More than a century after Kenneth MacKenzie Murchison designed a Beaux-Arts train station for Baltimore, Amtrak is moving in a different direction.

The railroad service and development group Penn Station Partners unveiled preliminary designs this week for a three-level building that will essentially replace Murchison’s landmark Pennsylvania Station, opened in 1911, as the new main terminal for rail passengers traveling to and from Baltimore.

Plans by Gensler call for a glassy, three-level building that will be constructed on the north side of the train tracks running through the city, the eighth busiest stop in Amtrak’s network that sees more than three million passengers a year.

The new structure will be connected by an existing concourse over the tracks to Murchison’s station at 1515 N. Charles Street, on the south side of the tracks. The existing station will be preserved and leased for commercial use, including offices on the upper floors and shops and restaurants at street level, with Quinn Evans serving as the architect for the core and shell.

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