City Releases Renderings Of New Damen Green Line Station
Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office released renderings of the future Damen Avenue Green Line 'L' station on Monday. The station is set to open in 2020, 72 years after the Chicago Transit Authority closed and demolished the original station.
The designs from Perkins+Will are all about transparency. The station's escalators and staircase will be visible through glass walls. A glass-covered pedestrian bridge connecting platforms will allow inbound and outgoing passengers views of the downtown skyline.
Emanuel is promoting the $60M project as an economic driver for West Side residents. The Damen station, which was razed in 1948, would connect a 1.5-mile gap between the Ashland and California Green Line stations, allowing residents immediate access to the United Center, West Town, the Kinzie Street Industrial Corridor and the rapidly expanding West Loop.
Construction will begin later this year as part of a larger reconstruction project on Lake Street between Ashland and Damen that will add new street lighting, traffic signals and landscaping. The project also will raise clearance and improve access for trucks along the Kinzie Industrial Corridor.
The Damen station would be the third new station along the Green Line in recent years, after the Morgan Street and Cermak/McCormick Place stations. Both of those stations have been credited with spurring new development in and near the West Loop and South Loop/Motor Row, respectively.
