Archinect - News

Woods Bagot, John McAslan + Partners debut major Sydney Central Rail Station overhaul

2024-08-26T10:54:00-04:00

Last week marked the long-awaited debut of Woods Bagot’s remake of the 115-year-old Sydney Central Rail Station. The project, which came together over five years with help from collaborators John McAslan + Partners, expands passenger capacity by more than 60% while placing an elevated customer experience, the role of placemaking, and the preservation of the terminal's Edwardian architectural character at its center.

Image courtesy Trevor Mein/Woods Bagot

Woods Bagot's Transportation Lead, John Prentice, says it “significantly improves circulation and station legibility, resulting in a station design that is easy and intuitive for all customers, irrespective of the mode of travel used.”

Image courtesy Trevor Mein/Woods Bagot

“The new metro and concourse insertions are designed to be purposeful, functional, and sculpturally rich to complement the historic qualities of the original station. The selection of materials establishes the proposals into t...

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 Located in the city of Jiaxing, 60 miles southwest of Shanghai, the project included the replacement of an outdated train station that occupied the site from 1995 to 2019.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...

New UK train station got their math inspiration wrong

2017-06-12T17:14:00-04:00

Conway confirmed what several mathematicians have noticed since the station’s unveiling: the pattern on the façade follows the logic not of Conway’s Life but of Wolfram’s Rule 30, a different cellular automaton identified by the computer scientist Stephen Wolfram.

Atkins designed £50m Cambridge North railway station, a 4,843 sq ft building with three platforms and parking, opened this May.
Its aluminum façade was inspired by The Game of Life, a cellular automaton that a British mathematician John Horton Conway developed in 1970. Conway, nevertheless, claims that he does not recognize his work in the architecture of the station.

“That’s not mine,” the mathematician said of the pattern. “I have had an influence on Cambridge, but not apparently on the new railway station.”

As a 2015 Guardian profile of Conway put it, “the Game of Life demonstrates how simplicity generates complexity, providing an analogy for all of mathematics, and the entire universe."