In 2012, Amtrak disclosed a plan to renovate the Union Station, located in Washington, DC. This plan would add capacity to the station while preserving the historic site’s distinctive architecture.

Architectural Resource Consultants (ARC) performed an as-built of the historic location in order to provide accurate existing conditions documentation for the major renovations being planned. ARC conducted 3D HDS (high-definition survey) laser scanning on the interior spaces of the historic Burnham Building and Concourse A.

ARC registered the interior scans to the survey control network, unified the data, and produced TruViews. The scanning process for the site’s interior lasted about 11 days.

Once all the scan data was obtained, ARC created an overall 3D model of the building in Revit 2012 and exported it to AutoCAD to create the 2D floor plan deliverables. The scan data was also utilized for historic preservation requirements to prepare a Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) report.

This project shows ARC’s ability to model complex conditions associated with older structures and historic preservation. One of the significant challenges ARC had to overcome was scanning in a fully operational, high-volume public transportation facility. As such, most of the field operations took place at night.