Sacramento Valley Station by Page & Turnbull and ZGF
Sacramento, California

Photo © Tim Griffith, courtesy Page & Turnbull
Designed by San Francisco firm Bliss and Faville, the Sacramento Valley Station was built as a flagship depot for the Southern Pacific Railroad. By the 1970s, the 68,000-square-foot Renaissance Revival building—with its exterior of local brick and terra-cotta, and its ornate waiting room adorned with California marble, travertine, steel, bronze, and mahogany—fell into disrepair. In 2009, the city of Sacramento hired ZGF and historic-preservation firm Page & Turnbull to revive the station, which is one of Amtrak’s busiest and will eventually accommodate California’s new high-speed rail line. The building, which serves 40 trains daily, remained operational throughout the renovation; in two phases, the team upgraded for building code, incorporated energy-efficient systems, and repaired and replaced interior materials and finishes, restoring the historic structure to its original splendor.
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