Where are they now?

What is "The Concourse"

The Concourse was a giant section of the Union Terminal train station that extended out and over the railroad tracks. Demolished in 1972, the Concourse was adorned with Art Deco tile; giant Winold Reiss tile mosaics colored the walls from head height to the ceiling. 

The Concourse was grand, like Union Terminal; the entire experience, from entering the terminal to boarding your train, was luxurious and beautiful. 

• Granite stone everything
  
• Tile mosaics
• Grand clock, always on time
• Leather upholstered individual seats
• Art Deco lighting and fonts
• Sky high cieling

The Concourse was the part of the train station where a traveler would go out to their assigned Concourse number to wait for their train. There were magazine stands, information stands, train number boards, and the 15 Winold Reiss giant-tile mosaics. 

Winold Weiss Mosaics in The Concourse at Union Terminal

15 massive mosaics climbed the walls of The Concourse at Union Terminal. Like the giant murals towering over us in the half dome at Union Terminal, the tile mosaics walked you through the terminal from entering and through to The Concourse.

Unfortunately, The Concourse was demolished in 1972 to make way for double-decker freight train cars that could not fit under the Concourse. The largest tile mosaic of The Concourse, The Globe tile mosaic, could not be saved when the Concourse was demolished in 1972. The Concourse clock is saved, but The Globe mural was not.

Fortunately, the murals that lined the sides of The Concourse's giant walls were saved; that is what this article is about: The Concourse murals, what happened to them, and where they are now.  

MUST SEE RENDERINGS OF THE CONCOURSE

The best representation of what The Concourse looked like are color renderings by David Lombardi, published here: https://www.lombardi.work/ut-cgi
You must check out the David Lombardi link and view his renderings of The Concourse. You can move your view around in David Lombardi's digital renderings of The Concourse.

We can not emphasize the importance of David Lombardi's work in creating color renderings of The Concourse section of Union Terminal; above you see what looks like a color photo of The Globe and The Concourse clock. In fact, you are seeing an image taken in 1933 by Fortune Magazine just before the Union Terminal opened. The photograph was then hand colored. We reached out to Fortune Magazine and asked if the color is precise, if the artist was on location, or if it was described. They politely told me they have not met a bigger nerd. Actually, they responded promptly and politely told me they did not have that information; the big nerd is implied. 

So, you see, there are no color photographs of The Concourse other than the hand-painted lithograph from 1933. The other image you see above is of the Concourse being demolished, the clock removed, and murals on the sides removed, The Globe, about to be demolished into a pile or rubble. It is black and white. Color photography was around when the Union Terminal Concourse was still up, but it was limited and expensive.

If you know of anyone who has color photographs of The Concourse at Union Terminal, please publish them or send them to us. We would LOVE to see them. There are almost no color photos of The Concourse. David Lombardi recreated the architectural beauty of a demolished palace. He captured the significance and the size and scale of the enormous hall.  Capturing architecture like this needs to be a practice before anything is demolished or removed.

The only color renderings of The Concourse at Union Terminal

One last time, we implore you to go explore the best representation of what The Concourse looked like in color renderings by David Lombardi, published on his website at https://www.lombardi.work/ut-cgi

The picture below was provided by the Cincinnati Museum Center. The Concourse visible in the background.

The Giant Tile Mosaics of The Concourse

Cincinnati has a strong sense of preservation. How the tile mosaics were saved is a story I would like to hear. I can tell where they went, and where they are now, but how they were really saved, how the clock was saved, I would love to learn.

The tile mosaics were removed from The Concourse just before demolition. The walls they were built into were framed in steel and lifted away. They were first moved to the Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky Airport, where they stayed on display until 2016. With the airport's future changing as Delta reconfigured operations, the local Cincinnati Government and others moved the Concourse murals from the airport to the downtown Cincinnati Convention Center on Central Parkway. 

This is where they are today

The Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio, was described as the Art Deco Temple of Transportation when it opened in 1933. Upon entering, the traveler is greeted by an awe-inspiring giant half dome covered in mosaic tile art by Winold Reiss. 

((Picture of the half dome))

Reiss' mosaic tile art leads the traveler through the station, via a mezzanine, to The Concourse. The Concourse at Union Terminal extended over the railroad tracks behind the Union Terminal. A ceiling in the sky, the grand hallways, leather upholstered seats sat in granite luxurious walls with fountains built into them. Giant windows reached to the sky, shining light on Winold Reiss murals extending all the way through The Concourse.
 

The picture below is a real photo of The Concourse at Union Terminal, taken and hand-colored by Fortune Magazine in 1933, showing The Globe mosaic at the back of The Concourse. On the left of the image, you can see one of the giant mosaics shown below looming large on the wall. Winold Reiss' Mosaic Murals lined both sides of the vertical walls of The Concourse. 

This article contains pictures of the mosaics that were in The Concourse at Union Terminal in Cincinnati. They were saved in 1972 when the Concourse was torn down; initially stored and displayed at the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Airport, they were moved to the back wall of the Convention Center in 2016. 

There are thick glass panes in front of the mosaics. Short of having a day where the glass is removed so we can shoot photos, I apologize, there are reflections for the sky in the glass panes that distort the view of the mosaics in photos.

Here are some of the saved Winold Reiss mosaics that lined the walls of The Concourse at Union Terminal until The Concourse was demolished in 1972 to make way for higher, double-stacked train cars that could not pass under The Concourse.

Exploring the Cincinnati Convention Center

The renovated Cincinnati Convention Center is worth checking out. 

The newly renovated First Financial Convention Center added vast spaces outside of the main convention hall, naturally lit up by the exterior made of mostly glass. Explore the floors and make it up to the top-most Western wall for the best view and chill area to get work done. Electric hookups are everywhere for cool private spots to get work done or take a respite from a convention.

There is a secret beauty to the Convention Center that you must check out. To see the secret beauty of the First Financial Convention Center, either go through the Convention Center to the back door, Central Ave exit, or go around the 5th street side of the Convention Center to the back of the Convention Center along Central Ave; there you will find the Winold Reiss original Mosaics that hung in The Concourse of the Union Terminal. They are amazing to see up close.

For a description of the Winold Reiss mosaics, here is a cool FB post from The Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/193TWHY19D/

Resources:
https://www.cincymuseum.org/art-of-union-terminal/
and growing up and living in Cincinnati.


Now for the Murals in the daytime with the sun hitting them. When the sun hits the murals, they sparkle like golden glitter. The glass tiles have an uneven surface that refracts sunlight, scattering it in patterns. It's neat to see. The only way the artists would have planned for sunlight was through the giant open windows in The Concourse at Union Terminal.