Union Station (Chicago) - Definition and Overview

Union Station is a Chicago, Illinois train station which was built 1913–1925, during the time when Chicago reigned as the undisputed railroad center of the United States. Union Station was built on the west side of the Chicago River and currently stands today between Adams Street and Jackson Street. It was, including the approach track and storage, about nine and a half city blocks in size, mostly underground.

A replacement for the Grand Passenger Station built in 1881, Chicago Union Station was built by a consortium of four railroads: Pennsylvania Railroad, the Chicago & Alton Railroad, the Burlington Route, and the Milwaukee Road. The architect was Daniel Burnham of Chicago, who died before its completion. The firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst & White completed the work to Burnham's designs. Work began in 1913 and was completed in 1925. Construction was delayed by World War I, labor shortages and strikes. It is one of about a dozen monumental Beaux-Arts railroad stations that were among the most complicated architectural programs of the era called the "American Renaissance," combining traditional architecture with engineering technology, circulation patterning and urban planning.

Upon its completion, Union Station was hailed as an outstanding achievement in railroad facility planning. Today, the monumental neoclassical station is the last-remaining Class 1 railroad terminal still in use in Chicago. The station's ornate Beaux-Arts main waiting room, the "Great Hall," is one of the United States' great interior public spaces with its vaulted skylight, statuary, and connecting lobbies, staircases, and balconies. The Great Hall is over 34 meters high. Enormous wooden benches are arranged in the room for travellers to wait for connections.

During World War II, Union Station was at its busiest, handling as many as 300 trains and 100,000 passengers daily. In 1969, the concourse at Union Station was demolished so that two office buildings and a new, modernized concourse could be constructed. In 1992, Union Station was renovated by Lucien Lagrange Associates. Union Station currently serves Amtrak and the Chicago area commuter rail service called Metra. In 2004, approximately 50,000 people use the station on a daily basis.

Current services

See also

• Pennsylvania Station, New York City, and the list of other "Union Stations."
• Graham, Anderson, Probst & White Homepage (http://www.gapw.com/) - see "Historical Architectural Projects" pages