The location of the Fairfax station in relation to the surrounding area and LACMA. Not shown here is a potential second station entrance on the north side of Wilshire. Metro is talking to LACMA who may be willing to fund this. More cool visuals below! Don’t stop reading!
The Westside Subway Extension project held a community update on Wednesday night. It has been a busy few months since the project’s final environmental study was approved by both the Metro Board of Directors and the Federal Transit Administration.
Here’s the latest:
•The current schedule has the first 3.9-mile phase from Wilshire/Western to Wilshire/La Cienega opening in 2023. The second phase to Century City would open in 2026 and the third phase to the Westwood VA Hospital would be done in 2035.
•If voters approve Measure J, which extends the Measure R sales tax until 2069, the entire Westside Subway Extension could possibly be completed to the Westwood/VA station by the same time.
This rendering shows the usual mix of utilities under Wilshire Boulevard that will have to be relocated. Click above to see larger.
•Construction is planned to begin in 2014, with pre-construction until then. The first utility relocation, near Wilshire and La Brea is planned to begin this fall.
•Work will also soon begin on a 75-foot deep exploratory shaft near Wilshire and Fairfax. The shaft will help Metro learn more about gas conditions and earth pressure in the area. Fossils will be turned over to the George C. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits.
The subway planning team has also posted a lot of new info online:
Meeting PowerPoint Presentation
Revised construction fact sheet and revised property acquisition fact sheet
New pre-construction fact sheet
Below are some neat visuals showing the location of the three stations in the project’s first phase:
The Wilshire/La Brea station.
The Wilshire/La Cienega station.
And here are some conceptual drawings of what the station entrance areas may look like. Key word here: these are conceptual, not definitive plans. These all show the entrances in open plazas but they could be incorporated into other buildings.
Wilshire and La Brea.
Wilshire and Fairfax.
Wilshire and La Cienega.
Another view of Wilshire and La Cienega.
Categories: Projects
[…] on the Westside Subway Extension. The blog-styled, easily readable website from Metro called thesource.com lays it out if you want more detailed information. Some key […]
Can we see a concept design of Johnnies “hermetically sealed and preserved in place?” Concept drawings here pretty much show designs where Johnnies is seemingly bulldozed over for a subway station instead.
Hi Hector;
We’re not lying. We’re not tearing down the coffee shop. Please see this fact sheet that shows the area on the Fairfax station page.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
The station plazas look great. It’s good that someone seems to have learned that entrances should face the street, rather than away from the street like the awful Wilshire/Normandie and Wilshire/Western designs. Also, development attached to the station and adjacent to it are better than none at all.
True, the Pulp Fiction ending was shot in a diner in Hawthorne that was torn down shortly after the scene was produced.
Having multiple entrances are a key. But also, they also need to save the icons of this city. Tearing down Johnnies is a bad idea to make room for a station; it’s been used so much for films like Pulp Fiction. Is there anyway we can make it where Johnnies remains as it is but at the same time be a subway station entrance as well? Wouldn’t it be cool if it looks like Johnnies from the outside, the inside is like a museum with Pulp Fiction novelties with actual restaurants, but in fact is also a subway station at the same time? That would end up saving a lot of money too compared to destroying it and building it new.
There’s no need to destroy Johhnies and build a new station there. Instead the new station can be Johnnies itself, a museum and Pulp Fiction memoriabilia station that adds another destination for LA.
Hi Hector;
From the subway planning team: “Johnie’s will be hermetically sealed and preserved in place.” Also, I’m pretty sure the coffee shop scene in “Pulp Fiction” was filmed at a former diner in Hawthorne — not this one.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
I really wish the Wilshire/Fairfax station as actually on Fairfax. That way it will make bus connections easier and open up Wilshire west of Fairfax to subway users.
If LACMA will pay for the station portal on the north side of Wilshire/Orange Grove, Metro should put their portal on the west side of Fairfax. That is how this station was originally sold to supporters and voters of Measure R. Two portals on both sides of Fairfax!
Love the idea of being able to travel all the way to west side without the traffic. The visuals are promising, I like the idea of plaza type of entrances but money should be spent where it is needed not on aesthics. I do think that the entrances should be conducive to the amount of traffic that each station will receive. LACMA should get an entrance to accomodate higher foot traffic. I hope they can get some good ideas on decorating that station.
@MikeH eventually the portals are redeveloped into mixed use buildings, as you can see on some of the earlier stations in Hollywood and Koreatown.
What work actually goes into preconstruction on a typical project casue in New York utility relocation is considered part of construction.
Very exciting to see the plans. An open plaza design for a station however is VERY inefficient. Billions of dollars is being invested in this system. The station areas should be developed their full potential…for high rise residential and/or business uses. Put people where they’ll access the system.