28 Street
28 Street is an IRT local station with two side platforms for the four track line, the platforms were extend mostly south but also slightly north, the middle of the platforms have some original 28 unique reliefs in what is the non-existent trimline, there are also large unique terra-cotta name tablets that have a 28 and then spell out Twenty-Eighth Street. The uptown platform even has a replica of this in mosaic.
The middle of the platform is where the stations main exits are directly on each platform and have a unique early 1990s renovation of small opaque glass blocks along the walls with a large lighted sign over the turnstiles on each track and service gate saying 28 Street-Park Avenue South. This design I'm happy was not replicated elsewhere. The fare control areas each have cinderblock looking tiled walls. The staffed token booth is on the uptown platform before two streetstairs each at the NE and SE corners. One of these streetstair's signage is reversed, there is a sign saying subway followed by the station name and then the advertisement on the bottom that is much harder to see.
The downtown platform has a storefront entrance at the NE corner it leads out to inside 404 Park Avenue South, complete with its own awning. There is also a mosaic that says Svbway in that old fashioned way.
Until about 2013 the SW corner had two streetstairs in a similar style to the uptown platform entrances. As part of the construction of a new residential tower at 400 Park Avenue South, a new and modern staircase and elevator were built inside the building. This entrance looks quite modern with a silver panel and glass design. This elevator makes the station accessible to downtown trains but not uptown trains, with the elevator not maintained by the MTA but the apartment tower as part of a program that gave the apartment tower a floor area bonus to build a bigger tower than the area was zoned for.
The extension areas both north and mainly south of the station's original platforms were tiled with a blue trim with and a beige border interrupted by little 28s. There are name tablets say 28th St with IND style tiling beneath for directions to the station exits. One unique name tablet on the downtown platform spells out 28th Street. There is an additional exit on the downtown platform only open Monday-Friday 7am-7pm through a few high turnstiles (it was closed in 2004 with a non-MTA looking sign saying "Closed until further notice") that lead to revolving doors into the basement of the New York Life Insurance Building and through it and up staircases to its main lobby with public access through the regular entrance to the street. There are ornate signs that say Interborough Subway on them on the facade of the building.
The station was closed for a Cuomo's Sexy Station renovation from July 16, 2018 through January 14, 2019. These renovations replaced the early 1990s renovations in the fare control area with the black and low fence design of the Enhanced Station Initiative, put more modern benches on both platforms. The renovations were done done on the cheap towards the end of the program, with for example, none of the streetstairs replaced with modern black designs. On the street, new pillars with screens were placed between the sets of regular streetstairs to the uptown platform and by the streetstairs within buildings to the downtown platform.
1-4: March 16, 2004; 5-13: December 31, 2009; 14-33: August 12, 2011; 34-46: September 22, 2010; 47: September 3, 2023; 48-86: September 24, 2023
