Last week I unexpectedly visited one of my favorite Los Angeles buildings: Union Station.  Opened in 1939, it is the largest railroad passenger terminal in the Western United States ... though it pales in size to those found Overseas.  It saw heavy use during World War II, but later saw declining patronage due to the growing popularity of air travel and automobiles.  It the mid 1990s it began a renaissance as Los Angeles finally began to add light rail lines; and improved bus systems to its transportation system.  Union Station has become a central hub.  Today, roughly 100,000 people pass through the station daily on their commute.

Entrance from the street is through a set of doors located behind the Information Booth centered in this image:

Over the doors, is this "skylight" lattice work.  Do you see the crosses or stars in the pattern?

To the right of the Information Booth is the original ticket concourse.  Now closed to the public, it can be seen in many television commercials and a few movies.  I can just imagine the activity level in this section of the building during middle of WW II!

 In this photo, I  tilted the camera up to emphasize 62 feet high ceiling, 110 foot  long counter, and tall windows:

My favorite image of the day was of the doors and windows shown on the left in the image above.   The light just right to show off the elegance and simplicity of these doors!

Here's view of the tunnel running under the train tracks.  We're looking to the west from the Eastern Bus terminal that has been "recently" incorporated into the system.  The Bus terminal is immediately behind. 

Turning around and walking into the bus terminus is this imposing view of a glass mosaic covering ... ground level (to the buses) is up a flight of stair

Here's the view gotten by turning around and looking back towards the tunnel which starts under the mural:

My last shot of the post is another favorite ... shadows on the wall of the stairs leading to the bus terminus:

I did not show any photos of the main waiting area of Union Station in this blog.  It is large room thats equally impressive as the rest of the building but filled with people and bad light!

As always, thanks for looking,

adam  

P.S.  Don't forget to click on the images to see a larger version.  The image of the doors and windows in the ticket concourse look really good enlarged!