In St. Louis, Missouri, the St. Louis Union Station (a National Historic Landmark since 1970) was once the world’s largest and busiest train station. It opened on September 1, 1894, and was designed by Theodore Link. It featured a gold-leafed Grand Hall, Romanesque arches, a 65-foot (20 m) barrel-vaulted ceiling and stained-glass windows. The clock tower is 280 feet (85 m) high.
Union Station’s headhouse and midway are constructed of Indiana limestone and initially included 42 tracks. At its height, the station combined the St. Louis passenger services of 22 railroads, the most of any single terminal in the world, and its trainshed had the largest roof span in the world. In 1903, the station was expanded to accommodate visitors to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.
In the 1940s, it handled 100,000 passengers a day. The famous photograph of Harry S. Truman holding aloft the erroneous Chicago Tribune headline, “Dewey Defeats Truman“, was shot at the station as Truman headed back to Washington, DC from Independence, Missouri after the 1948 Presidential election.
As airliners became the preferred mode of long-distance travel and railroad passenger services declined in the 1950s and 1960s, the massive station became obsolete and too expensive to maintain for its original purpose. With the takeover of national rail passenger service by Amtrak in 1971, passenger train service to St. Louis was reduced to only three trains a day. Amtrak stopped using Union Station on October 31, 1978; the six trains daily did not justify such a large facility.
By 1980, the empty Union Station was the obvious set for the gladiatorial fight in the dystopian Escape from New York. Then, in 1985, the first developer stormed the barricades. Steve Miller of Oppenheimer Properties amassed $135 million, and The Rouse Company, using HOK as its architect, restored the station’s grandeur and filled it with shops and restaurants. “It came down to this indescribable thing, a feeling in my gut that, considering the price we could buy it at, we could make something out of Union Station,” Miller said at the time.
Union Station thrived for several years as a novelty, but soon its only regulars were post-office workers grabbing a quick lunch at the food court and tourists charmed by the gusty singing at The Fudgery. In 2005, Mike Kelly of Chicago bought Union Station and invested about $105 million into it. The bottom fell out of his financing in the Bush administration’s economic crash of 2008, and the station froze in place.
Today, Union Station serves only light-rail passengers on MetroLink‘s Red and Blue Lines, while the city’s Amtrak intercity train station sits a quarter-mile to the east.
Now, another rebirth is in the making, led by new owner Bob O’Loughlin, chairman and chief executive of Lodging Hospitality Management (LHM). The renovations that have redefined the hotel and surrounding station will continue. Paying homage to the rich history of the city of St. Louis and Union Station, one of the major updates will be the restoration of the massive steel train shed, bringing it back to its original glory of more than 120 years ago.
By the time a final phase is complete, it will have museums, shops, office space, and an aquarium, bringing the renovation to $100 million. St. Louis-based PGAV Destinations had been chosen to design the aquarium, which owners are hoping will attract 1 million visitors annually.
Visitors will get a bird’s-eye view of the train shed and the iconic St. Louis skyline when they board the neighboring 200-foot St. Louis Wheel. Open year-round, the Ferris wheel will feature 42 enclosed gondolas, each equipped with seating for eight adults. And if folks are in the mood to splurge, one special “VIP” gondola will even have leather bucket seats, a stereo system and a glass floor. [July 5 update: Local citizens have since rejected the ferris wheel plans, saying it’s a great idea, but not right for their neighborhood.]
Union Station’s train attractions, like the popular Holidays at Union Station excursion that families enjoy during the holidays, echo the building’s original purpose of exploring in a new direction.
The existing outdoor space will be reimagined, giving new life to old train cars and steel shipping containers as dining hot spots for burgers, craft beer, wine and sweet treats.
A new pedestrian entrance will be opened at 18th Street and Clark Avenue, including an archway illuminated with festoon lighting along the pathways, guiding visitors through the plaza, which will be available to host festivals and fairs, live music, farmer’s markets and other events. A spectacular 3-D animated light and fire show, synchronized to music, will dazzle visitors at Union Station’s small lake.
Aquarium rendering by PGAV Destinations.
Anchoring the entire Union Station development will be the stunning St. Louis Aquarium, set to open in 2018. Located in the former retail space inside the station, the 75,000-square-foot aquarium will house one-of-a-kind aquatic exhibits with thousands of different species and will be an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The aquarium’s highlight will be its shark tank, holding one of the largest collections of sharks in the Midwest. And for those souls brave enough to cross over, the exhibit will include a rope bridge suspended only inches above the shark infested waters.
The new additions at Union Station hope to capture the essence of history, fun and entertainment that the city offers, with the added bonus of being able to stay in the hotel right on site. Convenient, easily accessible and joining nearby downtown attractions like City Museum and the Gateway Arch grounds, the reimagined Union Station remains an inspiring must-visit destination for locals and visitors alike.
“Lodging Hospitality Management and Groundswell Design Group are bringing a new vision for Union Station to life,” said O’Loughlin. “This redesign will invite people to experience Union Station in a totally new way. It will celebrate modern technology with key features that include the Gateway Light Tunnel, a fire show on the lake and a 3-D animation activation above the lake and on the hotel façade. As always, we will pay homage to the rich history of St. Louis and Union Station by creating a great entertainment destination to be enjoyed by guests of all ages.”
The indoor concept will convert the existing mall area into 48 train-themed hotel rooms and 30,000 square-feet of new, private event space. This will bring the total number of hotel guest rooms to 587, and event space will total 137,000 square feet after the renovation. The new hotel rooms will be designed to reflect the historic railroads that originally operated at St. Louis Union Station, which opened to the public in 1894. Guests will receive a personalized train ticket for their room at check in. Inside the new train-themed rooms, high-end features include 50-inch TVs with sound bars for an in-room theater experience, hardwood floors and walk-in showers.
New green space will be created outside the Hard Rock Café and will continue through a central plaza toward the lake and Landry’s restaurant. The existing outdoor space will be reinvigorated with an array of food and drink offerings housed in a series of vintage train cars and repurposed shipping containers. The new food and drink outlets will feature American classics such as barbecue, burgers, ice cream and funnel cakes. Craft beer, wine and cocktails will be served throughout the space from a variety of themed beverage stations.
A new pedestrian entrance at 18th and Clark Street will feature the “Gateway Light Tunnel,” an illuminated archway that will guide visitors into the outdoor plaza. Activities such as beer and barbeque festivals, live music events, farmers markets, craft fairs, and much more are being planned for the new plaza space. At night, a variety of engaging light shows and illuminations will enhance the space.
“Festoon lighting along the pathways in seating areas will provide illumination and guide visitors through the space,” said David Fierabend, principal of Groundswell Design Group. “A special Tube Light show will be featured every 30 minutes which will synchronize with music. This breathtaking, multimedia experience will add a totally unique and contemporary dynamic to the property. We’re very excited to partner in this project and help reestablish Union Station as a premier family-friendly destination in downtown St. Louis.”
Featured photo by Dustin Batt via Wikipedia.
See May 2, 2017 article by Mike Faulk in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
See St. Louis Union Station website & image credits.