Passenger Trains > State rolls out new designs for (Tacoma) station

State rolls out new designs for (Tacoma) Amtrak station
The News Tribune
by John Gillie
October 21, 2014

> Tacoma’s new Amtrak station design Tuesday night passed near-final
> muster from an advisory committee that 10 months ago had loudly
> rejected a prior preliminary design.
>
> The design the Washington Department of Transportation unveiled
> Tuesday for the Tacoma Amtrak Station Relocation Advisory Committee
> bore little resemblance to the bare bones metal building the state
> had first shown the committee last December.
>
> The new drawings showed a glass-walled, 180-foot-long station
> equipped with transparent garage-door-like walls that can be raised
> in fair weather to create a station open to the outside on both its
> street and track sides. The proposed station would be built in the
> middle of the 1,000-foot-long Freighthouse Square building at East
> 25th and D streets near the Tacoma Dome.
>
> The design will include a clock tower structure that will be a visual
> landmark for the station and ultimately could serve as a support and
> an elevator shaft for a pedestrian bridge between the existing Sound
> Transit garage, the new station and the new south platform at the
> station.
>
> The state’s plan doesn’t include funding for the pedestrian bridge,
> and the tower may not be included in the project if the Federal
> Railway Administration (FRA) objects. David Smelser, WSDOT’s project
> manager for the station, however, pledged to lobby for inclusion of
> the tower in the design that the FRA approves.

Full story; but the newspaper did not include any illustrations other than some
guy pointing at an easel that had a drawing which might have proved useful:

State rolls out new designs for (Tacoma) Amtrak station

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> State rolls out new designs for (Tacoma) Amtrak
> station
> The News Tribune
> by John Gillie
> October 21, 2014
>
> > Tacoma’s new Amtrak station design Tuesday
> night passed near-final
> > muster from an advisory committee that 10 months
> ago had loudly
> > rejected a prior preliminary design.
> >
> > The design the Washington Department of
> Transportation unveiled
> > Tuesday for the Tacoma Amtrak Station Relocation
> Advisory Committee
> > bore little resemblance to the bare bones metal
> building the state
> > had first shown the committee last December.
> >
> > The new drawings showed a glass-walled,
> 180-foot-long station
> > equipped with transparent garage-door-like walls
> that can be raised
> > in fair weather to create a station open to the
> outside on both its
> > street and track sides. The proposed station
> would be built in the
> > middle of the 1,000-foot-long Freighthouse
> Square building at East
> > 25th and D streets near the Tacoma Dome.
> >
> > The design will include a clock tower structure
> that will be a visual
> > landmark for the station and ultimately could
> serve as a support and
> > an elevator shaft for a pedestrian bridge
> between the existing Sound
> > Transit garage, the new station and the new
> south platform at the
> > station.
> >
> > The state’s plan doesn’t include funding for
> the pedestrian bridge,
> > and the tower may not be included in the project
> if the Federal
> > Railway Administration (FRA) objects. David
> Smelser, WSDOT’s project
> > manager for the station, however, pledged to
> lobby for inclusion of
> > the tower in the design that the FRA approves.
>
> Full story; but the newspaper did not include any
> illustrations other than some
> guy pointing at an easel that had a drawing which
> might have proved useful:
>
> State rolls out new designs for (Tacoma) Amtrak
> station


There are 4 renderings visible now, an open and closed version for both east and west. Station looks good.

Looks much better than last set shown to the public. Glad to see that the new station is much closer to light rail for those of us visiting Tacoma car-free. Will miss the ride along the water tho..

"Car-free" seems to imply there is something wrong and evil about automobiles. We love cars in Detroit!

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Car-free" seems to imply there is something wrong
> and evil about automobiles. We love cars in
> Detroit!

As long as they're not Teslas!

And, agree, this version looks much better.

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Car-free" seems to imply there is something wrong
> and evil about automobiles. We love cars in
> Detroit!


No it doesn't. Sometimes people visit places and don't have their cars with them. This is pretty common, in fact. Making it easy to get from one mode of transportation to another is a good thing, and makes no judgement on automobiles.