Cincinnati Union Terminal’s restoration solved a building-wide water and structural crisis while keeping the 1933 Art Deco landmark recognizable. The work stabilized the exterior and steel frame, replaced obsolete heating and cooling infrastructure, and conserved murals, marble, terrazzo, windows, lighting, and other crafted finishes. It was a repair project and a conservation project at the same time—not a conventional modernization that treated historic fabric as disposable.
Two published accounts report different totals because they describe different scopes. Building Design + Construction (BD+C) reports a 500,000-square-foot project costing $172.7 million, with construction from July 2016 through November 2018. The National Trust for Historic Preservation describes a three-year, $228 million comprehensive station restoration completed in December 2018 and says renovations to the Cincinnati Museum Center’s three museums were outside that restoration figure. The sources do not provide a line-by-line reconciliation, so the numbers should not be treated as interchangeable.
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What the Union Terminal renovation was designed to fix
Union Terminal opened in 1933, with a rotunda spanning 180 feet. By the time the restoration began, the central problem was water getting through the building envelope and damaging what supported it. The National Trust account describes cracks in the limestone-and-brick exterior, moisture around the rotunda drum wall, and corroded steel members. A 2006 survey using thermal imaging had already identified areas where water was attacking the structure. BD+C’s project report likewise describes façade deterioration, replacement of damaged ceiling beams, and new building systems. The National Trust’s project account and BD+C’s 2019 report make clear that stopping water was the prerequisite for every other improvement.
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The terminal had also accumulated decades of improvised mechanical work. The restoration had to create reliable heating, cooling, ventilation, and moisture control without cutting away the spaces and finishes that made the station significant. That combination—an urgent building-science problem inside a landmark whose details could not simply be replaced—set the project’s difficulty.
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How the team mapped a complicated existing building
Designers could not safely rely on old drawings to locate every structural member, cavity, duct, and finish. The team therefore made a detailed digital record before major interventions. Truescan3D used two Leica P40 scanners at 2,500 locations around the property, according to the National Trust. The collected information was translated into a Revit model and a new drawing set. BD+C describes the resulting point cloud as containing 4.3 billion data points. These figures describe the same documentation effort at different levels of reporting precision; neither is a claim about a later building-performance measurement.
The scan allowed the architects and engineers to coordinate new work against irregular historic construction. It also gave conservators a reference for elements that would be removed, cleaned, repaired, and returned. In a building with a huge rotunda, concealed steel, layered finishes, and active museum spaces, that record reduced the risk of discovering a critical condition only after demolition had started.
Envelope and structural repairs stopped the water path
Rotunda drum stabilization
The drum wall around the rotunda had to be stabilized as well as made weather-tight. The National Trust reports that contractors tied new concrete block to the existing steel frame with rebar, then faced the repair with more than 17,000 historic bricks along with matching non-historic bricks. Reusing historic units where possible preserved the visual rhythm of the original wall while allowing damaged areas to be rebuilt.
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Façade removal and localized sequencing
BD+C reports that brick and stone were removed in small areas, a watertight barrier was installed, and the masonry was replaced. Working in limited sections mattered because open façade areas could expose the interior to weather. The sequence made it possible to repair the envelope without turning the occupied building into a continuously open construction site.
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Water-damaged steel and ceiling beams
Eight steel beams above the Children’s Museum were replaced after water damage. BD+C identifies each beam as eight tons, 40 feet long, and 36 inches deep. Their replacement illustrates why the project was more than cosmetic preservation: moisture had compromised primary structural components, and the repairs had to carry modern loads while fitting an existing landmark.
Fountain waterproofing
The fountain was removed and reassembled so workers could install a waterproofing membrane. The National Trust says multiple waterproofing layers now protect the fountain’s concrete. Taking the fountain apart, treating the substrate, and rebuilding it preserved a major architectural feature while addressing a concealed source of recurring moisture.
Mechanical systems were replaced without erasing historic interiors
The new mechanical installation was extensive. BD+C reports more than 478,000 pounds of ductwork, a cooling tower connected to 23 new air handlers and three centrifugal chillers, and replacement of five boilers. The National Trust also describes new boilers, extensive ductwork, and air-handling units as part of the effort to replace an aging and improvised heating system.
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Routing that quantity of new service infrastructure required the point-cloud record and close coordination with preservation work. Ducts, access points, and equipment had to fit around existing steel, murals, ceiling bands, and museum operations. The result was modernization hidden behind or alongside historic architecture rather than a wholesale visual reset.
Art, windows, doors, and finishes were treated as building systems
Glass mosaics and painted murals
Winold Reiss’s two panoramic glass mosaic murals cover 4,200 square feet. Conservators cleaned and stabilized them, filled cracks with a stabilizing compound, and replaced missing tiles with close matches from Orsoni, a Venetian company, according to the National Trust. BD+C reports work on eight mosaic murals and 22 painted murals overall. The aim was not to make the artwork look new; it was to secure fragile surfaces and retain the evidence of the original craft.
