Name: Chicago Transit Authority – Redline Revisioning
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Size: 8 stations
Cost: $5 illion
Completed: First implementation at the Roosevelt Station in 1996. Phased construction at remaining stations through 2010.

Built as part of Route 1 of Chicago’s Initial System of Subways — more popularly known as the State Street Subway — the Redline subway stations were designed to whisk people into the heart of Chicago.  Some stations featured a mezzanine-level fare control area below the street intersection and dual side platforms as opposed to the island platforms more typical elsewhere in the Initial System of Subways. The architecture of the station, described at the time as of a “modern design”, was streamlined Art Moderne with some Art Deco elements, simple and austere compared to earlier subways in New York, London, Paris or other systems but very much in the style and fashion of the period in which it was designed.

In the 1990’s, the CTA embarked on a program to remodel the State Street subway stations, most of which haven’t been altered much since the 1940s. Though small pieces of Loop stations have been remodeled, Roosevelt was the first stop to undergo a complete renovation, completed in 1996.  Finished in colored tile in an Art Deco motif, the tones (in this case, red) denote the line and pictures on the tiles (in this case, silhouettes of skyscrapers) denote the station’s location (downtown, here). The station’s name is also molded into the tile work and lighting has been improved markedly.

Images and description courtesy of www.chicago-l.org and www.transitchicago.com.  Architectural work completed by Brian Rich at Daniel P. Coffey & Associates, Ltd.