Historic Architecture

Intermodal design can be transformational for communities as a central transportation transfer area, especially when designed with the goal of creating an exceptional public space. Intermodal centers, when able to be located next to heavy rail line, is especially fortuitous when an existing historic train station is involved. Such is the case in our intermodal facilities designed in Racine Wisconsin; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Niagara Falls, NY; Petersburg, VA.

 

Both Racine and Kalamazoo were fortunate to have existing historic train stations on site that were renovated to accommodate building program associated with both train and bus operations, as well as create grand public spaces for the community. Racine was a turn of the century Frost and Granger (Chicago Firm) Depot while Kalamazoo Depot was a 1898 Cyrus Eidlitz designed depot on the National Register of Historic Places. Wendel was retained to design significant bus transfer centers immediately adjacent to and contiguous with these two historic train depots.

 

Racine was designed to accentuate the classic brick detailing of the existing depot with long, graceful arches over the bus transfer areas, focusing and drawing attention to the main entrance of the Depot. The original Victorian garden was restored between the bus transfer area and the Depot as a community space, shared by both the travelling public, local businesses and residents. The existing Depot was renovated for interior waiting for customers, ticketing and future high speed rail use.

 

Our award-winning Kalamazoo project was no easy task in the fact that 20 bus slips were being proposed to be located in front of a depot on the National Register of Historic Places. In order to make this work, the busses were located flanking both sides of the Richardsonian porte cochere and turret (the main entrance features of the Depot). The bus canopy systems were designed to mimic the classic Richardsonian half arch form as visual anchors which were then blended with soaring 60’steel truss girders. When illuminated at night, the facility glows with a feeling of modern nostalgia, completely integrating the past and modern present. The area between the flanking canopies is a spacious public plaza, well illuminated and landscaped with annual planting by local community groups, and is used by the travelling public and local residents.

 

Niagara Falls was challenged with creating a modern elevated train station (street to rail is separated by 20’ grade differential) that was to be physically connected to another National Register of Historic Places structure, the Niagara Falls Customs House. Not only is the Customs House considered a masterpiece of stone construction but was once an integral location of the 19th century Underground Railroad. The new station design had to blend the past with the future, as well as accommodate all modern program needs of an international rail/border crossing. A glass atrium connects the new train depot with the Customs House, which will house the Department of Homeland Security program. The atrium contains all the vertical circulation components needed to traverse the 20’ grade difference as well as giving the community a grand public interior waiting area that will spill out into outdoor public space, designed as an interpreted experience. 

 

All is not lost if the existing train depot has been razed, which is the case in Petersburg, Virginia. The intermodal site had once been the site of multiple heavy rail lines with many historic structures, long since demolished to allow for surface parking lots and a fast food suburban restaurant. Public meetings revealed deep nostalgia toward the original historic building context. Petersburg Station’s design was a reaction to these meetings, blending glass, brick and steel into a modern interpretation of the classic tobacco warehouse vernacular that once ringed the site. The facility restores the urban streetscape while connecting all four streets of this large urban block with public spaces for all to enjoy.