While Rick is doing a fantastic job of documenting the construction activities at the Denver Union Station site, I thought I would offer an overview of the DUS plan itself for those of you not yet up to speed on the final layout for the new transit hub at Union Station. As you may know, the Union Station plan has evolved over the course of five years from the adoption of the original Denver Union Station Master Plan in 2004, through the selection of the master developer in 2006, to the plan we have today. A lot of iterations and different alternatives have been evaluated over those five years, so it’s understandable if people still have questions about what the project is going to look like once it is finished in 2013 or so.
Before we begin, a quick note on why the DUS plan had to evolve in the first place. The original DUS Master Plan called for light rail, commuter rail, and the bus terminal all to be underground on the 19-acre DUS property, which was fine in concept, but it came with a price tag of $1 billion. Only about $200 million was set aside for Union Station in the FasTracks budget so… you can do the math. As it is, the current design will cost almost $500 million and yet it took several years just to come up with the missing $300 million (ultimately from federal loans). Meanwhile, the Federal Railroad Administration ruled that the design for putting the commuter rail station underground didn’t meet federal safety requirements, so the whole plan had to be revised anyway. In the end, by utilizing the wide 17th Street right-of-way and land along the consolidated freight tracks in addition to the Union Station property itself, the result was a financeable and buildable plan that integrates all of the transit, public space, and vertical development elements in a cohesive manner that will make the Union Station transit district a vibrant and dynamic hub to Downtown and the region.
The Denver Union Station plan consists of three major transit components: the light rail station, the underground RTD bus terminal, and the commuter rail station, along with private-sector development and several public spaces. The light rail station will be at-grade and located at the foot of 17th Street next to the CML (consolidated main line) freight tracks. The underground bus terminal will occupy the width of the 17th Street right-of-way and span the distance from the light rail station to the historic station. The commuter rail station will be at-grade and located between the historic station and Wewatta Street. Adjacent to and in between these three transit components are the public spaces and private-sector development sites. Here are several images that show the overall site configuration:
I’ll break this review of the DUS plan into several parts. This post will focus on the light rail station area. Future posts will cover the other two major transit elements, the public spaces, and the real estate development program. All of the images I’ll be presenting in all these Union Station posts will be taken from the various presentations available at the official project website, www.DenverUnionStation.org. I highly recommend you view the materials and information available on the DUS website to gain a full understanding of the project’s design, schedule, and other aspects.
Now, on to the plan! To get your bearings, ”west” will be towards the mountains and “east” towards Downtown; “north” towards 18th Street and “south” towards 16th.
The light rail station will cap the end of 17th Street, the spine of the entire transit district. It will have two platforms serving three tracks for the Southeast, Southwest, and West light rail lines. Access to the underground bus terminal will be provided by the Chestnut Pavilion, located immediately east of the light rail station, where elevators, escalators, and stairs will provide passengers with vertical circulation between the two levels. Also adjacent to the light rail station will be the terminus of the 16th Street Mall. The mall shuttles will drop passengers off next to the Chestnut Pavilion and pick passengers up under a large canopy shelter next to the light rail platform before completing their turn-around loop and heading back towards Downtown. The light rail station plaza will also connect to the plaza at the base of the Millennium Bridge to the south, and to the plaza at the base of the 18th Street Pedestrian Bridge to the north. Below are three images that show the light rail station, mall shuttle loop, and Chestnut Pavilion area (upper left: plan view with “west” at the top; upper right: axonometric view looking south; lower left: axonometric view looking east). The fourth image shows a preliminary cross-section view (Chestnut Place side) of how the Chestnut Pavilion will provide vertical access to the bus facility below.
Passengers exiting a light rail train will have several options to get to the commuter rail station and the historic station. They will be able to: 1.) walk the two blocks at street level along 17th Street through landscaped gardens and plazas and past the ground-floor retail and restaurant spaces that will eventually line the corridor; 2.) hop on the 16th Street Mall shuttle and get off at the very next stop at Union Station; 3.) walk underground via the pedestrian concourse inside the bus terminal; 4.) board the Downtown Circulator at its stop inside the bus terminal beneath the Chestnut Pavilion and get off at the next stop, located beneath the commuter rail platforms.
The plaza surrounding the light rail station will feature a bicycle parking area, landscaped planters, a distinctive paving pattern, and what will be perhaps the most visually interesting element, the exhaust/intake shafts for the underground bus terminal. Rising over 20 feet in height, the three shafts will be designed in a sculptural/artistic manner to complement the surrounding plaza and landscape design. Here are a few renderings of the light rail plaza area:
The light rail station will be the first major element of the Union Station project to be completed, with a projected opening later this year. Once the new light rail station is open, the existing light rail station will be removed to allow for continued excavation for the bus terminal and the commuter rail platforms.
Up next: the underground bus facility.
