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A gleaming Arlington station re-opens
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Comments
Arlington St Station --Looks Like a prison
I'm glad the construction is done (or close to it). The interior is sterile and colorless. No character. I hope they have a plan for some art work or something....
Ahlington
The air conditioner that cools the customer service rep's little booth is HUGE. Wear your woolies, guys and gals.
Anyway, looks good (thanks Bill) -- and finally, elevators. Do they go from each track to the surface, or is there a transfer at the mezzanine?
Transfer at the mezzanine
They squeezed in the elevators to the platforms alongside the old escalator entrances on the mezz. The elevator from the surface to the mezzanine is located at the end of the long hallway leading to the new entrance by Arlington St. Church.
Nice to know they'll be
Nice to know they'll be frigidly cool while patrons swelter.
The AC opens into the station, thus the heat transfer is going right into the area where people will be trying to get through the gates and buy tickets.
I really wish they'd retrofit the trains with a good ventilation system and institute a no AC policy while in the tunnels.
There's no reason why a system 20-50 feet below the surface should be running 90deg+
The original black and white
The original black and white tile (from 1914?) had far more character than this aesthetic, which appears to be closely following Cambridge 7's modernization in 1964. I'm really saddened to see that after being closed for such a long time, the station wound up being a redux of 1964 only with ADA satisfaction. It's really sad that someone couldn't have copied the original tile pattern, or modified it to match the current MBTA graphic style, instead of giving us this sterile mensroom.
Escalator?
Did they retain those dizzying 45-degree-tiles on the escalator chute? I don't usually get motion sickness, but man... I had to mentally keep track of gravity or I'd fall off the top step.
They haven't installed tiles
They haven't installed tiles in the escalator areas just yet.
Went for a walk
Thanks to this post took a walk through here today -
The flagstone/slate floor is actually very nice
The white tile does make it look a bit like an old restroom - but in these times it appears to be practical from a maintenance standpoint. Was interesting that they went to the trouble of installing some odd sized "columns" of tile at regular intervals - might have been nice if they were going to the trouble to add a little color - but I'm guessing white was cheap.
At the very least it's quite presentable compared to most other stops and hope they can afford to continue upgrades. Based on what I'm hearing out of the T these days it sounds like we could have an entire network of beautifully upgraded T stops but not be able to afford to pay anybody to drive the trains!