Historic Fresno train depot to be renovated for California high speed rail station project

A long-shuttered rail station in Fresno, Calif., will be renovated to serve as the city’s high speed rail (HSR) station as part of the California High-Speed Rail Authority system, the nation’s first high speed rail project. California’s HSR system will eventually link more than 800 miles of rail, served by up to 24 stations.

Design firm Page & Turnbull will work on the historic station, with a focus on accessibility updates, upgrades to meet modern fire and life-safety codes and structural and seismic standards, and the rehabilitation of key architectural features of the historic Queen Anne-style depot, built of red brick with a slate bellcast hip-roof and cupolas. Foster + Partners will design a new intermodal station at the site.

The new HSR hub will connect the historic transit depot’s former passenger and freight train stations, as realized through extensive, preliminary site surveys and 3D modeling. Attention to strengthening the buildings’ structural and seismic integrity is a priority, potentially through discrete structural approaches that will preserve the buildings’ original brick walls, such as the integration of obscured concrete columns.

The historic train depot is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It opened in 1872 as the Central Pacific Railroad station and was later developed into the Southern Pacific Depot, whose service ceased in the early 1970s. The site includes the historic passenger depot, freight depot/railway express agency building, and Pullman Shed.  

As a part of the Phase 1, 119-mile Central Valley segment of the California HSR system that also includes Northern and Southern California segments, the 65-mile project section between Merced and Fresno link the Central Valley and Silicon Valley with stations in downtown Fresno and downtown Merced. The Central Valley segment will connect San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than three hours, with service expected to begin in 2027.  

When complete, the 800-mile system from Sacramento to San Diego, will include an anticipated 24 HSR stations, with arriving and departing trains travelling at some 200 miles per hour. Phase 1’s 520-mile segment consists of the San Francisco/Merced to Los Angeles/Anaheim section.

Owner and/or developer: California High-Speed Rail Authority
Architect of record for intermodal station: Foster + Partners
Architect of record for historic station: Page & Turnbull
Engineers for intermodal station: Arup