http://www.wral.com/news/local/noteworthy/image/12195698/?ref_id=12195692\
looks like a parking garage to me in the Brutalist style
Views of what? It appears that not much can be seen from the two bottom floors. Multi-modal station?
If I had read the earlier thread first, I would have known that the building already exists, and not much can be done to its appearance with the funds that are not available. Also, I would known, as I surmised, that it is to be a multi-modal facility (just as what was the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal is now the New Orleans Union Station).
Just a little factoid, Johnny. For several years I worked in the New Orleans main Post office building which is next to the station. During my lunch hour I would go over and play the pin ball machines.
John
Bonas,
If you really want to see an ugly Amtrak station you should check out the one in Providence, RI. Amtrak built it in the mid 1980’s to replace an older cavernous station that is now some kind of office buildings. From the ground the current station is a low gray windowless concrete block. In some pictures the dome is visible but as you come to the station all you see is the gray block. Police cars parked around it make it look like a prison without the charm. There is a clock tower but that doesn’t really help. I can’t imagine a more ugly building.
But inside it is different. It is a fairly small station with a central waiting room. There the dome is both visible and attractive and benches are in a circle around the edges of the dome. As you enter from Gaspee Street you walk by a news stand and gift shop. Tickets and information on on the left; the Cafe La France on on the right and it serves decent and reasonably priced food. In the back is the baggage room and rest rooms. And although small it is big enough for Providence. There are stairs and an escalators down to the tracks along with elevators. In addition to Amtrak trains MBTA commuter trains run north to Boston and south to Providence Airport and then Wakefield, a suburban commuter stop. And since my time is spent inside I don’t think about the outside.
But outside is still ugly as sin.
John
Well, without the federal funding, how’ll they pay for it?
Found an image…What the heck is that, a post office?
Another ugly Amtrak station was the St. Louis Amshack. A supposedly temporary station that served for decades until the new station was built.
As I look at a map of Raleigh which shows both tracks and streets, I wonder how easy it will be for the passenger trains that go through Raleigh to reach a station which is on West Martin Street (the location of the building)
As to Amshacks, you should see the one in Salt Lake City, which used to have parking right by the station but now patrons have to cross the street (no traffic light) and Trax tracks in front of the station and go around to the track side to enter.
I dunno - it’s not all that bad. Granted, it’s not a classical design, but I can imagine worse.
The station building moves north compared to the current station, with access from a different street, but the actual platform(s) will be in essentially the same area as the current platform. Some new trackwork is planned and trains should have as easy access to the platform as today, if not better.
Proposed site map here:
http://www.ncdot.gov/projects/raleighunionstation/download/P5500RUSRevisedSitePlan.pdf
Thanks, CJtrainguy.
Kind of looks like a “Days Inn” I stayed in once in Kokomo, IN.
Jim, did it have “strolling hostesses” like the Days Inn in Brooklyn Center MN? That was a motel stay not to be repeated …
Dave Nelson
Here what Providence lost above
Maybe I am misreading the caption under the picture of the station, but I have the impression that the station was in Boston.
Yep, I seem to recall a knock at my door (which opened to the outside) at about 2 a.m., THAT is why I only stay at Hampton Inn’s or similar hotels.
Bonas,
That is a picture of Boston’s old Park Street Station. The station originally was the Boston terminal of the Boston and Providence Railroad. The road was built so people might take a night boat to New York without having to go around Cape Cod. The Park Street Station was torn down about 1910 when Boston’s South Station was built.
The link below is to the best pictures I know of to the three stations that served Providence. The first station is often shown with Civil War Troops marching to the train to take them to defend Washington, DC shortly after Fort Sumpter.
https://sites.google.com/site/rrstationsofprovidence/
John
Note that the tracks in the upper left are the old SAL tracks, on yet he S-line. These are the tracks that tha SEHSR line will come into the station on. The tracks across the bottom are he old SOU (NCRR) tracks the Amtrak currently uses. Capital Yard is to the north a mile or so.