The tiny little rendering that the developer has on their website is fairly scary. It looks as if the development is NOT pedestrian friendly, something like 6 lanes and no on street parking. Ouch.

Why can't we get this right?

by Boots on May 29, 2008 12:25 pm • link • report

What road are you referring to? H St? Columbus Circle? I think that picture with the red is just the existing conditions (H Street past Union Station is definitely not pedestrian friendly now) with the red coloration added to show the project area. There's a really tiny sketch of the completed development here but it's too small (for me at least) to see street widths. Or is there another rendering?

by David Alpert on May 29, 2008 12:29 pm • link • report

Boots, I wouldn't read too much into those renderings (or rendering, singular). I'd imagine that's all purely schematic at this point.

by Alex B. on May 29, 2008 12:32 pm • link • report

David: check this link:

http://www.burnhamplace.com/links.asp

by Alex B. on May 29, 2008 12:34 pm • link • report

Aha. Yeah, that's better than H Street now but not as much better as it could be. We should advocate for DDOT not to require that H Street retain the same number of travel lanes as it has today.

by David Alpert on May 29, 2008 12:37 pm • link • report

The developer has talked about several pedestrian improvements on other occasions, including refurbishing the "Hopscotch Bridge" (H St.) and its sidewalks and creating a pedestrian mall from the bridge through to the Union Station concourse, lined with retail. H St. itself is getting new streetscapes thanks to the Great Streets program (in addition to trolleys), and 2nd St. NE is being improved with the new SEC building. I also read that Union Station is planning to build a pedestian access from 1st St. NW into the station.

This is all very good for those of us who walk to and from Union Station every day. The only piece that would be lacking is a re-design of that abomination, Columbus Circle.

by YL on May 29, 2008 12:41 pm • link • report

I know I’m going to get alot of crap from everyone for saying this but they should just demolish the building and build new station that can handle all of the traffic that goes through it.

It may be old, may be historic but so what it cannot meet the demands of the amount of people coming through it daily, it is basically the main train station in the area and soon to be bus station in the area This a major city in terms of its importance, not really by population however if you were to include the full population of the metro area it could equal that of any large city in the US besides LA or NYC.

With the amount of people coming through it from Metrorail, VRE, Marc, Amtrak, soon to be Greyhound, plus people catching cabs getting dropped off there, getting on metro buses and people working, shopping there the building it just too damn crowded for all of that.

The whole place should just be rebuilt with a bigger building that is about 3 for or five stories; they should start with fixing the flow of traffic in Columbus circle.

No matter how you look at it or what you say the building is not the appropriate for everything that goes on there.; and by adding more buildings on top of the parking lot without looking at the streets around there will just add to more traffic problems. It will add more traffic by foot, car, and tour bus etc. on H Street, 1st street, 2nd street, Mass Ave, Columbus circle, North Capitol Street and in union station itself.

All there doing now is thinking about how much money they can get with the development of offices and more retail space without regards to how they will affect the traffic there, and since this location has a train station and will have a bus station every last person that will get on Amtrak or a greyhound bus there will not use metro that’s a plain and simple fact it doesn’t matter if a public transportation is 2 feet away everyone will not use it and they should aspect that and look at the building for that type of view instead of everyone using Wmata.

The whole place should just be rebuilt with a bigger building; they should start with fixing the flow of traffic in Columbus circle. Union station is a piece of shit to get around when there are huge crowds in the station and how lines form outside of the Amtrak area to down the width of the building to the bookstore and this should be there first concern handling huge crowds.

If I had my way I’d get rid of everything in the front extend the circle pass where all the flags are move the flags back have specific areas for tour buses, taxis, cars dropping people off/picking up and metro buses they all shouldn’t have to use the same exit and entrance. The area where the metro buses go should be bigger and no traffic except Wmata vehicles should be able to enter. At times you may find 7 or 8 buses there and they all can’t fit and they sometimes double park, and also they could whom ever has jurisdiction there keep tour buses out of the metro buses area.

Tear down Union station build a whole new building with parking underground and the trains below that with ramps, escalators and elevators to specific areas. 1 level that is just for Amtrak and a smaller level for Marc and VRE all with shops for the people catching the trains. All trains that enter Union station should be underground period. Wmata should have a completely separate area and concourse that is in front of the building for their trains and there buses above it with the appropriate space for each to handle the amount of people as well as trains and buses.

