In 1988, Herb Newman designed new pedestrian tunnels for Union Station New Haven as part of his firm’s restoration of the station’s original Beaux Arts train hall, a project in collaboration with SOM. The tunnels’ swooping ovoid sectional profiles and long runs of metallic horizontal slat surfacing gave them an enduring futuristic look. Although they date to 1988, the tunnels easily read 1970s, which adds to their allure.

Connecticut DOT recently announced a proposed $402 million renovation of Union Station that includes replacing the ovoid tunnels and their reflective metallic slats with squared off tunnels lined in hexagonal white and green ceramic tile. Newman’s earthy red glazed quarry tile floor would become a continuous white and gray stone composite floor.

The tunnels are not driving DOT’s project. The renovation centers around the rebuilding of four platforms and construction of a multi-level canopy system to shelter the full length of all tracks from the elements. The canopy’s raised center section would feature trussed arches creating a central atrium that would face a new pedestrian plaza off of Union Avenue.

DOT’s stated purpose is rehabilitation of the existing platforms and the canopy. The tunnels are not being reconfigured, simply given a refresh to go along with the renovated platforms and dramatic canopy. In sharing the proposal DOT notes that the project is in its early stages and that the design is not final. Construction is slated to begin in Spring 2029.

The tunnels’ designer, Herb Newman (1934-2023), was a locally prominent and prolific architect. Newman’s place in New Haven is hard to overstate with a longstanding relationship with Yale University, collaborating for a ten-year period with Edward Larrabee Barnes as Architecture & Planning Consultant to Yale University, and designing the Yale University Law School Library, Battell Chapel, and the Yale Center for American Arts among many other projects. He taught architectural design at Yale University from 1964-2017 and was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects as well as a recipient of AIA’s Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture.

DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State, DOCOMOMO US, and other organizations and individuals support preservation of the pedestrian tunnels. They remain essentially unaltered from their original design. Replacing them with a contemporary design that could be found in any other transportation hub or commercial center erases a unique aspect of Union Station New Haven beloved by decades of commuters. While modest and underground, the tunnels none the less contribute to the rich Modern architecture heritage of New Haven and the Tri-State region.

Read DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State’s April 28, 2026, letter to CT DOT (pdf)

Send your own letter of support to: UnionStationPlatforms@ct.gov

“The futuristic pedestrian tunnel at Union Station New Haven, designed by Herb Newman, may be demolished and replaced,” April 21, 2026, The Architect’s Newspaper