DC Union Station Design Changes

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Tracktwentynine

Tracktwentynine

OBS Chief
Joined
Nov 23, 2010
Messages
588
Location
Washington, DC
The Union Station Redevelopment Corporation is proposing some major changes to the Great Hall in Washington Union Station. These will be the first significant changes since the Great Hall was reopened in 1988.

The proposal calls for cutting two new escalator shafts through the floor to connect to the underground food court/shopping mall. You can read more about the proposal on Greater Greater Washington.


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NOTE: if you have comments about the plan, you must submit them by TOMORROW (Thursday, October 25).
 
Those towering neon signs coming out of the escalator shafts are pretty ugly but otherwise I'm OK with there being these additional escalators to the food court. That would improve traffic flow down there and perhaps increase visitation to the point that the movie theater might come back.

Of course that might be a sentimental thing on my part - I had some good times at the Union Station movie theatre when I was in grad school at College Park, MD.

Oh...... and I remember the PIT in Union Station in the 1970's...... please no more of that.
 
The new design has been on placards in The Great Hall for a long while - since this spring? - if you could find it amongst the scaffolding.

Personally I prefer the new design over the current one, as it gets rid of the ugly, and out of place, two level restaurant, which has been at odds with the original design of The Great Hall since day one of the 'redeveloped' WAS. I'll gladly trade two escalators, which will improve traffic flow, for that eyesore in the center of the hall.
 
Notelvis said:
Oh...... and I remember the PIT in Union Station in the 1970's...... please no more of that.
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Amen. When they first started building that in ca. 1975, we all assumed that it was going to be an entrance to the Metro Red Line, which was also under construction at the time. When it was finally done, they installed that multi-projector slide show...which never worked right, ever. Thank heavens they got the redevelopment right the second time. I guess we can be glad that the roof leaked.
 
Couldn't they just replace the existing stairways in front of the ticket counters with escalators?
 
Guest said:
Couldn't they just replace the existing stairways in front of the ticket counters with escalators?
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The escalators will lead down to the southern edge of the current food court space with a new retail & restaurant area to be built where the (closed) movie theater space is located. So the new escalators from the main hall will provide more direct access to the expanded lower level retail space as well additional access to the food court. Just making the front part of Union station even more of a retail mall than it already is. Which is fine.

The big changes are going to be to the concourse and tracks on the north side, but there is a lot of study, engineering, and lining up the funds to be accomplished before that multi-phase many year project gets started.
 
The last time I was in WUS was about May 22 to pick up a laptop that I left on the Empire Builder. The only way in at that time was through the west entrance. I wandered through the scaffolding where the repairs were being made to fix the earthquake damage. Any idea if there will be an Inaugural Ball in the Great Hall on January 20, 2013?

Before my first Amtrak trip from WUS, (2001) I remember seeing mice in the McDonalds at the east end of the food area. Are they still there?

I do remember eating at a decent restaurant that was near the elevator on the second floor.
 
The Davy Crockett said:
AmtrakBlue said:
The Davy Crockett said:
Notelvis said:
I think the mice were waiting to catch the Silver Meteor for a family reunion in Orlando. :D
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:lol: :lol: :lol: Great Reply!

Which brings to mind this song (Sung to the Three Musketeers tv show theme tune):

M-I-C-K-E-Y, S-L-E-E-Z....
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Uh, that's the Mouseketeers theme song.
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:blush: OOPS! :blush: Details, De tails... Thanks for catching that. At least you knew what I meant. :lol:
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Yeah, I'm old enough to remember the original then had kids when the new version came out.
 
So now I'm getting ads for Disneyworld in the banner ad here at AU. :eek:hboy:

:lol:

:
 
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Yesterday, Sat 10/27 I was driving around WAS trying to find where to drop of Wifey, Sister and luggage and where to return my rental car - what a nightmare. I thought I was starring in a Fellini fflic.

I understand that upgrades should be made but how about informational signage for tourists/travelers at tourist/traveler places?
 
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