Modern Trains and Splendid Stations; Architecture, Design, and Rail Travel for the Twenty-First Century

The format is approximately 9.5 inches by 11 inches. Decorative covers. Front and rear covers have flaps Illustrations (photographs--many in color, diagrams). Preface by Nicholas Grimshaw. Foreword by James N. Wood. Renaissance of the Train Station by Martha Thorne. Designing for Their Needs: Passenger Trains for Today and Tomorrow in Europe, Japan, and North America by Claudia Wessner. A Land of Promise: The Future of Train Travel in the United States by Don Phillips. The Projects. Bibliography. Index. This is an oversized book and if shipped outside of the United States will require an additional shipping charge. This book accompanied Modern Trains and Splendid Stations, an exhibition held at The Art Institute of Chicago, December 8, 2001 - July 29, 2002. Martha Thorne was an Associate Curator of Architecture at The Art Institute of Chicago. "Inter-city rail travel is one of the dominant facts of modern life. From the early nineteenth century, when the first train stations were constructed, these focal points of transportation have enjoyed a unique status in public life." "In the rail renaissance of the 1980s and 1990s, new train stations, from the U.S. to Japan, must respond to increasingly complex challenges, as high-speed trains become more and more common and the next generation of magnetically levitated trains approaches. The state-of-the-art examples featured in Modern Trains and Splendid Stations are analyzed from several perspectives: as generators of urban renewal; as new architectural icons; and as connecting points from different means of transportation. --BookFlap Among some of the architects and structures covered are: Waterloo International, Eurostar, Meinhard von Gerkan, Lehrter Station, Norman Foster, Hung Hom Station, Gernard Tschumi, Lausanne, Santiago Claratrava, Liege-Guillemins, Derived from a review by Gilbert Taylor of the American Library Association: The iron horse is currently experiencing a renaissance. New train stations are going up, mostly, but not exclusively, in Western Europe and Japan. This work showcases those stations in conjunction with an impressive exhibit at Chicago's Art Institute. The modern train station is here critiqued in accessible prose, just as the buildings themselves welcome travelers . Across the varied designs, one discerns a commitment to light and structural lightness: Lisbon's Oriente Station features a vaulting train shed that reminds one of the nave of a Gothic cathedral. Another common feature is the accommodation that stations make to high-speed trains. Designers of the few new station projects in the U.S. also flex their blueprints for the day, if ever, when this country gets with the high-speed program. This book, along with the editor's informed elucidation, makes a contemporary architectural trend visible and exciting.…