Great rail stations of America … that were torn down

 Posted by on 23 June 2009  Vintage/Retro
Jun 232009
 

It’s too depressing to link to the pictures — eleven beautiful train stations that were lost to the wrecking ball (and what replaced them):

Almost like a rite of passage, cities across the country embraced the era of Interstates, Big Macs, and suburban sprawl by tearing down their train depots. (Frequently, they just did the Joni Mitchell thing and put up a parking lot.) But time and experience are showing that train stations are vital organs in a healthy city, and removing them deadens the entire organism …. One lesson of this legacy is that what replaces a well designed and centrally located rail depot can is rarely of equal worth to the city.

It’s heartening to know that I don’t live in the only city that hates its own history and heritage. But it’s still depressing.

You know, even the crappiest, cheapest warehouse from 75 years ago is more appealing than a concrete, metal and glass slab from the past 20. The different is that there’s nothing interesting about new buildings — they’re flat and boring.

Even the “designed” ones tend to be barren of architectural grace notes. I have a theory that it’s because modern buildings are meant to be seen from a distance and perhaps at highway speed — they’re not built for interaction on a human, pedestrian level.

The great early skyscrapers in places like New York City have gargoyles and carvings up so high that no one can ever see them. Eventually, builders stopped doing that, replacing it with flat, bare sides. And now that design ethic has filtered down to street level.

(via BB)

Grant Hamilton

  • the banana

    “In very severe cases it may be necessary to tie a hand to the bed frame with a tie in order that the habit of masturbating in a semi-sleep condition can be broken” – Kinky!

  • Colin Corneau

    I think that comment belongs in the post above, but still — the idea of wankery fits in well with architects and designers who blight our public space with the sort of buildings that, philosophically at least, best deserve to end up wadded up in the garbage can.

    Buildings are an exterior reflection of what a people have going on inside them.

    It really boils down to pride — people who have pride in themselves insist on buildings that are beautiful. People who have a collective sense of low self-esteem end up with…well, just take a look out there, sometime.

  • Matt Goerzen

    Here is something that is less depressing, and even interesting. The same architects (Warren and Wetmore) that built the Grand Central Station in New York: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grand_Central_test.jpg

    … also built Winnipeg’s Union Station: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Station_(Winnipeg)

    At least they were prolific.

  • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

    Thanks for the links, Matt — it’s good to be reminded that not everything was torn down! (Though NY’s Grand Central Station was close…)

    I think there was something about the promise of cross-country rail travel — a freedom, a voyage, a discovery — that really inspired architects of the day. They also had a lot more freedom to design, because they weren’t forced to work around harbours and docks.

    For a while, that same sensibility was at work in the air — early airlines and easy airports were fantastic places. Now, though, it’s all depressing sameness.

    I have high hopes for a golden age of design when we get to built the first spaceports, but as soon as the cruel hand of the market gets everyone to race to the bottom, we’ll be queuing in lines through some concrete dungeon, waiting to clear screening for the lunar shuttle.

  • Determinator

    Other countries aren’t so dumb. You simply HAVE to check out the Osaka airport in Japan sometimes. It is quite something. While it does have a slightly dull exterior, the interior is fantastic. So too is the Kyoto train station, which was created as a futuristic modern design in the heart of Japan’s ancient cultural mecca. Definitely something to see.