81 St-Museum of Natural History
81st Street-Museum of Natural History is a stacked IND Central Park West Line Stop. The two side platforms have the typical layout of all the local stops under Central Park West. The Uptown tracks both express and local are on the upper level, the downtown on the lower level. The station’s two fare control areas are directly along the uptown platform, with staircases only to the west (non-park side) of Central Park West. The station, along with 86 Street are the only two along Central Park West not to have any abandoned entrances.
The station was renovated in 2000 (it had green instead of blue platform columns before the renovation) and received perhaps the most impressive Arts for Transit installation of anywhere in the subway system. Various mosaic and terra-cotta reliefs represent portions of the American Museum of Natural History's vast collection on the walls of both the platforms. Today the station is the only one on Central Park West to have a blue trimline with a single blue tile and a black border that wasn’t originally at the station but added during the 2000 renovation. The platforms have name tablets that say “81 St-Museum of Natural History” with arrows beneath them directing passengers to either “81” or “Museum.”
The northern end of the platforms contains the station’s staffed entrance. Here two staircases, “the Stars” and “Inner Earth” lead up from the Downtown platform to the Uptown Platform. The fare control area is directly on the Uptown platform. A wide bank of turnstiles that lead out to an extra-wide staircase at the SW corner and conventional staircase at the NW corner of 81 Street and Central Park West.
At the southern end is of the platform was once a part time but is now unstaffed at all times exit/entrance to the Museum and 79 Street as the signs for the exit say. Here “the Sea” staircase connects the Downtown platform to the uptown platform. On the uptown platform is a small fare control area with both regular and high entrance/exit turnstiles. There are a few MVMs that are often overwhelmed from Museum tourists who don’t understand subway fares and it seems like an entrance that should be staffed for customer service reasons to help people unfamiliar with riding the subway system. This fare control area has a set of doors directly in front of the turnstiles that lead directly into the Museum of Natural History. This means museum visitors can go to the Museum of Natural History without ever setting foot on the street. Entering the museum is via steps downward from the subway station to the Lower Level of the museum, to an admissions desk specific for visitors arriving through the subway station, arriving inside the museum in front of the food court.
The only exit up to the street from this exit is via an additional short tunnel that leads from the fare control area south, under the southern end of the Museums drop-off driveway circle. This leads to a staircase clad in stone up to the west side of Central Park West. The staircase has an ornate green lamppost with a light on it that says ‘Subway.’ The stonework of this entrance is designed to blend into the museum’s facade, particularly the steps next to it that lead up to the main museum entrance through the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda where a large sculpture of a dinosaur is located. The streetstair is at what would be 78 Street, not 79 Street, if West 78 Street continued east of Columbus Avenue and wasn’t split into two by the mega-block containing the Museum of Natural History and Theodore Roosevelt Park and runs from 81 Street to 77 Street.
Photos 1-16: July 1, 2008; 17-21: June 24, 2011; 22-27: November 10, 2013
Arts for Transit at 81 St-Museum of Natural History
For Want of a Nail, 2000
Various Mediums by an Arts For Transit Collaborative