The front of Union station should be divided into a space for cars dropping off and picking people up and another area for Wmata with their buses and plaza in the middle with the Metrorail entrance and a straight path from the middle of the building for people to walk out of , with side and end entrances as well but the entrance in the middle would act as a main entrance to the building with a metro entrance in the center of the path and a fountain behind it and to the left you would have an area for cars to drop people off and to the right you have an area for metro buses and space for future light rail and or more buses. Taxis and other vehicles like limos and Tour buses would enter to an area on the side that does not affect the traffic of the cars and buses in front.

Builders should look at Japan and South Korea for building an effective train station with shops and restaurants in the amount that equals a mall in a train station

by kk on May 29, 2008 3:22 pm • link • report

kk,

You always have an axe to grind against Union Station, don't you?

It's certainly busy - but not overcrowded, and certainly not worth demolishing. Should rail traffic continue to increase in popularity, Washington will probably have to consider a second station to handle a great deal of the commuter traffic - but under no circumstances would they or should they demolish Union Station.

I've never had any problems with the volume of people traveling through there on a daily basis.

by Alex B. on May 29, 2008 4:12 pm • link • report

Interesting that the only complaints KK really seems to have about Union Station relates to vehicle flow out front. (I've never encountered any serious crowding inside, even when the grand hall is rented out for an event.) Maybe KK should try using the drop-off zones at 1st (by Metro) or 2nd St (by the Marshall Bldg) NE -- or better yet, use transit to get to and from the station -- and leave one of the most beautiful public spaces in DC alone.

by John on May 29, 2008 4:39 pm • link • report

By the way, more information about intermodal connections to the rear of Union Station is contained in the DDOT's report on H Street NE, available at:

http://www.bakerprojects.com/hstreetne/rpt_final.asp

by John on May 29, 2008 5:01 pm • link • report

I have no problem with the Building however if you go to Union station or the Greyhound station around Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Years or other major travel holidays you will see how crowded those places can get.

We really don’t have to demo the station just remodel on the scale it had starting in 1981, move around some areas demo a couple walls make the entire north side from McDonalds to the Liquor store all for trains passengers and other parts for shopping and etc.

It is a train station first a mall and historic site second.

I’m looking at like this as if all the plans are finished, the buildings over the tracks, Greyhound etc. when everything is done how will it be to go from say the office buildings to the metro or to greyhound or Amtrak, how will the new buildings with an extra 2-3000 people atleast affect the space inside of union station the platforms for Metrorail, Amtrak, Greyhound, how will H, 1st, 2nd street and the circle be with more traffic and more people. Are the sidewalks wide enough etc? I’m looking at when the whole development is finished and not just parts of it or how it is now im looking at the future, the station will become more and more busy not less.

by kk on May 29, 2008 6:04 pm • link • report

Thank you all for your sincere and honest comments and suggestions regarding the Union Station Intermodal Transit Center Feasibility Study. Please feel free to contact our project hotline at 202-561-3700 or visit the link to the project website to stay informed of the study's progress.

by Tomika Hughey, DDOT on May 30, 2008 8:03 am • link • report

The trains used to come in under the station in the Food Court level. The food court is quite successful so I can't imagine they'd ever revert back to it but that could create plenty of waiting space back where it used to belong in the great hall.

by NikolasM on May 30, 2008 9:20 am • link • report

One of the problems with shopping malls is that they're designed to handle parking demand for a few days around Christmas, why would we design our pedestrian spaces with that same mindset?

by Alex on May 30, 2008 11:38 am • link • report

Tear down Union Station? Yeah, because tearing down Penn Station in New York was such a good idea.

Tear it down and guaranteed you would:

1. Functionally have a worse building, with worse traffic flow and unusable spaces.

2. Have an ugly building.

by Boots on May 30, 2008 5:11 pm • link • report

Preserve Union Station!!!

But redo its backside, demolish that ugly garage, replacing it with something symmetrical and neo classical, with the parking preferably underground, and extend its framing streets such as Delaware Avenue northerly, along a preferably depressed RR corridor beneath a new linear mall- the Grand Arc!

Union Station really is the unrecognized headpiece!

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2008/02/extending-legacy-with-grand-arc.html

by Douglas Willinger on Jun 1, 2008 8:27 pm • link • report