WEST PALM BEACH, FL – March 23, 2016 – The Brightline station in West Palm Beach marked a major milestone today as the first “V” column of the building was lifted into place and set into its foundation along Quadrille Street. At the same time, community leaders, including West Palm Beach City Commissioners Shanon Materio, Paula Ryan, Sylvia Moffett and Cory Neering, put their initials, along with the signature Brightline loop, in the concrete of another “V” column.
“The community and business leaders of West Palm Beach have been such strong supporters of the Brightline train service that we wanted to invite them to leave their mark on one of our iconic V columns that will become part of the station structure,” said Julie Edwards, Brightline's chief marketing officer. “We also had the first V column lowered into place today which means our station will quickly start to take shape as we look forward to beginning the Brightline train service in mid-2017.”
The V columns provide a defining architectural element to all three of Brightline's South Florida stations, which have been designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), one of the largest and most influential architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban planning firms in the world, in association with Zyscovich Architects, an integrated urban design, architecture, and interior design firm headquartered in downtown Miami. Moss & Associates is overseeing the construction of the West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale train stations.
In West Palm Beach, 18 V columns are being constructed on site, each 32 feet tall, weighing approximately 145,000 pounds. By summer, all of the V columns will be set in place.
Opening in mid-2017, the Brightline West Palm Beach train station will serve as a transportation hub for the community. Brightline is redefining travel in South Florida by offering express, inter-city passenger service between West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami beginning in summer 2017.
About Brightline
Brightline will redefine what it means to travel by train in America with express intercity passenger rail service arriving 2017, providing an important transportation alternative to connect Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Orlando. The service will ease the stress of traffic, provide a simple and intuitive experience from door to destination, and foster new opportunities to explore more of Southeast Florida. Brightline is the only privately owned, operated and maintained passenger rail system in the United States. For more information, visit www.gobrightline.com or follow on Facebook.