page_title: History of Cincinnati Union Terminal
section_title: Design considerations and Art Deco origins
hierarchical_section_title: History of Cincinnati Union Terminal / Design considerations and Art Deco origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Cropped border jpg copy of File:Photocopy of original architect's drawings PLOT PLAN, JUNE 1, 1931 - Cincinnati Union Terminal, 1301 Western Avenue, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, OH HABS OHIO,31-CINT,29-39.tif.
context_page_description: Cincinnati Union Terminal is an intercity train station and museum center in the Queensgate neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. The terminal is served by Amtrak's Cardinal line, passing through Cincinnati three times weekly. The building's largest tenants are the Cincinnati Museum Center, a group of three museums, a library, and a theater, as well as the Holocaust & Humanity Center.
  The terminal was developed throughout the 1920s as a solution for Cincinnati's five train stations serving seven railroads. The cramped stations were close to the Ohio River, which created regular flooding issues. The Great Flood of 1884, one of the largest floods at that time, particularly prompted efforts to consolidate services in a new terminal. Numerous committees developed plans between 1908 and 1923, but construction only started in 1928. The project involved creation of viaducts, mail and express buildings, and utility structures: a power plant, water treatment facility, and roundhouse. The station building's site necessitated demolishing numerous structures and relandscaping and repurposing Lincoln Park. While construction was taking place, the design plans evolved.
context_section_description: After a limited architectural competition, the firm Fellheimer & Wagner was commissioned to design the terminal in June 1928, shortly after completing their work on Buffalo Central Terminal. The firm first released plans for the terminal in June 1929. The sketches showed a conservative design, utilizing large Gothic arches, vaulted ceilings, and conventional benches in long rows. The originally proposed shape of the rotunda and concourse were the same as the finished product, though the details of the design more closely resembled the architects' Buffalo Central Terminal. The main exterior facade was presented in a similar way to the final product, however somewhat less modern in its details. At this point, most other details of the structure were the same: the semi-circular bus, taxi, and streetcar ramps, the relandscaping of Lincoln Park, and the relative locations of all the rooms in the building. The building was then estimated to cost $8 million, with the total project costing $40.6 million.
  There were persistent changes in the blueprints between 1931 and 1932, indicating the involvement of an architect outside the firm's regular staff, like Paul Philippe Cret, employed as an aesthetic advisor. He is attributed with the terminal's Art Deco design due to his similar-style designs of other buildings at the time. His submission of a plan for the Chrysler Exhibition Building, in the 1933 Century of Progress world's fair, has numerous similarities to the terminal's final plan and design.
  The new Art Deco design was approved with its proposed cost savings in mind; an issue the terminal company valued as the Great Depression continued on. Henry Waite said that the first Neoclassical plan would have been cold and costly, and that the new structure was plain, but brightened with color along lines of modern decoration and art. The architects first tried a moderate color scheme, which had a depressing effect. They then decided the terminal should be bright and cheery, like the flowers and birds of the open country. They reported that the effect was joyous and stimulating.
  Pierre Bourdelle may have been considered to design all art in the terminal, as he made sketches for art throughout the entire terminal. Winold Reiss, who may have been introduced to the project by Paul Philippe Cret, used his source material more faithfully. That may have been significant in Reiss's selection for the final works. Reiss ended up designing nearly all of the terminal's artwork, including over 18,150 square feet (1,686 m²) of mosaic murals.
caption: June 1931 elevation and floor plan drawings
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