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Is there any transportation hub that can be categorized as pretty? Bus stations, train stations, whatever else has too much hustle-and-bustle to be categorized
by wangchow 10y ago
Is there any transportation hub that can be categorized as pretty? Bus stations, train stations, whatever else has too much hustle-and-bustle to be categorized as pretty.
- clock_tower 10y agoThere were some really magnificent train stations back in Victorian times...
- AnimalMuppet 10y agoAnd early 20th Century in the US.
- throwanem 10y agoBaltimore Penn is a great example: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/7a/df/4c/7adf4cd6db221dd684a0999231842f8f.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/7a/df/4c/7adf... Old enough to have real character, and nobody seems terribly inclined to gut it and fill it up with soulless blondwood veneer. I've never seen it much more active than in the photo, either. Really, a significant part of the reason why I prefer train travel to flying is because when I choose the former, I have the privilege of leaving from and returning to Penn, rather than the modernist Skinner-box nightmare that is BWI.
- clock_tower 10y agoIndeed! I wasn't intending to limit good train stations to Britain when I spoke of Victorian times -- and, indeed, "Victorian" is too limiting. Early-20thC is Edwardian or thereabouts -- and US train-station design was at its zenith at that time, as throwanem observes.
- wangchow 10y agoArchitecturally for sure. But, the true feeling of any transportation hub includes the people buzzing through. At least modern-day ones :) I'm sure things were much slower paced back then however. Perhaps it was an entirely different experience!
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- avn2109 10y agoCome to Grand Central and be astounded by how crappy modern-day transit's architecture is by comparison.
- wangchow 10y agoWell, pretty implies delicate and graceful. While the construction might have been gracefully carried out, it is certainly not delicate.