All Aboard Florida Fort Lauderdale Station

The downtown Fort Lauderdale station provides a modern gateway into the city and Broward County. The 60,000-square-foot station and platform include parking facilities and a multi-story lobby spanning an elevated passenger lounge.

The station features stacked glass boxes that span a city street below. The support structures of concrete V-beams changed from the original design to tilt-up. The tilt-up method created a complex system of panels where some were V-shaped and others were trapezoidal shape. Those required compound angle forming, intricate notching, stepping at horizontal beam sections, and recessed block-out locations that would contain LED lighting projecting upward.

The design needed to integrate the tilt-up exterior with cast-in-place elevated floors and roof in a way that worked visually and practically, especially in regards to mitigating and preventing damage from train vibrations. The integration of tilt-up and cast-in-place concrete required massive steel-embedded elements to facilitate the permanent, rigid panel-to-panel and panel-to-cast-in-place connections.

In order to maintain the look the architects and owners wanted, the width of the joints between panels and cast-in-place elements were largely concealed to mimic the original design. The design and construction of this state-of-the-art station required extensive creative thinking, planning and careful execution from start to finish.