They used to be dark, dirty, damp, and depressing. They looked like set pieces for The Dark Knight, especially at night, when a lonely bulb (or two) lit the outside of Field’s Corner station. All of that has changed now. Beauty-clean has replaced Ugly-dirt.
The new Field’s Corner and Shawmut Stations on the Red Line in Dorchester are great examples of how good design can transform. They new stations are so beautiful, in fact, that they almost…almost obliterate the memory of just how dreary and depressing these stations were.
Field’s Corner is a brand new station with glass, neon light, an escalator and elevator. There’s landscaping on the walk from the Geneva Avenue side, and a mural on the Dorchester Ave. side.
Shawmut Station is a restoration of an old brick station with grand windows. (The windows were boarded up for years! I didn’t even know they existed! Walking toward it from Centre Street one sees the adjacent new Epiphany School building. Approaching from Melville Avenue, one sees the herb garden planted by neighbors along a path that used to be strewn with weeds and debris.
Ashmont is still under construction but the new Carruth Building is already a wonderful asset to the neighborhood – with a coffee shop (Flat Black Coffee Co.), restaurant/bar (Tavolo), and a branch of the Wainwright Bank.
I use public transportation most of the time I travel away from home. While there are still issues with our transportation system,(although I don’t hold the T responsible for the actions of the public part of public transportation).
I have to congratulate the MBTA on a job well-done on these stations.