A historic train station in central California is getting a significant upgrade in preparation for the new high-speed rail set to connect the state's major metropolitan hubs.
Archinect reported that architecture, preservation, and planning firm Page & Turnbull will transform Fresno's Southern Pacific Railroad Depot into a state-of-the-art facility.
The company envisions the terminal as an intersection of the past and present. It was constructed in 1889 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Page & Turnbull will modernize the building by having it meet accessibility, fire, life-safety, and seismic standards while preserving the Queen Anne–style structure that utilizes red brick, a slate bell-cast hip roof, and cupolas.
The surrounding area will include infrastructure to accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists, EV drivers, and bus riders; a park and plaza space for the community to enjoy; and other eco-friendly features like restored tree canopy and solar power generation capacity.
"This project adapts a building that once served steam-driven railways to become a new type of station that will efficiently and sustainably transport passengers around California," Peter Birkholz, principal of Page & Turnbull and the principal lead for the project, said in the California High-Speed Rail Authority's spring 2024 newsletter.
"We aim to make the historic depot an iconic and economically vital part of downtown Fresno and of the High-Speed Rail system."
Part of the funding for the renovations will come from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program that awarded the California High-Speed Rail Authority $20 million in June 2023.
Fresno's historic station will open in 2027 and is one of 24 stops the Authority plans to connect with the nation's first high-speed rail system. It's also part of the Central Valley segment, which expects to avoid 112,435 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually by 2040 — equivalent to taking 22,000 gas-powered cars off the road.
The U.S. is slow to adopt the environmentally friendly mode of transportation, but the California High-Speed Rail Authority has already created 13,000 jobs and recently received environmental approval for the entire route of its Phase I. Perhaps it can serve as a blueprint for other high-speed rail projects linking Las Vegas to Los Angeles and Dallas to Fort Worth.
"People often think that preservation is just putting up a layer of paint, buying period furniture and making the building look old. We have a much more ambitious approach about preserving this existing building and saving its embodied carbon," Birkholz said of Fresno's transit center. "It's a good, sustainable approach that will maintain and highlight the story of the past and will create an inviting shell for future uses."
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