Denver Union Station

Denver Union Station opened in May 1881 to an original design by the architect A. Taylor of Kansas City, though fire destroyed its central section in 1894, prompting a replacement designed by the Denver firm Gove and Walsh in the Beaux-Arts style, which opened in 1914 and remains the station's architectural centerpiece today. The station's flanking wing buildings, built in a Romanesque Revival style, carry tall narrow windows, rusticated stonework and decorative motifs based on the columbine, Colorado's state flower. A major renovation led by Hargreaves Associates and Skidmore, Owings and Merrill transformed the historic building between 2012 and 2014, and it reopened on July 26, 2014, combining the 112-room Crawford Hotel with retail space and restaurants built into the historic structure. The station's 12,000-square-foot Great Hall was preserved through the renovation as a public transit waiting area and informal civic gathering space rather than being converted entirely to commercial use. The complex today functions simultaneously as an active rail terminal and as one of downtown Denver's principal public gathering spaces.