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Washington's Union Station is a shopping mecca and a
tourist draw. Sen. Bob Casey says 30th Street Station has "all the
potential" of Union Station. (ED HILLE / Staff Photographer)
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WASHINGTON - In the grand halls of Union Station, you can
get everything but a train.
From Appalachian Spring to Victoria's Secret, 55 retail
shops offer shoes, handbags, ties, chocolate, wine, perfume, cigars, watches,
and clothes.
Thirty-five restaurants and food stands will serve you
plank-roasted salmon on a white tablecloth or a burrito in a brown paper bag.
The many commercial lures - and the majesty of the
monumental 1907 Beaux Arts building with its vaulted, coffered ceilings and
classical statuary - have made Union Station a bigger draw than the Lincoln
Memorial or the Smithsonian Institution: 37 million people pass under its
arches each year.
But you won't hear any arrival or departure announcements
amid the opulence. To find a train, you need to go to the cramped, utilitarian
Amtrak depot attached to the back of the historic building.
Since its successful rehabilitation in the 1980s, Union
Station has become a glamorous gateway to the capital and a transforming force
in its gentrifying neighborhood. And ambitious new plans call for much more
ahead.
Could this be a model for the future of Philadelphia's
30th Street Station?
Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) invoked Union Station when he
called for upgrades to 30th Street Station in time to greet visitors for this
year's papal tour and next year's Democratic National Convention.
"This station has all the potential of Union Station
in Washington, D.C.," he said last month, standing in the soaring main
hall of the 82-year-old station in West Philadelphia.
By prodding Amtrak to move more quickly to spruce up 30th
Street Station, Casey injected new urgency into planners' visions for it and
its University City environs.
A $5.25 million master plan already is being drawn up by
Amtrak, Drexel University, and Brandywine Realty Trust for the redevelopment of
the station and 175 acres around it, including possible development atop the
rail yards adjacent to the station.
That study, though, will not be completed until fall
2016, after the last Democratic conventioneers have left town.
(A similar master plan for Union Station was completed in
2012, and the first steps are underway to make it a $7 billion reality.)
Bob LaCroix, Amtrak's deputy chief for Northeast Corridor
development, oversees the planning for both stations, and he said there were
similarities - as well as significant differences - between the two.
Both are busy transportation hubs, serving commuters as
well as Amtrak passengers. Both are in urban centers that provide lots of
potential customers who live or work nearby.
One is a mall with a train station. The other is a train
station with a food court.
Union Station has become "a very successful
commercial establishment," said Beverly Swaim-Staley, president and CEO of
the Union Station Redevelopment Corp., which rebuilt and operates the station.
"Union Station was in a very depressed neighborhood,
and the redevelopment helped bring the station back and revitalize the
neighborhood."
The University City area around 30th Street Station
"is vastly superior" to the neighborhood around Union Station in
1985, when it was renovated, LaCroix said.
Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania,
Powelton Village, Mantua, the Cira Centre, and the new Cira Centre South towers
being built next to the old post office building provide a ready customer base
for a retail and dining destination, Amtrak planners say.
Amtrak, which owns 30th Street Station but not Union
Station, recognizes that much-needed revenue can be generated by more and
better shops and restaurants in the Philadelphia station.
"We are investigating the right way to go forward
with retail development," LaCroix said. "The last development was in the
early '90s, and it's time for a refresh in the look and feel and in the kind of
retailers."
Amtrak is not an agile bureaucracy. Its rules for
analysis, bidding, procurement, and purchasing will make it hard to make any
sweeping changes before the Democratic National Convention.
But the smaller, more nimble University City District - a
creation of Penn, Drexel, Brandywine Realty, and other West Philadelphia
institutions - says it can help revamp the station area quickly.
"We're not intimidated by the timeline," said
Matt Bergheiser, executive director of the UCD, which developed "The
Porch" outside the south side of the station with tables, umbrellas, food
trucks, and seasonal performances.
"We can accomplish a huge amount in 18 months,"
said Prema Katari Gupta, director of planning and economic development for the
district.
Colorful plantings, pop-up restaurants and bars,
programs, bicycle rentals, better pedestrian access, and a dressed-up Market
Street Bridge could all make the station area more appealing quickly, she said.
One of the best opportunities for quick development is
the North Waiting Room, an empty expanse between the main hall and the restroom
area . In a city renowned for its pop-up beer gardens, parks, and performances,
the waiting room could be ideal for a temporary installation, Bergheiser said.
Amtrak says it is committed to dressing up the station's
interior for the coming visitors, and then transforming the building and its
environs in the years ahead.
"We want to make sure we put our best foot
forward," LaCroix said. "We're trying to learn all the lessons we can
and create the most value we can."
Source: Philly.com
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