Design for new Amtrak station in Tacoma unveiled

TACOMA, Wash. — It wasn't a groundbreaking on Wednesday, but a reveal of the design for a new Amtrak station in Tacoma. There were smiles all around at this event at the Tacoma Dome station. But it wasn't that way when the project was first announced more than two years ago.

“It wasn’t easy,” said Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland.

In 2014, architects wanted to completely demolish Freighthouse Square, the 105-year-old building that was once the terminus for the Milwaukee railroad. They said the aging warehouse was not structurally fit for a train station.

So a sleek new station design was produced that would have replaced Freighthouse Square with a modern steel and glass structure.

It didn’t go over with the public. “I don’t like the idea,” one man told KIRO 7 back in January 2014. Another, Michael Blanton, said the city should work to save the historic structure. “Yeah, I love it,” said Blanton. “I eat there probably once a week.”

So the state department of transportation and city of Tacoma went back to the drawing board. Literally. They formed a citizen's committee that worked with designers for more than two years before creating a building that incorporates an upgraded Amtrak station while keeping the look, and the businesses, that make up Freighthouse Square.

“We ended up in a much better place with a much better design because it really reflected the wishes of the community,” Strickland said.

The new station is expected to open sometime next year. It’s part of a rerouting of Amtrak trains from tracks along Puget Sound to an overland route that bypasses Point Defiance and the Narrows waterfront to make more room for increasing freight traffic along the commercial rail line.

Cox Media Group