16 APRIL 2019 COMMERCIALARCHITECTUREMAGAZINE.COM
Ken’s VIEW
F
irst they restored the Great Hall at Chicago’s Union
Station, as reported here last month, and then they
built a squash court in it. I’m not kidding. A four-walled,
glass court surrounded by bleachers.
I learned this rather alarming fact while reading a
news story about yet another meltdown of the signal
system that controls rail traffi c in and out of the sta-
tion—which this time stranded an estimated 60,
commuters throughout an entire day. Thousands were
herded into the Great Hall because of dangerous over-
crowding in the concourses and on the platforms.
Once in the Great Hall, it was reported they had diffi -
culty hearing announcements—which on a good day
are unintelligible at best—because of the noise from
the squash court.
I say “yet another meltdown” because it predict-
ably happens several times a year. I know because
I’ve been there for several such system collapses.
Usually it’s blamed on frozen switches, but this time
it was reported that a worker “fell on a circuit board”
while upgrading a server. Well, at least it’s a novel
excuse.
So many questions. Who upgrades a critical server
during peak hours? How does a person fall on a circuit
board? If this is a pervasive hazard, shouldn’t OSHA
be mandating fall protection for computer geeks? And
who would install a squash court in an historic train
station?I was relieved to learn the squash court is tempo-
rary, set up for The World Squash Championship. But
why Union Station? Isn’t it unusual for a train station to
host a sporting event?
Not so atypical, argued a spokesperson for Amtrak,
which owns Union Station and was responsible for the
server fi asco. Apparently the Professional Squash As-
sociation, based in the UK, has hosted similar tourna-
ments in Vanderbilt Hall at New York City’s Grand Cen-
tral Station (or Grand Central Terminal as some purists
would have it). Vanderbilt Hall, which used to be the
station’s main waiting room, now is actively promoted
as an event space. Are passengers even allowed any
longer? Weddings, for one thing, aren’t permitted, the
venue’s website takes pains to point out.
Amtrak, for its part, seems quite happy with rev-
enue earned by renting out parts of Union Station to
help pay the $22-million cost of restoring the Great
Hall. Amtrak, by defi nition, seems only reluctantly
involved in the commuter rail business at all. Which is
perhaps why it should be no surprise that the Amtrak
spokesman tried to explain away the lack of progress
on the commuter side of the station by saying it was a
“work in progress.” It’s been a work in progress for as
along as I can remember.
Here’s a question: Should historic train stations
that have miraculously escaped demolition become
amusement parks for people who probably neverwill ride trains? And why stop there? Why not build
a squash court in the middle of a TSA checkpoint at
O’Hare? On any given day those look pretty much
like Union Station in the midst of a system-wide sig-
nal failure anyway. And airports seem to be trending
toward the amusement-park model already, so why
not? Airfi elds from Los Angeles to Singapore, for
example, have installed elaborate media features—in
addition to those tiresome TV monitors at every gate
(see Commercial Architecture, July 2018).
There’s no question that the restoration of the
Great Hall is signifi cant. Chicago architects Goettsch
Partners, and particularly the design team led by
Leonard Koroski, FAIA, LEED, should be congratu-
lated. Amtrak even deserves credit for going ahead
with the restoration—if not applause for other of its
decisions. But attention ultimately must be paid to the
falling concrete and the dirty stormwater that drizzles
down from the plazas and offi ce buildings constructed
on air rights above the boarding platforms. And don’t
forget that rat’s nest of low-ceilinged, claustrophobic
passageways that replaced the Grand Concourse. Not
so grand these days, I must say.
Finally, can we just let train stations and airports
be train stations and airports as they were intended
and not entertainment districts? Isn’t that what smart-
phones are for?
— Kenneth W. Betz, Senior EditorThousands Of Commuters Squashed
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