Union Station 2020 Chicago Architect, Illinois Railway Building, USA, Great Hall Design

Union Station 2020 Chicago Competition Architecture

Contemporary American Project – design contest by The Chicago Architectural Club

post updated September 23 2024

A Crossroads for the High-Speed Rail City, USA

Submission deadline was 15 Oct 2008

Organization: The Chicago Architectural Club

The Great Hall of Chicago Union Station photo taken on 1 May 2012:

photo : Velvet, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Aug 20, 2016

Union Station 2020

The Chicago Architectural Club and the Chicago Humanities Festival announce UNION STATION 2020, an international design ideas competition for the conversion of Chicago’s Union Station into a high-speed rail hub, regional market, and meeting place. This year’s Burnham Prize competition forms part of Burnham 2.0: A Patchwork Plan for Chicago, a composite urban plan that marks the centennial of Burnham and Bennett’s Plan of Chicago.

UNION STATION 2020 asks for innovative solutions for the transformation of Union Station into a center of high speed rail traffic and related programs. It is not simply a question of designing an efficient and functional transit hub. How can this intermodal node become more than a mere knot of infrastructure?

What role can this project play in the reconfiguration of Chicago’s West Loop and of the city and region? How can an existing landmark building be transformed to accommodate and generate a new combination of activities while welcoming an unprecedented level of rail traffic? How can we leverage infrastructure to produce other results, to shape the city and the public sphere? How can a point of exchange generate a regional culture? And what does ‘culture’ mean, anyway?

Category: International
Type: Open
Entry Fee: US $80.00 Professionals / $50.00 Students
Prizes: US $14,500.00
Jury: Stan Allen, Doug Garofalo, Geoff Manaugh, etc.

Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Architecture in Chicago

Contemporary Chicago Architectural Projects

Chicago Architectural Design – chronological list

Chicago Architecture Tours – city walks by e-architect

Chicago Building News

Chicago Building Designs – architectural selection below:

Obama Presidential Center, Jackson Park, Southside
Design: Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners (TWBTA) in collaboration with Chicago-based Interactive Design Architects (IDEA)

images courtesy of the Obama Foundation
Obama Presidential Center, Jackson Park: OPC Chicago
The Obama Foundation release new renderings of the Obama Presidential Center planned for a site in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side. The drawings show subtle but significant revisions to the design by TWBTA with IDEA.

Apple Michigan Avenue
Architects: Foster + Partners

photography © Nigel Young Foster + Partners
Apple on Michigan Avenue
Inspired by the pulse of Chicago’s artistic energy, Apple has created a new platform for performance in a city charged by music. Located at the intersection of the Chicago River and North Michigan Avenue’s ‘Magnificent Mile’, Apple Michigan Avenue cascades down from Pioneer Court to the river’s edge, creating new connections between the city and the river.