(rshsdepot) Richmond, VA

["Bernie Wagenblast" <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

From Building Design and Construction magazine.

Bernie Wagenblast
Transportation Communications Newsletter
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/transport-communications

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

      Back on Track;
      Thanks to a $14 million restoration, Richmond's Beaux-Arts train 
station is back as a transport hub and beacon for downtown revitalization.

      By Renee Young, Contributing Editor

      On June 2, 1900, three-year-old John Skelton Williams, whose father 
was the president of Sea-board Air Line Railroad, celebrated the ongoing 
construction of the Main Street Station in Richmond, Va., by helping drive a 
golden spike into a section of track. Some 103 years later, before a crowd 
of 300, Williams's daughter used the same silver hammer to commemorate the 
Beaux-Arts-style station's renaissance.

      Once Richmond's traffic hub, Main Street Station fell into more than 
simple disrepair after Am-trak discontinued service in 1975. As its 
four-faced clock chronicled the decades atop a six-story tower, the 
50,000-sf building survived fires, floods, thieves, and, most ignominious of 
all, temporary conversion to a disco. For many years it stood dark -- a 
menacing black hole in the Shockoe Bottom historic district, which contains 
the oldest city market in the country. Interstate 95 funneled 150,000 cars a 
day around it.

      Then, 13 years ago, came an ambitious plan from the U.S. 
Transportation Department and the city to restore the headhouse and reopen 
the station as a multimodal hub. "It has been through a lot -- sort of the 
little station that could," says Richmond city planner Viktoria Badger, who 
has been on the project from the start.

      Uriel Schlair, project director with architect Gensler's Chicago 
office, says the project went beyond the building itself: "We needed to 
balance Richmond's past with its future and give the city a practical 
transportation solution, while bringing new life to the surrounding 
neighborhood."

      The $51.6 million project was designed to create a multimodal facility 
that serves as a visitor welcome center and a hub for Amtrak, Greyhound, 
city transit buses, airport shuttles, taxis, and tour buses. The first phase 
included the $14.1 million restoration of the landmark headhouse and 
construction of a new elevated Amtrak platform on the east side of the 
station, a mechanical plant on the west side, and 156 parking spaces, plus 
public art. Phase two, which begins this year, covers the renovation of the 
train shed.

      All aboard!

      Main Street Station opened during the golden age of railroad travel, 
when train stations provided a clear signal of a city's relative prosperity. 
It was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm of Wilson, Harrison 
and Richards for the Chesapeake & Ohio and Seaboard Air Line railroads. 
Funding issues delayed construction for a decade. By the time it was built, 
neoclassical design was in vogue, so this Romanesque/Beaux-Arts station is 
rare in the U.S. In fact, it is one of just seven in the nation, earning it 
a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

      Nearly a century later, in 1995, negotiations between various 
transportation corporations and city, state, and Federal offices delayed the 
start of the project (which at the time was under the direction of project 
architect Harry Weese Associates' Washington, D.C., office). In 2000, when 
the job again ramped up, HWA had disbanded, with several associates joining 
Gensler.

      Construction finally got under way in 2001, with Gensler as the 
project architect, local GC Daniel & Company, and project and construction 
manager URS, San Francisco. The city owns the station, while the Richmond 
Metropolitan Authority maintains it. "This team cooperated beyond corporate 
and municipal boundaries," said James Sved, URS project manager. "Once we 
had a baseline, it was quite seamless and beautiful."

      First stop, 1901

      Restoring the five-story headhouse required exhaustive research, as 
few original drawings were extant, and many of the building's original 
exterior and interior features were either destroyed or obstructed by years 
of paint and plaster. "We used old photographs and extracted figures, 
gradually stripping down to the original forms to establish the roots of the 
structure," said Schlair.

      "With a public building such as this, there are many historic periods 
represented, all of which have their fans," he says. "But the team and the 
public agreed that we'd restore the building to day one, which kept us all 
focused." This meant that all discussions over interpretive recreation of 
destroyed elements and code-required changes to the original were guided by 
the ultimate goal of keeping faithful to the turn-of-the-century timeframe.

      Thus, when new ADA-compliant light fixtures were needed for the stair 
landings, the traditional sconces could not be used. Instead, the design 
team developed a compliant fixture featuring the logos of the C&O and 
Seaboard railroad lines. "The design team had developed a fixture, and I had 
just photographed the logos that were on the back of the building, inside 
the dormers where nobody ever saw them," says Sved. "The two were a perfect 
match, and the result is dramatic."

      The lighting design was changed to meet code requirements and modern 
lighting standards. As a result, the building's rich color palette has been 
toned down a bit, but remains true to the base tones. Where Chicago, New 
York, or Philadelphia buildings of the era would have been white and 
austere, the team found the local color palette circa 1900 to be a vivid 
post-Victorian. The outcome is a building of lush, folksy gold, nettle, 
French white, and manuscript.

      All ADA and MEP upgrades, such as a new elevator, were done as 
unobtrusively as possible, with piping, vents, and wiring fitted behind 
walls. Several modifications were made to the original design during the 
construction phase to improve security after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. For 
example, storage lockers proposed for the building were eliminated, which 
necessitated redesigning bathrooms and other public areas.

