Favorite Red/Purple Station Design

[zoostation]

A little fun for the holidays.

[antonio]

I chose Universal City for several reasons. First the art and architecture of it is a great mix of modern architectual elements as you enter the station and above the tracks but the platform is very historical and native California art and tells the story of Campo Cahuenga. What you see on the platform is accentuated by walking out of the entrances (more on that later) as you definitely feel like you are in the entrance of the Valley and have left the basin since the exterior is fairly sparse compared to most of the stations and has that mix of flat suburban calm and urban vibrancy that we associate with the SFV but is also in great views of the hills at the mouth of the pass. Second, and, outside of Downtown, unique about the station are its entrances on two sides of the street (though it really needs one on the other side of Lankershim but it was Universals fault for not paying for that not Metro), one for the parking and one for the bus bay, which means good bus connections. The entrance to the parking lot will be especially handy when the new NBC TV center is built there. I think Vermont/Sunset is a better station in terms of unique architecture and a consistent color pattern that really seems to stand out to me and fits right into the surroundings and 7th/Metro is a better station in terms of overall connectivity (it is a transfer station, after all) but Universal wins overall

[Elson]

My vote goes to Pershing Square. It's the only O.G. Red Line station that still holds up to its original look and doesn't look worn and/or dated. The neon and the white tile/panel motif make it look slick. It's one of the most photogenic/telegenic/filming-genic stations in the system, and it's obvious why. It also boasts three station entrances; and the one on the southeast and northwest have dramatic perspectives of the skyline/local skyscrapers when either ascending or descending. The one on the northeast end smells like urine and sometimes feces, but it's the fastest one to get you to all those awesome tacos at Grand Central Market.


Now is that classy, or what?


The worst looking station, I hate to admit, is Vermont/Santa Monica. It pains me to say that since it's my home station, the one I use to access Metro Rail 98% of the time, as I live just 3 blocks away.

The underground platform level just looks pathetic. Everything is either drab Grey, faded Silver (aluminum actually) and cheap floor tiling that looks like the same kind used in a 1970s era Ralphs supermarket. The lighting is somewhat dim compared to the other subway stations and the sedimentary deposits from water leaks make it look even worse. The station might have looked nice in the artist renderings and in fact won an architectural award the year it first opened, but it looks rather dismal now. I'd love to see new art put into it.

Here's the station in its better-looking days:



But the exterior street level with the aluminum "wing lid" is very cool looking though. It's a neighborhood icon and I've even used it as the cover art of a techno/dance/electronic music album I released in 2001:


e:trinity - various shades of blue (Click to find out more and listen

[antonio]

I'm a big fan of Pershing square also. Definitely my #2 overall. The three entrances and sick neon lights easily explain why

[zoostation]

I chose Hollywood/Vine because I simply love the movie reels on the ceiling. I think it's genius. The ground-level car things are kind of corny but I guess those won't be around too much longer anyway. If we did a worst station vote as well (I wanted to keep the mood positive) but for me it has to be Metro Center, just because so many people use the station, they could have tried to do something more grand (those radio station ads aren't doing the trick).

[snuffy]

I like the PE car on Hollywood/Western station.

[Jason Saunders]

Why is it MOS 3 segments of the Red Line seems to have the best station designs?

[metrocenter]

Not sure how this one slipped by.



LOS ANGELES: Thanks to $6.8 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 dollars, Los Angeles will see "the installation of canopies at several Metro Red Line escalator entrances," Metro spokesman Dave Sotero tells us, adding the canopies will help passenger safety and protect escalator machinery from exposure, among other things. Five canopies will be installed: Downtown's Civic Center and Pershing Square stations will get two (there's more than one entrance/exit to some of the stations), while Koreatown's Wilshire/Normandie Station will get one. The Los Feliz station will get a new canopy too, but that one won't be paid via this program. [Curbed Inbox]

Source: la.curbed.com.

[erict]

The escalators at the Los Feliz station are frequently out so I will be happy to see these installed (someday).

[James Fujita]

one interesting thing that I noticed about these canopies is that they give the station entrance an additional form of identification, in the form of that hanging sign (as seen in the illustration).

it's a very typical sort of subway entrance sign, of the sort found from Tokyo to New York, but one which had been oddly missing from most of our subway stations.

true, one might say that we don't need it, since stations have those monument signs, but I've always felt that the more signage, the better...

[Jason Saunders]

Do you prefer plazas or TODs on top of subway stations?

[losangeles2319]

Why not both? Look at Wilshire/Vermont Station.

[James Fujita]

well, every situation is going to be different, which means in some neighborhoods you might want to have a plaza, while in other locations, a TOD would definately be better.

some neighborhoods are going to be built out long before the Purple Line comes to town, which means that any subway station would have to be built around the existing buildings and that will put constraints on design; while some other locations may have open space and literally more room for creativity.

personally, I have always liked the idea of a large subway station, with multiple exit points. some of those exit points would lead out to the street while some would lead to a TOD. suppose a station was a couple of blocks long - like 7th/Metro or even longer. one subway station might contain several types of exit portal.

in a perfect world, you would have the subway construction and a local developer work in conjunction with each other. pedestrian tunnels would lead directly into buildings, so you would have direct access to a "subway mall" - or even, a plaza that was part of a larger project. San Diego State's underground station works because even though the station entrance leads to a grassy plaza or quad, that plaza is still in the middle of a large college campus.

unfortunately, things don't always work that way. I am frankly disappointed in how the Hollywood/Highland station ended up, because you have that huge retail development and even though the two projects were built at the same time, and still the subway entrance ends up looking like an afterthought, like the two were just pushed together with no thought of the flow of traffic.

or look at Little Tokyo. that neighborhood is tricky because the situation is changing so quickly. the Nikkei Center project, which I support, is still very much up in the air, due in large part to the economy faltering. however, this delay has allowed the developers to modify the design to allow for construction of the new bridge and wye that (we hope) is going to be there.

at the other end of Little Tokyo, you have the future 2nd/Los Angeles/Main station. again, the situation is tricky. the library is untouchable. I don't know much about the Caltrans building, but I would love to see them try and do something with the Kyoto Grand and Weller Court (underground passages?). the southeast corner looks perfect for TOD. it's empty, but from what I hear, another Sakura Crossing is going to go there, and so a grand opportunity is wasted. perhaps not too surprising,

the current plans show two street exits, quite possibly the smallest in Metro Rail history, and covered up in decorative artistic color, so no need for canopies or plazas. under the circumstances, it's not hard to understand why.

sorry for the long answer ;D but I hope it proves my point: it's never as easy as "TOD vs. plazas".

[LAofAnaheim]

Aug 28, 2009 12:48:46 GMT -8 erict said:

The escalators at the Los Feliz station are frequently out so I will be happy to see these installed (someday).

We have a Los Feliz station? Does Los Feliz know about this? .

[erict]

Sunset/Vermont is in the Los Feliz/East Hollywood area.

[metrocenter]

^ Anyway it's within walking distance of Los Feliz.