D. H. Burnham & Company designed the station in 1909, but Daniel Burnham died before construction began, and the successor firm Graham, Anderson, Probst and White completed it. The Pennsylvania Railroad directed the project through the Chicago Union Station Company. Construction began in 1913, stalled in World War I and resumed in 1919. It opened on May 16, 1925, and cost 75 million dollars against a projection of 65 million.
The infobox gives the style as Beaux-Arts, and the main building is also described as a square Neoclassical structure faced in Indiana limestone. The Great Hall is about 110 feet (34 m) high, with a barrel-vaulted skylight, Roman travertine columns with gold Corinthian capitals and marble floors. Two statues by Henry Hering, Night and Day, stand inside.
A restoration of the Great Hall in 2018 and 2019 cost 22 million dollars. It is a Chicago Landmark, designated in 2002, and Amtrak owns it.
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