For much of the past year, scaffolds have lined 30th Street Station's two main entrances as the Amtrak hub in University City undergoes a $550 million restoration project.
Most of the station's former shops and food options have been shuttered and replaced by automated retail kiosks in the concourse. Pret A Manger and Dunkin' each have two shops open, but that's about it for concessions. Even the florist's stand that long graced a corner of the concourse has been scaled back to a weekly pop-up on Fridays.
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Work inside the 92-year-old station may be slow-going, but crews are giving the building a meticulous cleaning that will clear the way for a revamped retail program in the coming years. Amtrak's plans call for a new food hall and the potential return of sit-down dining in renovated spaces that have been empty since the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We're trying to modernize the station and improve on its fit, feel and finish," Scott Mucci, a senior project executive for construction and design firm Gilbane, said during a tour of the site. "But we obviously need to focus on maintaining the historic aspects of the building."
Most of the work at the station is taking place overnight to avoid disruptions to passengers and train operations. Along the 93-foot-high ceiling on the east end of the concourse, a scaffold gives crews access to the station's original, plaster-based coffer design. Workers are cleaning the indented panels on the ceiling and scrubbing the building's limestone walls.
Mucci pointed out the difference in shade between sections of wall that have been cleaned and those that still need work.
"You can see the level of dirt and grime when you compare them," he said. "This is the true artisan work."
The limestone walls of 30th Street Station are being restored and scrubbed of dirt to bring out the lighter shade from when the building opened in 1933.
Scaffolding is set up inside the east and west entrances of 30th Street Station to give restoration crews access to the building's ceiling and walls.
Other projects on Gilbane's to-do list include lowering the station's 32-foot-tall light fixtures one by one to clean and replace bulbs.
The interior restoration of 30th Street Station was delayed for several years by the pandemic before work finally got underway two years ago. The project is part of a public-private partnership between Amtrak and Plenary Infrastructure Philadelphia, a consortium that has a 50-year agreement to improve and maintain the country's third-busiest Amtrak station.
"We try to do it in the least impactful way for ridership," Mucci said. "A lot of the last year has been demolition, uncovering and pulling ourselves out, so that has been a fair amount of the challenge. There's been a lot of, 'Huh, we didn't expect that to be there.'"
Crews have found old rail components, station lanterns tucked away in storage and brochures from the 1980s that Amtrak made to celebrate the station's 50th anniversary with photos from the opening in 1933.
Work is expected to continue through at least 2027, but Mucci believes commuters will be rewarded for their patience. He said the goal is to modernize the station and make it more functional.
"We want to try to give it a sense of belonging," Mucci said. "You want to come here. You want to have dinner. You want to linger. It's not just grab a coffee and run to your train."
Transit-oriented development projects are often viewed as adding high-rise buildings with housing and businesses near transportation hubs, but Mucci said it's equally important for cities to reinvigorate and showcase the history of their existing facilities.
Some of the notable changes planned in the coming year include moving the station's customer service area out of the concourse and into the North Waiting Hall, the spacious and underutilized side room that features Karl Bitter's 30-foot-long sculpture "The Spirit of Transportation."
'The Spirit of Transportation,' an 1895 frieze made by Austrian-born American sculptor Karl Bitter, is shown above in 30th Street Station's north waiting room. The station's renovation includes moving customer service functions into the mostly empty space.
A rendering shows plans for Amtrak's new customer service pavilion at 30th Street Station.
The rendering above shows Amtrak's vision for the $550 million interior restoration of 30th Street Station.
For nostalgic commuters, the restoration calls for bringing back the station's split-flap departure board as a decorative monument. The Solari flipboard was dismantled and replaced with a digital version in 2019. Since then, the board has been on display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Lancaster County.
On the south end of the station's concourse — where Wendy's and Jersey Mike's used to be — about half of the space will be occupied by new retail and food options.
"What used to be a Wendy's may turn into a high-end, sit-down restaurant," Mucci said. "That's a difference-maker."
The station's west arcade, where the former Bridgewater's Pub closed in 2020, will be fully renovated to attract anchor businesses. And Amtrak's offices at the station, which cover about 250,000 square feet, will be upgraded after decades without improvements.
Amtrak declined to comment about its timeline to introduce new food and retail at the station.
"From a construction perspective, we're still here for a couple years," Mucci said.