Amtrak has asked several architectural firms to make renovation plans for the city's downtown train station, and hopes to choose a design by May. The remodeling efforts coincide with Chicago's plans to be a high-speed rail hub for the Midwest.
"Union Station is the gateway to the city of Chicago," says Kevin Brubaker, deputy director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center, which has been promoting high-speed rail for several years.
"This is the time for us to open up the process to get these ideas on the table for where and how the station that is going to have 5 million people in and out of it, can do it most effectively and do it right," he says.
