Designing the Public Spaces at Union Station

Over the coming months, members of our team here at Riverfront Park, our partners at Continuum Partners, at a whole cadre of spectacular consultants and curious and dedicated citizens will be designing the new public spaces for Union Station.

The only other project in Denver’s history with a scale similar to Union Station is Denver International Airport, and, to be fair, the focus their was almost entirely efficiency.  How do we get planes in here, get people off of them, put new people on them, and get those planes back out?  At Union Station, there are 10 different types of “movement” that have to be accommodated: Amtrak, the Ski Train, commuter rail, regional buses, the 16th Street Mall Shuttle, the 18th Street Circulator, light rail, cars, taxis, and bicycles.

Oh, and people.  At its heart, the redevelopment of Union Station is really about people: How do they move through the space?  Where do they shop?  Where do they eat?  Where do they rest?  Where do they wait for their train?

Well, it’s this group’s job to figure it out.  So, over the next few days, I thought I’d blog up some of the latest thinking.  But, first, let’s talk about who the people involved in the whole actually are.

The transit program’s lead designer is Marilyn Taylor at Skidmore Owens and Merrill.  Marilyn is one of the world’s foremost master planners.  She and her team have led efforts at Dulles Airport, JFK Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Singapore’s Changi Airport.  But enough about airports, what about trains?  Marilyn led the design team on every one of the 15 intercity rail stations between Washington, DC and Boston.  Not too shabby.  And, she lad the redesign of Penn Station, the expansion of which is known as Moynihan Station.  Marilyn is also the former Chairman of the Urban Land Institute.  Pretty good.

Through a public process, one master designer of the Union Station public spaces was selected.  Hargraves Associates is one of the world’s leading master planners and public space designers.  The principal in charge of the Union Station project is Mary Margaret Jones.  Some of the small projects that Hargraves have led: the Pennsylvania Avenue Streetscape in Washington, DC and the Sydney Olympics Village.

There is no doubt that the public spaces are the face of Union Station.  Public feedback has been critical and their are two very involved public groups you should be familiar with: the Union Station Advisory Committee, which has worked on the station since it was just a germ of an idea, and the more recently formed Union Station Advocates.

And, of course, there are a couple of big boys in the deal, too: the City and County of Denver and the Regional Transit District.

Photo credit.