Chicago Union Station: Burlington Room

[TylerP42]

The old women's rest room in the Great Hall is getting rennovated. The new space will be called the "Burlington Room" and will be a place to house events and a great rental space. Pics of where it's at if you're not sure. Will reach out to contacts for more information.

 

[SarahZ]

An employee has been posting lots of pictures and video of the restoration in the "Forgotten Chicago" group on Facebook, if you want to check it out.

 

[neroden]

This is a sensible way to create a rentable "event space" without occupying the Great Hall.

 

[Lonestar648]

I hope they can find productive purposes for the many other areas of CUS. IT would be so nice to see the station growing in use.

 

[seat38a]

With LAUS's ticket desk area being rented out for events frequently, I can see this new room also being a popular space for events.

 

[SarahZ]

This is a sensible way to create a rentable "event space" without occupying the Great Hall.

Precisely.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Hopefully CUS can follow in the footsteps of Sunset Station in San Antonio. Every single inch of every single nook and cranny has been converted into a super productive event space. Nothing at all to do with trains or transportation and the general public is permanently unwelcome. Kind of like the Rookery.

 

[John Bredin]

Hopefully CUS can follow in the footsteps of Sunset Station in San Antonio. Every single inch of every single nook and cranny has been converted into a super productive event space. Nothing at all to do with trains or transportation and the general public is permanently unwelcome. Kind of like the Rookery.

As has been noted, this room is being remodeled to provide event space because Amtrak is using the Great Hall for passengers rather than renting it out for events. That's not speculation, I was on a tour group that was told so by an Amtrak/CUSCo. manager.

Groundless cynicism is no better than mindless naivete, just more grumpy. :giggle:

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Hopefully CUS can follow in the footsteps of Sunset Station in San Antonio. Every single inch of every single nook and cranny has been converted into a super productive event space. Nothing at all to do with trains or transportation and the general public is permanently unwelcome. Kind of like the Rookery.

As has been noted, this room is being remodeled to provide event space because Amtrak is using the Great Hall for passengers rather than renting it out for events. That's not speculation, I was on a tour group that was told so by an Amtrak/CUSCo. manager. Groundless cynicism is no better than mindless naivete, just more grumpy. :giggle:

On the one hand you're absolutely right. CHI is getting better all the time. There are still things to complain about but on the whole it's objectively better today than it has been for many years now. On the other hand I'm also right in that SAS (and a long list of other cities) hosts an amazingly beautiful train station that has been completely removed from public use and no longer enjoys any connection to it's original purpose and design. From what I remember Amtrak even owned the station out right. Then they had to give it up because they couldn't afford even basic maintenance and upkeep. If that doesn't make a train fan grumpy then something important has died inside them. :hi:

 

[Lonestar648]

Wonder why San Antonio (city, county, or convention) doesn't open the station for a few hours during no event times, so the public could view history. Isn't this station on a historic list? ( If not I would think it should be.) Going through SAS I know there is a lot of history in the area. I remember seeing the inside of this beautiful station in 1989 when I traveled on Amtrak.

 

[Palmetto]

I wonder why San Antonio doesn't have any parking at the station. Pretty sad for a city this big. Sorry to go off topic; just following the post ahead.