HOK, Parsons Design Train Shed for Union Station

WASHINGTON, DC-Union Station is poised to undergo a massive redevelopment plan of some $7 billion. One part of that redevelopment will be the construction of a new train shed that will welcome passengers to Union Station as they exit their trains, or conversely, bid adieu to passengers as they leave the city. HOK and Parsons Brinckerhoff are the train hub’s designers. The hub will link the new passenger concourses with retail and passenger amenities and a series of new street entrances. There will also be a planted, vegetated roof to retain rainwater and temper the interior environment.

“The undulating green rooftops of the entrance recall the individual tracks below and dispel the impression that the north entrance is a back door," said Bill Hellmuth, HOK's DC-based president and design leader for the project, in a prepared statement. “The overall design underscores the inherent sustainability of mass transit.” HOK is providing master planning, programming, architecture, cost modeling, stakeholder consensus building and project management services. 

Taken as a whole, though, the train hub will be only a tiny part of the reconstruction project. Amtrak is proposing a plan to reposition Union Station as a high-speed rail hub for the region. The plan would include new platforms, trains and tracks that would double the existing transport capacity. There will also be a $1.5-billion three-million-square foot mixed-use development called Burnham Place that would be built atop the rail yards north of Union Station and that is integrated as part of Amtrak's overall Union Station Master Plan.