Beyer Blinder Belle Chosen to Design Union Station Expansion
Beyer Blinder Belle, the architectural firm responsible for transforming New York's Grand Central Terminal into a modern, more efficient rail hub, is now leading an effort to tackle Union Station. The $10B proposed expansion could triple passenger capacity. BBB comes with a lot of experience, having rehabilitated historical buildings like the Smithsonian museums. It will team with Grimshaw Architects, a specialist in train station design that has worked on New York's Fulton Center, Amsterdam's Bijlmer Station, and London's Waterloo rail station, the Washington Post reports. Union Station Redevelopment Corp, which manages Union Station along with Amtrak and Akridge, chose the two companies to plan the expansion. While the project's backers are looking at public and private options to raise money, they'll still need significant investments from the federal government. The process will also involve many levels of approval as Union Station is in the National Register of Historic Places, and is overseen by a group of federal and local government bodies. [WaPo]
