subway stations i feel that the MTA did dirty
i’m a big fan of historical stations and i love station tile work but it always grinds my gears when the MTA either fails to preserve a station’s work and sloppily covers up things, neglects the station, or entirely covers up cool original tile work. don’t get me wrong, some stations need to be renovated and fixed (ADA accessibility for example) but i feel like it can be done *most of the time* without affecting the look and preexisting historical features of a station. here’s my least favorite examples of MTA changes to stations
the neglect of chambers street station on the J/Z. the station is pretty but it’s crumbling and dirty and is considered by many as the “ugliest station”. i don’t think it would hold this name if it was maintained and deep cleaned at least once. i also feel that it’s pretty underused having 2 disused platforms
the tile renovations of several stations that covered up several original tile names plates. this is something that’s happened in several stations like rector street and several brooklyn stations such as prospect av and bay ridge av for example, and they just entirely plastered over those stations tile names. it’s cleanish but it’s also a bit bland compared to the original tiling
the mott avenue sign at 149th st, grand concourse. i should have definitely put a photo of the sign that covers the tiling for mott av, which doesn’t even cover the whole thing and looks pretty sloppy. the mott av sign is falling apart too but they didn’t even cover it well enough to hide what it says. the sign that they covered it with is way too small