(rshsdepot) Down at the 21st-century train depot

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Down at the 21st-century train depot

Glass and light have become new aesthetic of terminal design

By F.n. D'alessio
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO, Feb. 4 -  Train stations, in old black-and-white movies, had a
gloomy - and sometimes gritty - glamour. But things are changing down at the
depot, and a new exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago aspires to show how
the 19th-century world of trains and railroad stations is being transformed
in the 21st.

       In old movies, the vast waiting rooms upstairs always seemed dimly
lighted, and their vaulted ceilings dwarfed the passengers, making them as
anonymous as ants. A deeper darkness reigned downstairs at the platforms,
with their steel pillars and swirls of steam. The stations were perfect sets
for tearful farewells and furtive romances.
       But it's hard to imagine trysts at the stations depicted at the Art
Institute, unless they involve folks like Han Solo and Princess Leia. Many
of the featured stations - all designed since 1990 - are places of glass and
light. They are as streamlined as the high-speed trains they are designed to
accommodate.
       The exhibit, "Modern Trains and Splendid Stations: Architecture and
Design for the 21st Century," features sketches, photographs and models of
both the stations and the trains. It was designed and installed by David
Childs and Marilyn Taylor of the New York office of Skidmore, Owings &
Merrill, who are the lead designers of the new Penn Station project in New
York.

EUROPEAN, ASIAN INFLUENCES
       The exhibit is supported by Amtrak and features a large-scale model
of the Acela Express, the passenger rail agency's new train. But a stroll
through the exhibit hall quickly convinces the visitor that Europe and Asia
may have more to say than America about the future of passenger rail.

       Nineteen European train stations are depicted, and eight from Japan,
China and Singapore, while only four American projects are on display. There
are also models or pictures of 13 European high-speed trains, including an
experimental German Maglev (magnetic levitation) prototype that floats above
the track on an electromagnetic "cushion." Besides the Acela, the only
American train on display is the Spanish-designed Amtrak Cascades, which
sports "tail fins" reminiscent of a 1956 Buick.
       Writer and passenger rail advocate F.K. Plous, who attended the
exhibit's opening, noted that not even the Acela can make much of a claim at
being truly American.
       "The locomotive has a French-built power unit and the coaches are
based on a 25-year-old Canadian design," Plous said.
       "It's pretty clear, going through this exhibit, that overseas
railroad and station technology has moved into areas that most Americans are
not even aware of. Maybe for the first time in recent history, America is
not a technological leader."

MILLIONS OF TRAVELERS

       The new trains require specially constructed tracks to travel at
optimum speed, which presents a knotty design challenge for architects when
they integrate all existing transportation lines into their terminal
designs.
       For example, Meinhard von Gerkan's design for Berlin's Lehrter
Station puts the high-speed and local trains on elevated tracks, while it
funnels cars, pedestrians and buses through at street level and allows
access to a subway station below ground. The station is covered by a
1,400-foot-long glass barrel vault that cuts through two rectangular
buildings housing retail space, service facilities and a hotel. A multilevel
glassed-in concourse cuts through at another angle, forming a gigantic "X."
The station is designed to accommodate 30 million travelers and commuters a
year when it opens in 2006.
       The planned Arnhem Central Station in the Netherlands, another
multiuse facility, is meant to handle more than 22 million people yearly,
beginning in 2007. Its designers are using a series of organically inspired
curves and folds to channel those crowds to their destinations.
       Santiago Calatrava's Orient Station in Lisbon, Portugal, completed in
1998, serves high-speed and local trains, a subway, trams and buses. From a
distance, its glass-and-steel platform canopies are said to resemble a palm
grove.
       But Germany's Frankfurt Airport ICE Railway Station, built in 2000,
looks a bit like a mechanical millipede.

INCORPORATING EXISTING STRUCTURES
       Two of the depicted projects, Childs' and Taylor's Penn Station and
Ingenhoven, Overdiek and Partners' design for the Stuttgart Main Station in
Germany, incorporate existing structures. Both are scheduled for completion
in 2008, and both offer window views of the platforms from directly
overhead.
       In Stuttgart, a glass dome will adjoin the old station hall and a new
park will be built over the platform, with ground-level "portholes" looking
down.
       The New York project will include the shell of the existing Farley
Post Office and a 150-foot-high glass and nickel skylight over the main
entrance and ticket booths. The underground platforms will be visible
through windows in the concourse floor. Some of the design is meant to echo
Stanford White's monumental old Penn Station, which was demolished in the
1960s and used as landfill in New Jersey.
       The exhibit will be on display through July 28.

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