Paulina - CTA Brown Line

Paulina is a recently renovated brown line station and was one of the last ones to be closed, renovated and expanded to allow for 8 car train operations. It closed on March 30, 2008 and reopened on April 3, 2009 taking nearly exactly year for renovations. The stop has two side platforms with the usual silver brown line fencing and rebuilt historic brown painted small canopies that run for about the length of two cars in the middle of the platforms.

The station really should be called Lincoln or Lincoln-Paulina (and was in some years). The new station house was built at the extreme western ends of the platforms. It is quite far away from the canopy with just a tiny modern silver one with heat lamps for waiting passengers. An elevator shaft at the very end of the platforms and a staircase leads down to an intermediate landing with a Hand-cut glass mosaic on the wall: Transitions by Barbara Cooper, 2009. The staircases then become one for a short intermediate set before reaching the turnstiles. Above the turnstiles and entrance area is the second part of Transitions, a Riveted brass and stainless-steel sheeting sculpture. The new station house is extremely airy with white walls and plenty of glass windows on the inside. The exterior walls and elevator shaft are all brown brick in the theme of all the new station houses on the brown line. It is located on the west side of the oddly angled Lincoln Avenue a short ways north of where it meets Paulina Street at a triangle.

The east side of Paulina street is where the station house was until 2009 (Still visible on Google Streetview as of September 2012). Today the building has been removed with just a short staircase beneath the station leading up from the east sidewalk to an intermediate landing where it splits into two for separate walkways to staircases up to each platform. These reach the platforms and each have a single high entrance farecard only turnstile slightly towards the back of the platforms just beyond the end of the canopies.
All photos taken on 1 August, 2011