Six years after the project was first announced, Delft's new railway station hall opened its doors to the public this past Saturday. Designed by native Dutch firm Mecanoo, the new building purposefully nods to its cultural roots so that visitors arriving at the station will know from the get-go that they are in Delft indeed.

The station hall, which is the first phase of the development, is built above a new train tunnel that will replace an old 1965 concrete viaduct by 2017. Amsterdam/Aachen-based Benthem Crouwel, who worked on the Rotterdam Centraal Station, designed the station's below-ground platforms.

With Francesco Veenstra as design lead, Mecanoo focused on balancing Delft's rich history with its present and future for their design concept. As expected, the Delft Blue color scheme is rampant throughout the building's exterior and interior.

The building's outer fused-glass skin was designed to "reflect the Dutch skies" and features a lens-like sphere pattern that refers to a common window design found throughout the city. The skin was also designed with a combination of high-performance glass and closed fused glass panels to enable energy efficiency.

Inside, the station shows off a rippled vaulted ceiling that features a blue and white 1877 scaled map of the city that Mecanoo created with Geerdes Ontwerpen. Printed on 1,929 lamellae, visitors will have various perceptions of the map as they walk through the building. Coordinating columns and walls are decked out in what Mecanoo describes are contemporary re-interpretations of Delft Blue tiles.

The station hall is open now, but the entire development isn't quite there yet. Once the old viaduct is demolished and the city hall and municipal offices are complete in the coming years, the entire development will be fully open.