Home View from Underground A new look for 96th St.

A new look for 96th St.

by Benjamin Kabak

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Where: The 96th St. station on the West Side IRT.
What: Signs of progress during the ongoing renovation.

As part of a plan to substantially rehabilitate and renovate the IRT stop at 96th St. and Broadway, construction crews have unveiled a new look for the wall tiles. Gone are the ugly old black-box 96 numbers. Replacing them are red mosaic 96’s that are a part of the wall. I particularly like the mosaic trim as well.

I grew up near the 96th St. station, and I’m excited to see the new station house on Broadway between 95th and 96th Sts. While this picture provides a tantalizing glimpse of what the inside of the station will resemble when the project wraps up, it still has a long way to go.

Photo taken at my mom’s suggestion by my dad with his Blackberry last Saturday night.

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7 comments

Victoria February 25, 2009 - 5:24 pm

my favorite Blackberry-user and my favorite picture-taker!

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Lex February 25, 2009 - 7:22 pm

Aw! At your parents’ suggestion… well they have a good eye.

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Alon Levy February 25, 2009 - 9:01 pm

To what end? The station was fine before the renovation.

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Max February 25, 2009 - 9:26 pm

96th Street was horrendously bad. I used that station for many years. Smelly, drippy, filthy, rotting, and extremely busy at all hours (last/first transfer between the express and local.) The tiles look nice and are a kind of unique, coo. The station house will be great too!

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Dave Rose February 26, 2009 - 7:58 am

Happy to see some progress on this (it’s my home station), but I’m guessing that work on it will last well into 2011 despite MTA’s original plans to have it done by September 2010.

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Marsha February 26, 2009 - 8:22 am

And what about the platforms? On both sides, renovation work was started and then halted. The result is severely uneven floors, which are actually dangerous to walk on.

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MAL February 26, 2009 - 1:29 pm

I hated having to wait in a hot (depending on the month), crowded, ugly, dirty 96th St. station while waiting for my 1 transfer to Columbia… which often made me choose to wait for the 1 downtown rather than take the 2 and transfer later. Maybe now it’ll be a little better. But still crowded.

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