page_title: Denver Union Station
section_title: Restoration of historic building
hierarchical_section_title: Denver Union Station / History / 21st century: Renovations / Restoration of historic building
caption_attribution_description: English: Denver's Union Station during renovations.
context_page_description: Denver Union Station is the main railway station and central transportation hub in Denver, Colorado. It is located at 17th and Wynkoop Streets in the present-day LoDo district and includes the historic terminal building, a train shed, a 22-gate underground bus facility, and light rail station. A station was first opened on the site on June 1, 1881, but burnt down in 1894. The current structure was erected in two stages, with an enlarged central portion completed in 1914.
  In 2012, the station underwent a major renovation transforming it into the centerpiece of a new transit-oriented mixed-use development built on the site's former railyards. The station house reopened in the summer of 2014, hosting the 112-room Crawford Hotel, several restaurants and retailers, and a train hall.
context_section_description: Simultaneous with the construction of its surrounding site, the historic terminal building also underwent a complete renovation. In 2011, a competition between the Denver Union Station Neighborhood Company and the Union Station Alliance (consisting of local firms Urban Neighborhoods Inc., Sage Hospitality, Larimer Associates, REGen, llc. and McWhinney) created different proposals for the future use of the structure. Both plans called for maintaining a waiting area for transit and spaces for Amtrak, the creation of retail spaces, and integrating the interior spaces with the public plazas facing the station. However, the Denver Union Station Neighborhood plan also envisioned a public market and commercial office space while the Union Station Alliance called for the integration of an independent hotel with an emphasis on creating the Great Hall as "Denver's Living Room".
  By 2012, RTD selected the proposal from the Union Station Alliance to renovate the structure as a hotel at a cost of $54 million with retail, public, and transit facilities and approved a 99-year lease for its redevelopment.
  The main historic building closed to the public on December 1, 2012, for construction and re-opened July 26, 2014. The majority of the terminal building's upper levels have now become the 112-room Crawford Hotel, with the 12,000 square feet (1,100 m²) Great Hall on the ground level serving as the hotel lobby, public space, and train waiting room and an additional 22,000 square feet (2,000 m²) of the ground level serving as 10 independent retail and restaurantss.
caption: Union Station building during renovations, September 2013
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