Soto is one of two underground stations on the one tunnel of the Edward R. Roybal Linea de Oro Eastside Extension which opened on November 15, 2009. The station has a single island platform with simple bare concrete track walls except for lettering spelling out 'Worlds Birds Home Between Us' (for part of the stations artwork: Landings by Nobuho Nagasawa). For the station's name there is a track of lighting above the edges of the platform with illuminated signs and dots, just like on the red line subway, although there is just one dot after the name, not two on each side. To exit the station two single escalator/stair combinations and an elevator lead up to an intermediate mezzanine with blue walls and an illuminated mural of birds flying around a map of Los Angeles. A wire mesh feature looks like it is suspending an egg. At one end there are turnstiles and these lead out to TVMs and a single entrance with two escalators with a staircase in between up to a large entrance plaza at SW corner of 1st and Soto Streets. There is an elevator off to one side. The entrance is covered by a white round canopy suspended from one vertical truss up from the top of the elevator shaft.
All Photos taken on 19 March, 2010
Mariachi Plaza
