Still Standing: A Century of Urban Train Station Design

by Christopher Brown

This beautiful photographic collection of urban train station design covers a 100-year period from roughly 1850 to 1950. Striking original photographs chronicle 40 large passenger station buildings still in existence in cities around the world. From the great terminals of London, across the world to Auckland, New Zealand; from Toronto's Union Station to the grand and crumbling Retiro Station in Buenos Aires--vastly different architectural forms are displayed and presented chronologically. One-third of the stations included are among the best America has to offer. Still A Century of Urban Train Station Design outlines the history and development of large urban stations throughout the Western world. The basic physical forms and their evolution are reviewed in the context of the rapid growth of train travel. Christopher Brown discusses the arrival and impact of Beaux-Arts architecture in the 1890s and its profound effect on the American terminal. The end of the so-called golden era of passenger rail travel coincided with an architectural move away from the classicism of Beaux-Arts. New and different design forms appeared while passengers defected to other means of transportation. These dazzling public structures have endured, but the photographs imply a disturbing How long will they survive?

Genres: Architecture

133 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There are multiple authors by this name in the Goodreads database.

Reviews

[Jeramey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, quick overview of a number of stations across the world. Descriptions are a bit brief, which had me looking online for more information a number of times.

The author uses all of his own photos, which seems intriguing, but ultimately is a hindrance. A 2005 copyright, but many of the photos are clearly much older than that (I would guess 80's and early 90's for a number). It would be interesting to see all the stations in the same year. This could have been achieved by licensing photos, but I realize might have made the book prohibitively expensive.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great subject, and good overview with inspiring photos. Demonstrates the sad decline of the railroad in America, and how many of the great stations here continue to exist only because they've been partially or wholly converted to other uses.