Get really serious with Washington, D.C.'s Union Station

Craft the Corridor into the Grand Arc

A landscaped terraced linear park atop a primarily underground railway and highway

Would allow expanding the railways

Would include the primarily underground extension of I-395 to a continuation to I-95 via a tunnel alongside New Hampshire Avenue to the PEPCO power line corridor.

Would include above grounding the Tiber Creek to a point just south of New Yor Avenue

Bringing Up The Rear Side of Union Station

New Amtrak plan (pdf) for a major re-do of the rear of Washington D.C.'s Union Station.
Includes future lower level railroad completely below street level.

Removes the existing vehicular parking garage replaces with underground completey below street level.

Constructs new buildings atop with a glass enclosed center spine.

Is an improvement over the so-called 'Burnham' plan though still departs from Union Station's classical architecture and still represents an irrational fear of the Union Station railroad corridor shape; it should have a teardrop shaped glass canopy atop the platforms with buildings designed to compliment rather than contrast with classical Union Station.

 



Union Station Master Plan, Washington DC
http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2012/07/union-station-master-plan-washington-dc.html

Amtrak & Akridge imagine the future of Union Station
http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/15663/amtrak-akridge-imagine-the-future-of-union-station/

Amtrak makes no little plans with Union Station vision
http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/15665/amtrak-makes-no-little-plans-with-union-station-vision/

Union Station Centennial

Grand Arc Headpiece

http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2008/10/union-station-celebrates-its-100th.html

From 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday and Sunday, Amtrak will be displaying historic rail cars. Union Station Redevelopment Corporation will be displaying historic photos.

AP has a story, "Washington's Union Station celebrates 100 years."

Don't forget the in-process dissertation about Union Station by Bill Wright. He's a great writer. Check out his website.

Extending the Legacy with the Grand Arc

Washington, D.C.'s future Northern Mall!

see more at: http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2015/01/grand-arc.html

Here's an illustration from U.S. National Capital Planning Commission's 1997 publication "Extending the Legacy: Planning America's Capital for the 21st Century" that I modified with my concept for a northern mall via a reconstructed, under grounded, multi-model Metropolitan Branch RR corridor- the Grand Arc

Grand Arc Mall Tunnel at Franklin Street and Rhode Island Avenue

US NCPC model, looking south,
with aborted South Capitol Mall at top,
with ghost outline of the Grand Arc Mall extending northward from Union Station

I was told that the Extending the Legacy program WAS going to do something with this Union Station RR corridor, to depress and cover/deck it, but that it was pulled by those with significant political pull behind the scenes.

Perhaps the power elite don't like the shape of a giant comet poised at the headpiece of their literal stick figure of the U.S. Capitol Building?

The vista towards the Capitol
between Franklin Street and Rhode Island Avenue

 

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2015/01/grand-arc.html

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2008/02/grand-arc-mall-headpiece-union-station.html

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2008/02/monumental-and-mundane.html

Grand Arc Mall Headpiece: Union Station

This side was cluttered by the unsightly and unsymmetrical parking garage.

This second photo's area has since been cluttered by misplaced real estate development.

IMHO the parking garage and other such clutter ought to be demolished and replaced with something that for just a start is symmetrical, and more architecturally complimentary, and which preserves the vistas extending northerly from the axis of Union Station's flanking roadways.


Alas, monumental symmetricy appears to be lacking in what's in store for Union Station's backside areas.

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

The above rendering of the "Burnham Project" reinforces my hunch that the authorities seek to obliterate this transportation corridor's monumental thrust.

The Monumental and the Mundane

Capitol Hill

WMATA Red Line, Takoma, D.C.
looking south