Crescent City Connections

The New Union Station of the New Orleans Terminal Co.

The American Architect — January 1909

On Canal street, the main business thoroughfare of New Orleans, and close to the commercial center of the city, is the new Union station of the New Orleans Terminal Co. The station building is 82 feet wide by 235 feet long. The work was commenced in midsummer, 1907, and is now practically complete. This may be cited as an example of the rapidity of modern building construction. Well-organized methods, mechanical skill and executive ability are accomplishing remarkable results throughout the country, and the fact that a structure of this magnitude, from its beginning to its completion, can be safely and satisfactorily erected in less than eighteen months is a matter worthy of note.

The architecture of the building, as will be seen, is a sane adaptation of the modern French. The building typifies in a large sense the purpose for which it was erected, and in this respect teaches, in a quiet way, a lesson to more pretentious structures erected for a similar purpose. The problem of the adaption of design to purpose, location and climate is often difficult. We feel that in the present instance, the results achieved are eminently satisfactory. The setting of the building is such that the architectural excellence of its lines can be viewed to good advantage. On each side of this terminal there is a street 45 feet in width, while the main façade faces a wide parked approach, some two blocks long.

Through the main entrance, the archway of which is 30 feet wide by 40 feet high, the traveler enters the main waiting room. This room is 40 feet wide, 80 feet long, and has a clear height to the central dome of 52 feet. On the side streets there are arched entrances 3o feet high. As will be seen by reference to the plans, this waiting room is accessible on all sides by large open- ings, thus providing the most desirable feature in railway terminals, ease of ingress and egress by large num- bers without undue crowding and confusion during the so-called "rush hours" of daily traffic.

Centrally through the building is the main waiting-room lobby, while grouped on each side are the various rooms and offices necessary to the prompt and efficient transaction of passenger railway service. The concourse, placed at the end of the waiting room, has exits to the side streets to avoid interference with outgoing traffic. It is 80 feet long by 35 feet wide. The foundation, the setting of which was much complicated by the necessity of taking care of an old drainage canal, some 22 feet in width and which runs length-wise under the building, is of concrete on piling.

The lower courses of the Canal street exterior and the main structure on the side streets are of granite, the upper of Bedford stone. The remainder of the building is of brick and stone. The brick used is of a specially made gray color harmonizing with the stone, the ensemble being a most restful and artistic result. The interior construction of the main waiting room shows a central dome, from which barrel vaults extend to eath of the four sides of the room.

To a height of 12 feet above the floor, the side walls are finished in marble; above is cement, in imitation of stone, treated to harmonize with the marble. Here, again, one notices the satisfactory treatment of color values and the restful character of the tones employed. The floor of the main waiting room is mosaic tiled, as are also the smaller waiting rooms and offices. These smaller rooms have plaster walls.

The main waiting room has a steel frame to carry the dome and attic roof. To adapt this to the floor plan and superstructure was an interesting engineering problem. The solution has been to support this steel frame at four points only, the supporting columns being symmetrically placed as indicated on the first floor plans. Reference to the sectional view of waiting room will show that these four points are well within the lines of the attic walls, and these are carried by cantilever members and suitable girders. Above these girders, and resting on them, are the steel roof trusses, of which there are six — three in each direction. These carry a concrete roof 6 inches thick, including a skim coat of 1 inch, the concrete spans being arched between I-beam purlins as shown.

There are four tracks entering the station. These are protected by inverted umbrella sheds, 704 feet long. The cast-iron supporting columns are anchored to concrete blocks. The tracks are separated from the streets by an ornamental iron fence.

Messrs. D. H. Burnham & Co., of Chicago, were the architects of the building.

The American Architect and Building News #95 — January 1909 — Public Domain