(rshsdepot) Wilmington, DE

[Jim Dent <jdent1_@_optonline.net>]

From the Wilmington News-Journal...

Reviving history at Wilmington train station

By MAUREEN MILFORD
Staff reporter
03/23/2003

The pieces of a $50 million transformation of the historic area around the
Amtrak Station along the Christina River in Wilmington are coming together,
with two key components due for completion this summer.

Work has begun on a $7 million parking deck that will pick up architectural
elements of the passenger station designed by the renowned Philadelphia
architect Frank Furness. Built by the Delaware Department of Transportation,
the parking deck is scheduled for completion in early summer.

The second piece, to be completed in late August, is a $6 million renovation
of the Pennsylvania Building (also designed by Furness) by ING Direct, the
savings-bank subsidiary of the Dutch banking and insurance giant ING Group.

Other facets of the redevelopment include the proposed construction of an
approximately $15 million transit center at Martin Luther King Boulevard and
Walnut Street by DelDOT. It would have an elevated pedestrian walkway across
Martin Luther King Boulevard to the Amtrak station. The final piece is a
roughly $10 million renovation of the Amtrak station by the state, ING
Direct and Amtrak. The state will also make extensive road improvements.

The redevelopment, which could take four years to complete, is important to
Wilmington because the train station has long served as the gateway to the
city via public transportation, said Nathan Hayward III, secretary of
transportation. Roughly 695,000 people boarded trains or arrived at the
station in the year ending Sept. 30, 2002, according to Dan Stessel,
spokesman for Amtrak. It's also a key element in the revitalization of the
Christina Riverfront.

Hayward called it "absolutely essential" that the area put its best face
forward.

"The analogy I've used is the guy with the fancy haircut and gold cuff
links," Hayward said. "He's got the Italian suit and the expensive shoes.
But he's got a spot on his tie. What do you remember about the guy? The
spot. We don't want to be spot on the necktie."

Moreover, the state wanted to accommodate the expansion of ING Direct, a new
generation of savings bank that serves customers by the Internet, telephone,
traditional mail or through the bank's own branded Internet cafes. Since
making its home on the Christina in 2000, the bank has poured millions into
the waterfront area.

Both Hayward and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., have taken a special interest in
the project.

"We have to make ING feel welcome - we want them to be here," Carper said.
"They've been a great addition to the state and the waterfront."

Parking fit for Furness

ING's chief executive, Arkadi Kuhlmann, found a six-story warehouse building
on South Orange Street at the Christina River on his own, while driving
along I-95. He liked the building because it resembled the canal warehouses
found in Amsterdam.

But when he told the management in Amsterdam that he had found a structure
on Orange Street, they thought he was joking. Besides being the bank's
trademark color, orange is the Dutch national hue. ING Direct put nearly $10
million into renovating the building.

When ING Direct said it needed additional parking so employees would not
have to park at remote locations, Hayward was anxious to help.

The state hired architect James A. Tevebaugh of Tevebaugh Associates Inc. to
handle the design of the garage, which will cost twice what a typical
parking deck would run.

As a former Philadelphian, Tevebaugh said was an honor to design a structure
to tie three Furness buildings together. Besides the Amtrak passenger
station and the Pennsylvania Building, Furness designed the nearby B&O Water
Street Station in the late 1880s. It is located on South Market Street
across from the Amtrak station. Other Furness buildings in Philadelphia
include the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the University of
Pennsylvania Library.

"Anytime you're working in the presence of somebody you really admire, it's
really an honor," Tevebaugh said. "I've always thought that Furness was so
energetic. He put his particular stamp on the Victorian. Everything was so
decorated."

The three Wilmington buildings represent the largest grouping of Furness
railroad buildings in the nation, said Michael J. Lewis, an art history
professor at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., and author of "Frank
Furness: Architecture and the Violent Mind."

"It's the only ensemble of Furness railroad buildings left," Lewis said.
"The three stations show the full range of his railroad work over his
career."

The parking structure will pick up many of the details of the train station,
including similarly colored bricks and mortar. It will have a granite base,
like the station, a slate roof on the elevator and stair towers and
wrought-iron detailing. Victorian-style lighting fixtures also will be
installed.

The parking deck will cover 450 feet stretching two blocks from French
Street to Market Street. The land has not had buildings on it for decades.
In the past, the area beneath the Wilmington Rail Viaduct, a 3-mile-long
stone and steel elevated platform that carries the train tracks, was strewn
with litter and broken bottles. The viaduct is listed on the National
Register of Historic Places.

Tevebaugh designed the 425-car garage in a stair-step fashion so views of
the Riverfront would not be blocked. The side facing Water Street and the
Christina River is just 10 feet high, and rises to 20 feet bordering the
viaduct. Approximately 250 spaces in the garage will be leased to ING, and
the rest will be available to the public.

"I think it's sensitively designed," said Debra Campagnari Martin,
Wilmington preservation planner. "It doesn't interfere with the view from
the train station platform."

