Transit + Infrastructure

CTA Fullerton and Belmont Stations

Chicago, Illinois | Completed 2010
CTA Fullerton Belmont 10

The Fuller­ton and Bel­mont Sta­tions replaced over­bur­dened his­toric sta­tions with ful­ly acces­si­ble mul­ti-modal facil­i­ties. The sta­tions serve as trans­fer hubs for the Chica­go Tran­sit Authority’s Red, Brown and Pur­ple Lines, car­ry­ing more than 10,000 dai­ly pas­sen­gers (~ 65% of the system’s traffic).

At street lev­el, two plazas and their respec­tive sta­tion­hous­es offer gen­er­ous cir­cu­la­tion to and through the sta­tion. Fare col­lec­tion gate­ways are sup­port­ing by white brick pylons, from which lighter stairs con­nect to the plat­forms. With­in the plazas, con­crete columns taper to pro­vide visu­al relief and a can­vas for art­work bear­ing the weight of the new, sound-damp­en­ing track struc­ture above. 

The his­toric sta­tion­hous­es were moved across the streets, restored, and now pro­vide full access as orig­i­nal­ly intend­ed. The most promi­nent fea­ture of both sta­tions is the incor­po­ra­tion of nat­ur­al light into the streetscape and expe­ri­ence. Lay­ers of per­fo­rat­ed stain­less-steel pan­els and pat­terned glass walls slide past stair open­ings to shel­ter and bring light deep into the sta­tion­hous­es; trans­form­ing arti­fi­cial envi­ron­ments into spaces that blur the thresh­old to the out­door streetscapes that sur­rounds them. Light struc­tur­al mem­bers and reflec­tive fin­ish­es sus­tain the dif­fu­sion of nat­ur­al light, and are designed to accom­mo­date future exten­sions of canopy enclo­sure and the replace­ment of con­crete plat­forms with glass floor­ing over the streets and plazas.

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The design incor­po­rates nat­ur­al light with pat­terned glass walls that slide past stair open­ings to shel­ter and bring light deep into sta­tion­house. Tapered columns pro­vide visu­al relief and a can­vas for artwork. 

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Plat­forms span­ning both Bel­mont and Fuller­ton Avenues were designed to accom­mo­date a translu­cent glass floor. While not installed at open­ing, the sys­tem intends to bring light down over the streets to avoid light-sinks along two of Chicago’s most promi­nent east-west arteries. 

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His­toric sta­tion­hous­es had lost func­tion­al­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly when it came to access for pas­sen­gers of all abilities. 

Fullerton

Historic Fullerton Stationhouse

Belmont

Historic Belmont Stationhouse

Both sta­tion hous­es were restored, decades of paint removed, and relo­cat­ed across the streets from their orig­i­nal loca­tion to bet­ter ser­vice the sta­tion and passengers.

Belmont Station Chicago L org c Graham Garfield

© Graham Garfield, Chicago-L.org

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Translu­cent canopies made of poly­car­bon­ate pan­els emit light to the plat­form enhanc­ing the feel­ing of open­ness and secu­ri­ty of the station.

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Existing Belmont Station, 1999

Orig­i­nal­ly opened in 1900 with ren­o­va­tions in the 1990’s, the Fuller­ton and Bel­mont sta­tions were past their use­ful life. At plat­form lev­el a sur­gi­cal approach to struc­tur­al sup­port for canopies and wind­breaks allowed the nar­row plat­forms to meet the needs of 21st cen­tu­ry passengers.

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Illinois Medical District 18
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