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Morgan Street Station Opens To Critical Acclaim

By Samantha Abernethy in News on May 29, 2012 10:20PM

The West Loop got a big shiny new El station, but would the $38 million been put to better use elsewhere? Morgan Street Station opened May 24, and the Tribune's Blair Kamin writes it is "so handsome that it's bound to spark debate about whether the money spent on it would have been put to better use fixing the CTA's creaking rails and maddening 'slow zones.'" The Tribune writes:

The station's spectral stair towers and glass-sheathed transfer bridge rise airily above the hard-edged warehouses and cold meat lockers of the West Loop, also home to trendy restaurants and galleries. The area, it's been said, is in transition from slaughterhouses to art houses. The Oprah show may be gone, but the station is a new jewel in the West Loop's crown.

While gushing over the design by Chicago architect Carol Ross Barney, Kamin points out the construction was paid for by state and feder grants and TIF funds. Barney did the renovations of the Fullerton, Belmont and Grand previously. Three weeks ago, the CTA opened a new station on the Yellow Line in Skokie, but before that, the CTA hadn't added any new stations since 1997's State and Van Buren. The Oakton station cost a cool $20 million.

Photographer Steven Vance shared these photos in the Chicagoist Flickr pool. See his Flickr page to see more of his work.