Union Station

Los Angeles Union Station (or LAUS, formerly the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal or LAUPT) is the main railway station in Los Angeles, California. The station has rail services by Amtrak (including Amtrak California state-sponsored lines) and Metrolink; light rail/subways are the Metro Rail Red Line, Purple Line, Gold Line.Bus rapid transport runs on the Silver Line. Bus services operate from the Patsaouras Transit Plaza on the east side of the station and others on the north side of the station. The station opened in May 1939, one of a number of union stations in the United States and consolidated remaining service from its predecessors La Grande Station and Central Station. It was built on a grand scale and became known as "Last of the Great Railway Stations" built in the United States. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It has been owned by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority since February 2011. Union Station was partially designed by John Parkinson and Donald B. Parkinson (the Parkinsons) who had also designed Los Angeles City Hall and other landmark Los Angeles buildings. They were assisted by a group of supporting architects, including Jan van der Linden. The structure combines Dutch Colonial Revival architecture (the suggestion of the Dutch-born Jan von der Linden), Mission Revival, and Streamline Moderne style, with architectural details such as eight-pointed stars. Enclosed garden patios are on either side of the waiting room, and passengers exiting the trains were originally directed through the southern garden. The lower part of the interior walls is covered in travertine marble, and the upper part is covered with an early form of acoustical tile. The floor in the large rooms is terra cotta tile with a central strip of inlaid marble (including travertine, somewhat unusual in floors since it is soft). Attached to the main building to the south is the station restaurant (the last of the "Harvey House" restaurants to be constructed as a part of a passenger terminal) designed by southwestern architect Mary Colter. Although now usually padlocked and stripped of many interior furnishings, the topology of its rounded central counter, streamlined booths, and inlaid floor patterns remain. Even with its grand scale it is considered small in comparison to other union stations.