More to come

Nearby, ING Direct is gutting six floors of the 55,000-square-foot
Pennsylvania Building.

When it is completed at the end of August, ING Direct expects to move its
more than 100-person sales operation from the Hercules Plaza at 14th and
Market streets to the newly renovated building, according to Ashlee Stokes,
spokeswoman for ING.

The Pennsylyvania Building, added to the National Register of Historic
Places in 1976, was built in 1905-06 to consolidate local Pennsylvania
Railroad offices. It had been vacant for more than 10 years before being
bought in 1985 by a local developer for speculative office space. Its
9,000-square-foot floors have undergone a number of improvements since the
1980s. It also has had a variety of tenants, including the Riverfront
Development Corp. at one point.

Plans call for skylights and an observation deck, Martin said. A canopy will
be placed over the main entrance. The windows also will be replaced.

The next phase in the project - the transit center - is expected to begin at
the end of the year. DelDOT bought the more than 1-acre parcel for about $3
million, Hayward said. Architect BSA+A of Wilmington is handling the design
work.

Buck Simpers, a principal of BSA+A, said the building will have three
functions, serving as a bus depot, a public parking garage and a car-rental
center. The building will have footings that could support a 10-story
building in the future, he said.

Simpers said his design will "respect the Frank Furness buildings."

The final phase will be the renovation of the Amtrak station. One idea is to
create a new entrance to the train station by building a glass atrium
between the Pennsylvania Building and the station. Another concept is to
restore the second-floor waiting rooms.

Plans also call for ING Direct to open an Internet cafe in the complex. The
cafes, which sell Peet's coffee and tea, are not retail banks but a chance
for the public to experience the ING brand. Besides offering free Internet
access, the cafes sell merchandise in ING's orange and blue colors. There
are no cash machines, and employees don't cash checks or post deposits. But
the staff can answer questions and help customers open a savings account or
apply for a mortgage.

The bank now has cafes in Philadelphia, Manhattan and Los Angeles.

"Arkadi has a vision for the Riverfront," Carper said. "He likes this idea
of taking old buildings and retaining their distinctive architecture. He's
been very good for the Riverfront."

A trove of history

Carper, who as governor spearheaded the redevelopment along the river, said
Hayward's interest in the waterfront predates his own, dating from Hayward's
tenure as the state's first economic development director under former Gov.
Pierre S. du Pont IV.

As such, he was one of the architects of the Financial Center Development
Act, whose effects altered the city's skyline in the 1980s. During that
time, Wilmington's waterfront, which had been largely neglected after the
many shipbuilding operations located along it began closing after World War
II, was rediscovered. A few pioneer businesses, including Mitchell
Associates and Moeckel Carbonell Associates Inc., moved to historic
buildings on the water.

But escalating prices, along with the recession in the 1990s, put a damper
on activity. It wasn't until Carper took an interest in the Riverfront in
the late 1990s that redevelopment began in earnest.

Hayward also has a heritage of interest in real estate. His family shaped
Delaware's landscape in the 20th century.

Hayward's great-uncle Pierre S. du Pont was one of the three du Pont cousins
who created the modern DuPont Co. He was instrumental in transforming the
highest point in Wilmington in the early part of the 20th century with the
DuPont Building, the Hotel du Pont, the Public Building and the creation of
Rodney Square in the manner of the City Beautiful movement.

Another Hayward ancestor, T. Coleman du Pont, spent his own money to build a
highway running the length of the state. The Du Pont Highway is now praised
as a forerunner of the interstate highway system. Other members of the du
Pont family, including Coleman's oldest child, Francis, and his son-in-law,
C. Douglass Buck, were also involved in highway work. Francis du Pont was
one of the chief proponents of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Coleman du Pont
was also involved in real estate development in New York City.

In 1905, at about the time the du Ponts were building the company
headquarters in downtown Wilmington, the Pennsylvania Railroad was trying to
capture the railroad business along the Northeast Corridor. Although Furness
also designed buildings for competing railroads, he was hired by
Pennsylvania Railroad President A.J. Cassat to build a station in Wilmington
on a restricted site and a limited budget, said Lewis, the Williams College
art history professor.

Furness built an Italian Renaissance-style station that had the tracks
passing over the main waiting room. The clock tower was designed to identify
the building on the skyline and to serve as a symbol of punctuality, Lewis
said.

In 2001, the B&O Water Street Station was renovated by the Riverfront
Development Corp., the group charged by the state with redeveloping the
waterfront, at a cost of approximately $1.3 million. The construction was
done through a purchase agreement with ING Direct. Michael S. Purzycki,
executive director of the development group, said it recovered the majority
of the renovation costs through the sale to ING.

"Probably about $150,000 or $200,000 was not recovered, but it was in the
interest of seeing the building restored to its highest architectural and
historic preservation standards," Purzycki said.

Reach Maureen Milford at 324-2882 or mmilford_@_delawareonline.com.


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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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