Central Park - CTA Pink Line

Central Park is a recently renovated Douglas Branch Station that was closed from August 10, 2002 to January 29, 2004, with a temporary station replacing it three blocks east shared with Pulaski. Unlike other stations the previous incarnation always had an island platform since it opened in 1951 combining the Drake, Lawndale and Homan stations. (Complete history on Chicago-L.org). The station's single island platform has a modern 'Renew the Blue' canopy with steel triangles interlaced with glass in the roof and columns made up of steel mesh that house the station lampposts including those on the exposed sections of the platform. The main canopy covers about half of the platform a bit skewed to the western end, there is a smaller three triangle wide second canopy towards its eastern end. To leave the platform is an elevator in a tall white brick shaft with a blue roof just west of the end of the main canopy followed by an up escalator/staircase beneath the canopy down to the station house that begins nestled beneath the tracks. This station house is oversized, almost triangular. Inside are the turnstiles and a mosaic mural Cannas & Corn: A Community Garden by Olivia Gude, 2004. The station house extends out and north of the elevated structure to the SW corner of the oddly angled intersection of Ogden Avenue and Central Park Avenue. The exterior walls are made of glass and there is a silver roof with built in benches beneath the slightly overhanging roof outside.
All photos taken on 3 August, 2011