I’m at the Raleigh Union Station meeting and wanted to get this out. The mayor announced a groundbreaking for March 21, 2015.

More to add later.

The meeting tonight was more open house than new information. The groundbreaking announcement was the biggest piece of news and the March 21 date is not an accident. March 21, 2015 is the 175th anniversary of the first train to arrive in Raleigh.

In addition to the already posted renderings, a fantastic model of the Union Station site was on display.

They estimate about two years for construction so look forward to the new station opening sometime in 2017.

[UPDATE: 9-11-14]
For posterity I’m copying the city’s press release on the topic that came out after this event.

On March 21, 1840, the people of Raleigh were witnesses to history. On that Saturday in the spring, a train rumbled into Raleigh for the first time. Over the next century, the era of the locomotive would dominate transportation in the modern world. Eventually, cars and planes would supplant the locomotive. But few inventions shaped the physical destiny on nations like the train.

On March 21, 2015, the people of Raleigh will once again have the opportunity to witness history. On that Saturday, officials will break ground on the first phase of Raleigh’s Union Station, a joint initiative of the North Carolina Department of Transportation Rail Division and the City of Raleigh. The estimated cost of the first phase of the project is $73 million. Current funding for the project totals $66.25 million through a series of federal grants, and state and local matches. The City’s contribution to the construction is $5.75 million. The first phase will include the renovation of the Dillon Supply Company Warehouse at 510 West Martin Street into a passenger rail facility.

Once completed (estimated date of 2017), the station will transform the transportation infrastructure of Raleigh. Not only will the station serve Amtrak passengers, the station will add new retail and commercial office space to its warehouse district location. The station will feature three levels of restaurants, shops and offices, and offer visitors a rooftop view of the Downtown Raleigh skyline.

Throughout the design process, architects from Clearscapes sought public feedback on the aesthetics and amenities. The firm strove to honor the City’s railroad heritage while looking at how other cities have reused warehouses. Planners envision a vibrant, active and economically viable space that benefits rail passengers and creates a new Downtown destination. Upon full-build-out, Raleigh Union Station will serve as a transportation hub for local and regional commuter and passenger rail, buses, taxis, bicyclists and pedestrians.

On September 9, the final public information session at the Contemporary Art Museum gave people a last chance to look at the designs and scope of the project and ask questions of the designers.

“Creating great public spaces, both interior and exterior, are significant goals for this project,” said Steve Schuster, the designer of the project for Clearscapes, PA. “That is very much in line with having this facility be authentic, memorable, and unique. We were very pleased when the national Amtrak architect spent the day with us reviewing the project and remarked at the end of the day that the Raleigh Union Station is, in his view, the most exciting rail station project happening in the nation.”

In 2012, Raleigh’s Amtrak Station served 164,000 passengers, making it one of the busiest Amtrak stations in the southeast. But the location and size of the current train station cannot accommodate the expected increases in ridership. Additionally, the current station only has 1,800 square feet of passenger waiting space and only 54 parking spaces.

“This design solves a lot of longstanding problems associated with this large railroad junction, and does so in a way that creates new opportunities,” said City of Raleigh Planning Director Ken Bowers. “The design respects and builds on what’s special about the warehouse district. The reuse of existing industrial building will result in a unique and dramatic space. The echoes of the area’s rail and industrial heritage are reflected throughout the design. The new plaza creates a signature open space at the terminus of Martin Street that will serve as a focal point for a growing arts and innovation district, and connect pedestrians into the Downtown core. The result will be a gathering place that will be a magnet for not just travelers but also area residents, workers and visitors.”

The Raleigh Union Station project has been one of the most publicly accessible projects that has come through the city in the last few years. The final public session is next week so make sure to catch up with the previous blog coverage and come out to CAM on September 9.

I’m going to recommend that a Raleigh flag be put up with the USA and NC flag like in the rendering above.

Email readers: This blog post has image galleries. Read the post on the blog to see all the images.

Last night at the Contemporary Art Museum, the good folks at Clearscapes presented the next round of updates to the Raleigh Union Station design. In addition to reviewing the ongoing comments and showing the most up-to-date floorplans, the crew had some very preliminary renderings of what Raleigh’s next train station could look like.

There’s still over a year of design work to do, we’re six months into an almost 20 month process, so keep that in mind as you review these shots from the public lecture. The team is certainly doing their homework. They’ve looked at how other cities have reused warehouses and are trying to keep that railroad heritage ingrained into the new design.

One thing we can’t get around is the strong support for parking. Let me reiterate that while the current designs show an inadequate amount of parking, everyone on the design and planning team are aware of this and there is plenty of time to address that issue. The city is starting a comprehensive parking study of the entire Raleigh warehouse district and out of this a solution will most likely come to address Union Station.

Below is a gallery of renderings, photos taken while at the lecture on June 26, for you to see what ideas are on the table. Click to see larger versions.

The design phases of the Raleigh Union Station project continue on and there has been no shortage of opportunities for citizens to provide feedback to the design team. On June 26, there will be another opportunity to see the latest sketches and concepts of Raleigh’s newest train station. The design team at Clearscapes is due to deliver a 25% concept in July 2013.

For those that need to catch up, my last Union Station post covered some of the content shown at the May workshop.

Some recent twists to the project have been news about loss of funding. Here are relevant N&O articles.

• Raleigh train hub loses $15.1M to Charlotte rail line
• Tata says NCDOT is committed to Union Station project

In my opinion, this could be just a hiccup in the project as is most likely common in something involving so many different parties. We’ll hold speculation for later.

Yesterday, a group from the City of Raleigh, NCDOT, and Clearscapes were hosting the public at the Contemporary Art Museum to show off some updates to Raleigh’s upcoming Union Station. This is part of an ongoing effort for citizens to take part in the design process of downtown’s new train station.

The last public meeting was only two months ago so I wasn’t expecting much to be honest. Clearscapes did have slightly new renderings and one interesting slide about the feedback that they have collected.

Almost half of the comments collected so far are related to connectivity, mainly pertaining to pedestrian and bicycle traffic. The design of the new station is attempting to be easily accessible by a variety of modes and from many different directions. In addition to obvious connectivity off West Street, the architects are tossing around the idea of connecting a walkway westward up to Boylan Avenue.

Parking was another concern from the public. There’s no real concrete solution for Union Station parking at this time. The site plans show that only 36 spaces can fit on the site. All parties agree that this is far too few to adequately serve the station. There’s work being done behind the scenes to try and find a solution in the surrounding properties so more details are to come for sure.

The rest of the comments cover a couple of other things. People are interested in really making the entrance way an iconic space, especially the plaza. Use of natural light was also commented on and is leading to designs with more glass.

Here’s a new sketch that I haven’t seen before that shows the gateway from the civic plaza. The cross section shows the possible flow of pedestrians from the plaza and into the station. It also shows how the station will work “around” the in-use freight track that runs between the plaza and the station.

Here’s the latest site plan for you to geek over. Click on it to see it large. I didn’t realize how long the Amtrak platform really is.