Windows, doors, and metalwork
BD+C reports that 1,060 doors and 1,270 windows were replaced, restored, or thoroughly cleaned. The National Trust gives a more specific example of the cleaning process: aluminum window frames were treated with dry-ice pellets and baking soda before the glazing was reinstalled. This approach removed accumulated deposits while limiting abrasion to the historic metal.
Lighting, marble, terrazzo, and specialty materials
Historic lighting was repaired, and many bulbs were changed to LED bulbs. Red Verona marble was polished, painted artwork was cleaned, and terrazzo was matched where repairs required new material. The exterior clock mechanism was repaired. Some finishes demanded specialist sourcing and craft, including Flexwood veneer wallpaper and neon tubing. Michael Burson, the restoration project’s owner’s representative, explained the challenge this way: “There were things done here that don’t get done in construction anymore,” including outdoor terrazzo work and putty around glass.
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Acoustic surfaces in separate locations
BD+C reports that 5,200 pounds of SonaKrete acoustic finish were applied to the rotunda’s interior wall before repainting. Separately, the National Trust describes removing an acoustic material from ceiling gold bands before repainting. These were distinct interventions in different locations and should not be treated as one material or one repair.
Construction stayed active while the public watched
Union Terminal housed the Cincinnati Museum Center from the late 1990s, so construction occurred around an operating institution and a highly visible public landmark. The National Trust describes temporary conditions that alarmed visitors. Nick Cates of GBBN Architects, the lead architect, recalled: “It was horribly upsetting [to the public]. People would ask what we were doing.” The quote captures a preservation reality: demolition, scaffolding, exposed substrates, and partially removed finishes can look destructive before the finished sequence becomes legible.
BD+C reports 1.1 million man-hours for the project. The work ran from July 2016 to November 2018 in its account, while the National Trust calls the comprehensive restoration a three-year effort completed in December 2018. The difference is a matter of reported schedule boundaries, not evidence that one source is describing a separate building.
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Cost and schedule: keep the published scopes separate
| Source | Scope described | Reported cost | Reported duration or completion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Building Design + Construction, 2019 | 500,000-square-foot renovation and restoration project | $172.7 million | Construction from July 2016 to November 2018; described as 2½ years |
| National Trust for Historic Preservation | Comprehensive restoration of the station | $228 million | Three years; completed December 2018 |
| National Trust clarification | Three museum renovations inside the building | Outside the $228 million restoration figure | Not stated separately |
The two totals should be cited with their source and scope whenever they appear. The available accounts do not explain whether one figure includes additional project components, different soft-cost categories, or a different accounting boundary. A single blended number would falsely imply a reconciliation that has not been published.
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Who led the work and who was responsible for the building
BD+C lists Turner Construction as submitting firm and general contractor; Cincinnati Museum Center as owner; GBBN Architects as design architect; THP Limited as structural engineer; The Kleingers Group as civil engineer; Arup for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing work; Heapy Engineering as engineering consultant; and John G. Waite Associates Architects as historic-preservation contractor.
The National Trust uses a different governance description. It identifies Union Terminal Corporation (UTC) as the client entity responsible for station upkeep and maintenance. UTC selected a team that included John G. Waite Associates, GBBN Architects, and Turner Construction. Cincinnati Museum Center was the station’s largest tenant and a driving force behind the restoration. These labels are not contradictory: a maintenance client, a museum tenant, and the firms listed on a construction award can occupy different roles on the same project.
Why this project matters to preservation practice
Document first, then design the intervention
The combination of thermal imaging, thousands of scanner positions, and a coordinated Revit model shows how digital documentation can support old-building judgment. Scanning did not replace investigation; it made the existing conditions easier to compare, coordinate, and revisit as work progressed.
Repair the water path before decorating the room
Repointing, drum-wall stabilization, beam replacement, and fountain waterproofing addressed sources of deterioration before conservation teams finished surfaces. Without that sequence, restored murals, marble, and paint would remain vulnerable to the same moisture that damaged them.
Preserve evidence of making, not only appearance
Matching terrazzo, sourcing specialized veneer and neon, repairing clockwork, and replacing missing mosaic tiles with close matches all retain evidence of how the terminal was made. Conservation here meant maintaining material character and craft knowledge alongside visual appearance.
Modernize invisibly where the architecture demands it
New boilers, air handlers, chillers, cooling infrastructure, and hundreds of thousands of pounds of ductwork gave the building contemporary services, but the project did not claim success merely because equipment was new. Its measurable record is the installation scope; published sources do not provide independent energy or comfort results.
The lasting outcome
John G. Waite, whose firm served as preservation architect, called Union Terminal “one of the largest preservation projects carried out [in the country] recently, and one of the most complex.” The description fits the combination of structural risk, weatherproofing, museum operations, mechanical replacement, and conservation of thousands of historic components. Union Terminal came back into service not by choosing between repair and modernization, but by using modern investigation and infrastructure to make long-term stewardship of the original architecture possible.
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