Union Station

Issues concerning Downtown as described by the Downtown Council. River to 31st Street, I-35 to Bruce R. Watkins.
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beautyfromashes
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Re: Union Station

Post by beautyfromashes »

I walked through last week. It looks nice. I just wish they found a way to open up the DT skyline to the north part of US. The view would be great and you could have a window for watching trains. Kids would love it.
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normalthings
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Re: Union Station

Post by normalthings »

normalthings wrote: Sat Apr 27, 2019 10:16 pm Image
Looks like they are adding/rebuilding a few of the layouts
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Re: Union Station

Post by KCTOGA »

beautyfromashes wrote: Sun Apr 28, 2019 11:22 am I walked through last week. It looks nice. I just wish they found a way to open up the DT skyline to the north part of US. The view would be great and you could have a window for watching trains. Kids would love it.
Absolutely true!!! My Dad worked below on the station platforms for 30 years. 3;00 to 11;30 p.m. I can remember so well going there to pick my dad up at around midnight. This is between 1967 to about 1975. I was born in 1963. The magic of the vastness of the grand ballroom was incredible to my young eyes. At this point in the stations history it was literally abandoned at this hour. I swear I could stand at the entrance of what is now the Amtrak station and I could create an echo. One of Dads friends who was an Engineer let me ride down to what use to be the roundhouse with him one afternoon. So many special memories of one magnificent palace.
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normalthings
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Re: Union Station

Post by normalthings »

KCTOGA wrote: Sun Apr 28, 2019 1:27 pm
beautyfromashes wrote: Sun Apr 28, 2019 11:22 am I walked through last week. It looks nice. I just wish they found a way to open up the DT skyline to the north part of US. The view would be great and you could have a window for watching trains. Kids would love it.
Absolutely true!!! My Dad worked below on the station platforms for 30 years. 3;00 to 11;30 p.m. I can remember so well going there to pick my dad up at around midnight. This is between 1967 to about 1975. I was born in 1963. The magic of the vastness of the grand ballroom was incredible to my young eyes. At this point in the stations history it was literally abandoned at this hour. I swear I could stand at the entrance of what is now the Amtrak station and I could create an echo. One of Dads friends who was an Engineer let me ride down to what use to be the roundhouse with him one afternoon. So many special memories of one magnificent palace.
That is such a special story. Thank you for sharing it.
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TheLastGentleman
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Re: Union Station

Post by TheLastGentleman »

beautyfromashes wrote: Sun Apr 28, 2019 11:22 am I walked through last week. It looks nice. I just wish they found a way to open up the DT skyline to the north part of US. The view would be great and you could have a window for watching trains. Kids would love it.
I wonder why those back windows were covered. At least the freighthouse bridge provides a similar view.

I'd love to see Union Station become better connected visually to downtown somehow. The combination of 2 Pershing's bulk and the limited number of north facing windows keep the building feeling isolated.
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FangKC
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Re: Union Station

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missingkc
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Re: Union Station

Post by missingkc »

So pleased to see the phenomenal success Union Station has become! Could so easily have gone a very different way.
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TheLastGentleman
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Re: Union Station

Post by TheLastGentleman »

It's incredible that the building is so huge that there are still large portions of it that are essentially untouched

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeOer-ZvOvk
KCLover
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Re: Union Station

Post by KCLover »

TheLastGentleman wrote: Wed May 08, 2019 2:15 pm It's incredible that the building is so huge that there are still large portions of it that are essentially untouched

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeOer-ZvOvk
Yep, I once explored the building and got into some of those rough areas in the video fairly easily.
Not sure they will ever be rehabilitated as they are definitely off the beaten path.
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TheLastGentleman
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Re: Union Station

Post by TheLastGentleman »

KCLover wrote: Wed May 08, 2019 3:14 pmYep, I once explored the building and got into some of those rough areas in the video fairly easily.
Not sure they will ever be rehabilitated as they are definitely off the beaten path.
How did you get there? I would've assumed areas like that would be locked up
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Re: Union Station

Post by herrfrank »

Back in the 1970s and 1980s the building was open, at least until the separate Amshack opened in 1985. The Amtrak ticket counter was in a bouncy house in the middle of the main floor (Amtrak did not want to heat the whole station). Some freight operations continued, and there were a sprinkling of workers both day and night.

There were a few other tenants, notably the Lobster Pot restaurant, and, accessible by an elevator near the bathrooms by today's Science Center, there was a model train city on the fourth or fifth floor, rendering around 3000 square feet into a foamers convention (cannot remember which floor now). Visitors were welcomed one day per month.
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Re: Union Station

Post by scooterj »

TheLastGentleman wrote: Wed May 08, 2019 2:15 pm It's incredible that the building is so huge that there are still large portions of it that are essentially untouched

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeOer-ZvOvk
2:31-2:51 had my heart racing and my stomach in knots.
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FangKC
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Re: Union Station

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Union Station’s New Artwork Is Starting To Take Shape
As you read this, Union Station is putting the finishing touches on a striking, larger-than-life moving sculpture entitled Reflecting Motion. The glistening, floating artwork—which is being created by famed artist Patrick Shearn and his Poetics Kinetics team—will be unveiled at a party on May 18th and open to the public the following day. The installation has been creating buzz ever since it was announced last month. The mammoth, free-flowing, oval-shaped sculpture will cascade over the new Union Station green space—Haverty Family Yards—through mid-September.
...
https://www.inkansascity.com/innovators ... ake-shape/
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TheLastGentleman
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Re: Union Station

Post by TheLastGentleman »

Pictures don't do this thing justice. Very cool in motion

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TheLastGentleman
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Re: Union Station

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grovester
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Re: Union Station

Post by grovester »

It is a cool exhibit. I plan on spending a couple of summer days lying on my back underneath and pretending I'm at the beach.
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Re: Union Station

Post by earthling »

Looks like a creepy tinfoil blob horror movie, CGI'd into the scene. And given it's not makes it all the more intriguing.

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TheLastGentleman
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Re: Union Station

Post by TheLastGentleman »

Some shots from celebration at the station

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FangKC
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Re: Union Station

Post by FangKC »

12 grand Amtrak train stations and their histories

https://www.azcentral.com/picture-galle ... 695435002/
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TheLastGentleman
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Re: Union Station

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