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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.
— Chicago Tribune
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... View full entry
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. — urbanize.la
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
![An informal gathering at Taliesin West. [collage by Amelia Taylor-Hochberg]](https://archinect.imgix.net/uploads/g9/g9344ae3jv5yf330.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&w=514 "An informal gathering at Taliesin West. [collage by Amelia Taylor-Hochberg]")
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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. — la.curbed.com
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.
— bustler.net
Images via Grimshaw Architects Previously: Los Angeles Metro Approves Gruen/Grimshaw for Union Station Master Plan View full entry
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.
— LA Daily News
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 Six visions for LA's Union Station in the year... View full entry
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. — bustler.net
UPDATE: Grimshaw/Gruen’s 17-hectare L.A. Union Station Master Plan approved to begin final phase View full entry
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.
— thesource.metro.net
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. — blog.archpaper.com
