During a Tuesday news conference to celebrate Union Station’s centennial, leaders highlighted the station’s history, architecture and its role in Chicago serving as a national railroad hub.

For decades, they acted as the city’s front door, where people from all over the country arrived seeking out a better life – or just the thrills of the big city. Geoffrey Baer takes us back to the golden age of rail travel.

Will Union Station’s modernization keep moving forward at full speed? Blair Kamin weighs in on that and the top architecture stories of the year.

A new transit facility aimed at improving connections between trains and buses at Union Station is set to open Sunday, city officials announced this week.