Disappointing art at the new Gold Line Metro stations

I love the original Metro stations for the Gold and Red lines here in Los Angeles.  The artwork, commissioned from local artists in the late 1990s, is exuberant and wildly creative as you can see by the examples I’m including in the post.

During the more recent construction of the Gold Line extension I had heard that some bureaucrats at the Metro headquarters were complaining that the stations did not have a standardized appearance.  Their argument was that visitors could not easily find the stations unless they had a standard look.

What a silly comment! As far as I can tell the ‘standard’ used to recognize the stations is the big blue circle with the big white ‘M’ in it. It’s visible on appropriate street corners all over the city.

Sadly the bureaucrats won.  The new Metro stations beyond Sierra Madre Villa are boring. Boring. Boring. Tiled benches at Azusa, tile on the base of the pillars at another station, a tall ‘vase-looking’ thing at the City of Hope.

In this post I’ll show you examples of the amazing artwork at the original Gold Line stations.  In my next post I’ll show the art at the Red stations.  Those works of are, too, are breathtakingly original and memorable for visitors and locals alike.

For whatever it is worth, there seemed to be more passengers than usual when I was on the Gold Line on Saturday. I’m sure it is far more convenient for residents out in the burbs to come into the city on the Metro, than drive on the 210 Freeway.