On March 26, work will begin to replace the station’s concourse and several pillars, the first major renovation on the facility in decades.
Granite pavers and decorative medallions will be installed on the 20,000-square-foot concourse to replace the less-durable concrete surface and to improve the overall aesthetics, officials said.
The station serves as the downtown terminal for Metra’s Rock Island Line to Joliet, Ill. The existing station, built in 1993, is used by more than 13,000 riders each weekday.
“This is a long-awaited opportunity to improve LaSalle Street Station for our customers,” Metra CEO and Executive Director Jim Derwinski said in a statement. “Other than maintenance projects, it’s been more than 25 years since significant improvements were made to the concourse area.”
Contractors plan to work around the clock to minimize the impact on customers, the agency said. Work will be phased, limiting access to different sections of the concourse and platforms as the renovations progress. The first phase will resurface the east side of the concourse, with work then progressing to the west side and finally, to the platform entrances.
Signage and barricades will be placed throughout the station to direct the flow of pedestrian traffic as each phase proceeds, Metra said. Work is expected to be completed in mid-July.
The renovation work will be performed by Chicago-based Blinderman Construction, which was awarded the contract through a competitive bidding process, Metra said.
The present LaSalle Street Station is the fifth one at that site.
The previous station was designed by the architectural firm Frost & Granger and opened July 1, 1903. That station was the setting for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 movie, North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint.
That station was demolished in 1981 and replaced by the current facility and an office high-rise for the Chicago Stock Exchange.
The current “facility” is not a station. Old La Salle Street was a station. However, the canopies and platforms from the 1900s were so in need of replacement. The new platforms were a welcome improvement. But the indoor space was pathetic and it was the only station where weather played a role inside the station area.
Makes no difference to me and I commute daily to/from the LaSalle Station. Off the train in the morning then out. Onto the train in the afternoon then out. It’s a single line commute station. I does not need to be a train palace.
AUSTIN: I see your point about the lack of run-through in Chicago. You don’t claim it’s the biggest problem in America. It isn’t. The condition you mention in Chicago is also present in Boston. Unlike NARP, I’m not in favor of connecting Boston’s North and South Stations. The gargantuan cost is money that doesn’t exist, and if it did exist, is much more needed on countless projects more important. The lack of run-through is a condition. A condition isn’t necessarily a problem. There’s a one-seat connection between the north side and the south side. The Orange Line subway, from Back Bay Station (south side) to North Station. Not ideal, but orders of magnitude behind the worst transportation problems we have.
A lack of vision, and the wherewithal needed, has resulted in Chicago having but one runthrough track (the old Pennsy line through Union Station) at present, retaining the inherent inefficiencies of the 19th century stub-end terminals, which were designed more for inter-city than commuter usage.
LaSalle Street Station. What a disgrace. What a disaster. It would be an embarrassment as a subway station in a remote Brooklyn neighborhood. Usually I’m not one to think that USA is out to humiliate poor people, but I have to wonder how long LaSalle would have been tolerated on a route serving the more affluent like Metra UP North or Metra BNSF.
The current La Salle Street Station certainly seems like the unwanted red-headed stepchild of the Metra system in downtown Chicago. Any improvement would be nice.
PAUL – Current version of Northwestern Station (Ogilvie) is as I’m sure you know a million million trillion
times better than LaSalle.
As far as the C&NW North Line is concerned, take a look at the current version of North Western Station.