      Staying true to the original did result in some significant changes to 
the structure. A glass-floored loggia adjacent to the main waiting room, 
which had been enclosed some 80 years earlier, was restored. According to 
Badger, all restoration work was coordinated with the state historic 
preservation office and follows Section 106 of the National Historic 
Preservation Act, a requirement of all Federally funded national historic 
landmarks.

      Riding the rails

      Focusing on the historic timeframe was essential. "Every time they 
opened up a wall, there was something different in it than what was 
expected, resulting in about a one-year delay," Badger said. In addition to 
extensive lead and asbestos abatement, the team had to install a new 
structural steel support system for the original plank system on the second 
floor of the station.

      There were also significant element reconstruction challenges. All but 
two of a dozen 22-foot columns that frame the grand waiting room were 
destroyed in a 1983 fire, requiring the team to meticulously research and 
form the new faux marble columns. Recreating the ticketing hall tile 
wainscot -- only a tiny sampling of which remained in an electrical 
closet -- took eight months of R&D at Loyola University, Chicago.

      "The train station was like any building in need of extensive 
restoration -- you don't know what you're getting into until you're there, 
so you need to remain flexible and identify all your options," said Michael 
Wescott, manager with local project contractor Daniel & Company.

      This was certainly true of the renovation of the station's exterior 
surfaces, where time had taken its toll on the masonry surfaces and 
terra-cotta details. Pompeian brickwork needed extensive tuck-pointing, 
freeze and thaw cycles cracked the terra cotta and allowed water to 
infiltrate the building, balustrades were structurally unsound, and 
stone-work was deteriorating.

      While the Pompeian brickwork was carefully collected and repaired, 
sections of the rare terra cotta had to be replaced. "The original terra 
cotta was fired with speckles of iron ore in the clay mix," says URS's Sved. 
"We were fortunate to find a company that could replicate it, and Daniel & 
Company brought in skilled stone masons to handle it all." The team had to 
be flexible in order to move from one area of the building to the next as 
material lead times required -- for the terra cotta, this time ranged from 
16 to 18 weeks.

      Crews had to work on active tracks as they constructed the new 
500-foot passenger platform. "Our timing needed to be to the minute," says 
Wescott. "We'd have four or five trains a day interrupting our work flow."

      Historic documentation extended to all parts of the renovation 
process, including the train platform. While the new train platform itself 
was constructed of modern precast concrete planks that can be removed for 
maintenance, the railings and steel support structure emulate the original 
ironwork details. The entire platform rests on the original trestles, making 
it the largest intact train trestle system in the U.S.

      Punching a ticket to the future

      The Main Street Station project provides an alternative to Richmond's 
congested Routes 95 and 64 corridors and offers competitive options to 
automobile and airline travel. The Federal Inter-modal Surface 
Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 authorizes funds for cleaning areas of 
the country in danger of violating the Federal Clean Air Act by encouraging 
less automobile travel.

      For Amtrak, the project supports future growth of Northeast Corridor 
routes, notably the high-speed "Acela" train along the coast. This will 
require more space for parking and track improvements for faster trains. 
Ultimately, train ridership from Richmond is projected to increase 300% over 
the next 20 years, and officials expect 6,100 permanent jobs to be created 
and 730 new houses to be built in the area by 2015.

      "We knew we had a unique opportunity to bring this station to life --  
but the challenge was to not only restore the structure, but to have this 
20th-century building conform to 21st-century codes and requirements," says 
Robert Boell, Gensler project architect. To make practical use of the 
structure -- far too big for today's more modest rail transportation 
needs -- the top three floors of the station have been adapted into office 
space, and new retail space has been added.

      To keep these uses viable, the team abated the noise generated by I-95 
traffic by developing windows that closely resemble the historic 
fenestration that have acoustical properties that minimize exterior sounds.

      Today the station, complete with restored clock tower, serves as both 
a beacon to travelers and a community asset, with its grand foyer (great for 
wedding receptions) and its museum of Richmond's past. "When you see the 
building, you know life is there," said Boell. "It's now an anchor for the 
redevelopment of the surrounding communities."

      Project Summary

      Renee Young

      Main Street Station, Richmond, Va.

      Building Team

      Owner: City of Richmond, Va.

      Architect: Gensler

      Structural Engineer: Daniels & Associates

      Mechanical/Electrical Engineer: HCYU

      General Contractor: Daniel & Company

      Construction Manager: URS

      Historic Preservation: Sorg and Associates, P.C.

      Facilities Consultant: Gwathmey Design Group

      General Information

      Area: 50,000 gross sf

      Construction time: September 2001 through December 2003

      Construction cost: $14.1 million

      Project Suppliers

      Structural steel: Liphart Steel

      Windows: Rappahannock Millwork

      Ornamental metal: Custom Ornamental

      Floor tile: Hanover Tile

      Doors/door hardware: Architectural Products of Virginia

      Elevators: Virginia Elevator Co.

      Lighting controls: A&D Electric

      Fire Suppression: East Coast Fire Protection

      Lighting: St. Louis Antique Lighting

      Wires/power/data: Johnson Controls

      Terra cotta: Boston Valley

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

------------------------------