". Frank Gehry is 85 years old.
Keep Portland Architecture Weird!: Episode 3 of Archinect Sessions out now: Feat. special guest Brian Libby, we discuss the trials and tribulations of Michael Graves' Portland Building, and The Guardian's speculations on Obama's presidential library.
Denver's Union Station is lacking diversity and local critic places the blame on the architecture: The Denver Post's fine arts critic sees a lack of diversity at Union Station's multi-use redesign, and...

Watch the Only Extant Footage of Union Station's 1939 Opening

2014-04-22T12:55:00-04:00

It was 75 years ago—the year Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz were released and World War II began—that Los Angeles's lovely Union Station first opened for business. There was a big Downtown celebration on May 3, 1939 to mark the opening of what is viewed as the nation's last great rail station, and Ward Kimball, an award-winning Disney animator and part-time rail nerd (one of Disney's Nine Old Men and the man who created Tweedledee/Tweedledum and Jiminy Cricket), filmed the occasion.

Grimshaw/Gruen’s 17-hectare L.A. Union Station Master Plan approved to begin final phase

2014-01-09T12:52:00-05:00

Since Gruen Associates and Grimshaw Architects were approved in 2012 to create the L.A. Union Station Master Plan, the leading designers and their team recently got the green light from the L.A. Metro to begin the plan's third and final phase. Preserving the station's iconic nature and enhancing its surrounding 17 hectares to address the city's most pressing needs in the future, the proposal is set for completion in Summer 2014.

Images via Grimshaw Architects

Previously: Los Angeles Metro Approves Gruen/Grimshaw for Union Station Master Plan

Historic Los Angeles Union Station facing renovation plans

2013-05-02T13:14:00-04:00

While high-speed rail remains an uncertain prospect in California, it is the centerpiece of four design concepts unveiled Wednesday for modernizing Union Station. Architects commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to upgrade the 77-year-old transit hub in downtown Los Angeles showed preliminary plans that put a high-speed rail system atop, beneath or alongside existing subways without compromising the character of the historic landmark.

Metro will hold a community workshop on the Union Station Master Plan at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 2, 2013, at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo.

Previously:

Los Angeles Metro Approves Gruen/Grimshaw for Union Station Master Plan

2012-06-28T21:22:00-04:00

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Board of Directors today approved LA-based Gruen Associates, in association with London's Grimshaw Architects, as the consultant team for the creation of a master plan for the historic Union Station and its surrounding 40 acres. Metro CEO Art Leahy was authorized by the board to execute a firm fixed price contract not to exceed $4,150,000.

UPDATE: Grimshaw/Gruen’s 17-hectare L.A. Union Station Master Plan approved to begin final phase

Six visions for LA's Union Station in the year 2050

2012-04-26T14:42:00-04:00

A public forum today at Union Station provided the public with their first look at conceptual visions for Union Station and the surrounding area by six architectural firms bidding to prepare a master plan for the facility. Metro Executive Planning Director Martha Welborne told the several hundred people in attendance that the point of the vision boards was to energize the teams submitting bids to prepare the master plan, and energize the public that uses — or will someday use Union Station.

LA Union Station Shortlist Announced & The Notables That Missed The Cut

2011-11-08T17:11:00-05:00

Shortlisted teams include: EE&K, a Perkins Eastman Company; Gruen Associates/ Grimshaw Architects; IBI Group/ Foster + Partners; Moore Ruble Yudell and TEN Arquitectos; NBBJ/Ingenhoven Architects; and Renzo Piano Building Workshop/ Parsons Transportation Group.