Grimshaw Reveals the Design of Washington Union Station Expansion Project

Architecture practice Grimshaw, in collaboration with Beyer Blinder Belle, Arup, and VHB, has revealed designs for the Washington Union Station Expansion Project (SEP) in Washington DC, USA. The project will ensure the preservation of the historic station and will improve access to the existing railway services, Metrorail, DC Streetcar, and bus services. The expansion aims to become a multi-modal transportation hub for the district adjacent to the historic station. In addition, the SEP will incorporate enhanced vehicle access and cycle and pedestrian routes.

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The station is a key terminal on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, the busiest passenger rail corridor in the United States, and is also the district’s primary intercity bus terminal. The project will increase the transit capacity of the station, which currently supports over 40 million passenger journeys a year. The existing Beaux-Arts station, designed by Daniel Burnham and opened in 1907, will be connected to a new train concourse, complete with modernized tracks and platforms, a bus facility, new passenger concourses, and a below-the-ground vehicle facility. The train concourse is defined by an expansive, clear-span roof structure with extensive skylights. This will become the circulation hub for the station, enhancing passenger experience, access, and mobility.

Occupying the equivalent of two city blocks, the design for the station expansion also builds on the civic importance of the historic station, reinforcing and respecting its status as one of the nation’s treasured transportation landmarks. ON an urban level, the project delivers a new destination for the district’s visitors and residents via the H street concourse, which links the neighborhoods to the east and west. The project will now move into the next stage of concept development in tandem with the ongoing environmental review process.

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The civic significance and historic context of Washington’s Union Station is a fantastic springboard for the station expansion project. Our designs will maintain the historic station as a destination in the district but also integrate it into the fabric of the surrounding neighborhoods and deliver an improved passenger experience for 21^st-century travel. – Nikolas Dando-Haenisch, Principal, Grimshaw.

Grimshaw is an international architectural practice with offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Dubai, Melbourne, and Sydney. Recently, the practice has been selected to design Budapest’s new Nyugati Railway Station and the City Rail Link, a large infrastructure project in Auckland, New Zealand. Sir Nicholas Grimshaw has also established the Grimshaw Foundation, a charitable organization aiming to bring access to creative learning tools to a diverse range of young people.