No trains have stopped at the abandoned Westchester Avenue station in the Bronx since the 1930s. The Gothic-style station designed by architect Cass Gilbert has sat abandoned for decades covered in graffiti and vines. Now, an innovative rehabilitation project by SLO Architecture is bringing new life to the station and weaving it back into the fabric of New York City.
Westchester Avenue Train Station Rendering courtesy of SLO Architecture
The Westchester Avenue train station in the Bronx was completed between 1908 and 1916. It is one of thirteen stations that Gilbert designed for the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad company. It is now one of only four that remain. The other three stations are Hunts Point Avenue, City Island and Morris Park. The station features many architectural elements that can be found in Gilbert’s other famous works including the Woolworth Building and Alexander Hamilton Custom House. The facade features richly glazed terra cotta tiles and ornately carved panels and cut-outs in geometric and floral patterns.
Photograph Courtesy of SLO Architecture
SLO Architecture’s Bronx River Right-of-Way is an adaptive re-use project that will rehabilitate and revitalize the station. Plans for the project show that the building will be relocated to a spot over the Bronx River, adjacent to Concrete Plant Park. This relocation will link the structure to the waterways and waterfronts of Greater New York. You can see animated renderings in this video and learn more about the project directly from the architects working on it in an upcoming virtual talk for Untapped New York Insiders.
Rendering Courtesy of SLO Architecture
In Always the City Seen for the First Time, principal architects Amanda Schachter and Alexander Levi will present their recent projects in New York City as ecologies of movement and community. Viewers will virtually take a canoe trip down the Bronx River to discover the Cass Gilbert train station, and a bike ride along Brooklyn’s Ocean Parkway to arrive at a newly completed home in Midwood. Discover how the work of SLO Architecture builds on the idea that how we get somewhere shapes our vision of the places we reach.
Rendering Courtesy of SLO Architecture
Through sustained local engagement, SLO develops a dynamic of surroundings allowing their process to tap into the interactive energy of urban space and capture the moment, always anew, where architecture and the city intersect. SLO Architecture is a design practice based in Long Island City whose projects link realms of urban and architectural design with artistic production and social action, bringing together multiple partners, including local practitioners, youth, mentors, fabricators, and public officials. Among other awards, Schachter and Levi are 2014 Urban Urge Award Winners, 2013 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellows, 2012 AIA NY New Practices Winners, and two-time recipients of the James Marston Fitch Foundation’s Blinder Award. They are co-editors of City of Cycling and contribute frequently on micromobility in the urban context.
This live virtual event on Tuesday, December 15th, is organized for Untapped New York Insiders. Not an Insider yet? Become a member today and get two months free with code JOINUS. After that plans start at just $10/month. A video of the tour will also be made available to all our Insiders afterward in the Video Archive section of our website. Already a member? Book here!
Next, check out all upcoming Insider events and Cass Gilbert’s Abandoned Westchester Avenue Station: An Unassuming Nod to Gothic Architecture
