Consequently, the team relied on historic details still remaining in parts of the station to restore areas that had undergone modern upgrades. For example, the original plaster ceiling in the Ladies’ Waiting Room had been torn out to install an industrial HVAC system sometime after the 1980s renovation, but the Men’s Waiting Room ceiling was intact, which provided the team with the ornate patterns needed to reproduce the ceiling in the Ladies’ Waiting Room. “We also were able to replicate a custom-made bronze fixture to put in the Ladies’ Waiting Room,” Holloway says. “We were really pleased with the degree of artistic interpretation and the ability to match the fixture that was in the Men’s Waiting Room.”
The Retrofit
Because trains actually travel over Wilmington station, a lot of structural stress has been placed on the building during its more than 100-year history. In addition, as trains pass through the station, they deposit grime and items that can damage the roof of the building, which is literally under the tracks. “Most of the structural damage that occurred was in brickwork and steel where rust and water penetrated the station. All those things were remediated or patched,” Holloway recalls. “The biggest problem was—because the tracks basically run over the roof of the building—waterproofing those track beds.”
During off hours and weekends, tracks were removed and the construction crew installed a liquid-applied rubber membrane to waterproof the area under the tracks and above the concourse. “There was a lot of research and studying with the Amtrak bridge folks,” Holloway says. “They wanted the membrane to be able to withstand the stuff trains deposit along their track and be easily repairable should a piece of the train fall off or scrape against the membrane.”
Modern building codes also had a major effect on the station’s retrofit. For example, Wilmington station hosts up to 700,000 travelers per year and must meet a certain number of air exchanges per hour according to ASHRAE 62.1. “Finding places to put louvers to introduce more outside air was problematic,” Holloway recalls. “We took segments of existing window openings on the non-public side of the building and converted those to louvers. Instead of having a double-hung window in an opening, we now have what appears to be a louver in a window frame.” The louvers are red to match the façade’s brick and terracotta.
In addition, the HVAC was upgraded with new chillers and compressors and actually relocated to an area that previously was a loading dock. Moving the chillers closer to the building minimizes energy loss as the system circulates.
A major system upgrade that presented additional challenges was lighting. “We wanted to be able to dynamically light the building inside and out, but we had to be very conscious of the fact that the vibration of the trains going over the roof of the building eventually causes lamps to fall out of their sockets,” Holloway says. The team chose fluorescent fixtures with uplight and downlight capabilities that could withstand the rigors of the vibrations while saving energy.
In a major effort by Amtrak, the station was one of the first in the country to be totally retrofitted inside the concourse and on the tracks with new dynamic signage to meet ADA requirements. “On the platforms, we put in dynamic signage that is kind of like the running ticker messages you see in Times Square,” Holloway explains. “The programmable signs allow deaf passengers to read the notices and general announcements that are being made over the PA.” In the concourse, large flat-screen video monitors were installed.