A long-shuttered rail station in Fresno, Calif., will be renovated to serve as the city’s high speed rail (HSR) station as part of the California High-Speed Rail Authority system, the nation’s first high speed rail project. California’s HSR system will eventually link more than 800 miles of rail, served by up to 24 stations.
Design firm Page & Turnbull will work on the historic station, with a focus on accessibility updates, upgrades to meet modern fire and life-safety codes and structural and seismic standards, and the rehabilitation of key architectural features of the historic Queen Anne-style depot, built of red brick with a slate bellcast hip-roof and cupolas. Foster + Partners will design a new intermodal station at the site.
The new HSR hub will connect the historic transit depot’s former passenger and freight train stations, as realized through extensive, preliminary site surveys and 3D modeling. Attention to strengthening the buildings’ structural and seismic integrity is a priority, potentially through discrete structural approaches that will preserve the buildings’ original brick walls, such as the integration of obscured concrete columns.
The historic train depot is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It opened in 1872 as the Central Pacific Railroad station and was later developed into the Southern Pacific Depot, whose service ceased in the early 1970s. The site includes the historic passenger depot, freight depot/railway express agency building, and Pullman Shed.
As a part of the Phase 1, 119-mile Central Valley segment of the California HSR system that also includes Northern and Southern California segments, the 65-mile project section between Merced and Fresno link the Central Valley and Silicon Valley with stations in downtown Fresno and downtown Merced. The Central Valley segment will connect San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than three hours, with service expected to begin in 2027.
When complete, the 800-mile system from Sacramento to San Diego, will include an anticipated 24 HSR stations, with arriving and departing trains travelling at some 200 miles per hour. Phase 1’s 520-mile segment consists of the San Francisco/Merced to Los Angeles/Anaheim section.
Owner and/or developer: California High-Speed Rail Authority
Architect of record for intermodal station: Foster + Partners
Architect of record for historic station: Page & Turnbull
Engineers for intermodal station: Arup
Related Stories
| Apr 13, 2011
Duke University parking garage driven to LEED certification
People parking their cars inside the new Research Drive garage at Duke University are making history—they’re utilizing the country’s first freestanding LEED-certified parking structure.
| Dec 17, 2010
Subway entrance designed to exude Hollywood charm
The Hollywood/Vine Metro portal and public plaza in Los Angeles provides an entrance to the Red Line subway and the W Hollywood Hotel. Local architect Rios Clementi Hale Studio designed the portal and plaza to flow with the landmark theaters and plazas that surround it.
| Nov 3, 2010
Sailing center sets course for energy efficiency, sustainability
The Milwaukee (Wis.) Community Sailing Center’s new facility on Lake Michigan counts a geothermal heating and cooling system among its sustainable features. The facility was designed for the nonprofit instructional sailing organization with energy efficiency and low operating costs in mind.
| Oct 13, 2010
Community college plans new campus building
Construction is moving along on Hudson County Community College’s North Hudson Campus Center in Union City, N.J. The seven-story, 92,000-sf building will be the first higher education facility in the city.
| Oct 12, 2010
Building 13 Naval Station, Great Lakes, Ill.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Gold Award. Designed by Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt and constructed in 1903, Building 13 is one of 39 structures within the Great Lakes Historic District at Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill.
| Sep 13, 2010
World's busiest land port also to be its greenest
A larger, more efficient, and supergreen border crossing facility is planned for the San Ysidro (Calif.) Port of Entry to better handle the more than 100,000 people who cross the U.S.-Mexico border there each day.
| Aug 11, 2010
JE Dunn, Balfour Beatty among country's biggest institutional building contractors, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 50 Institutional Contractors based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Jacobs, Arup, AECOM top BD+C's ranking of the nation's 75 largest international design firms
A ranking of the Top 75 International Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
