Kenmore Station, Spring 2008This is the tile in what will eventually be the new Kenmore Station. It's not quite as awesome as the old tile in Park Street Station. That tile, when I first explored the city without adults at the alarmingly young age of 11, used to cover the whole interior of the station, floors and ceilings, green for the green line platforms and red for the red line platforms. They renovated the station years and years ago, leaving only the staircases from the green line to the red still tiled. They took out the matching dim, hooded lights, and removed the lower ceilings. Park Street always seemed a little seedy and dangerous and exotic and awesome with the old look. The current look has always looked sterile in comparison. These new tiles also pale in comparison to the old tiles which have been revealed in Arlington and Copley during their recent renovations. These ones are black and white, deco-style borders and station names. They were apparently simply covered over with new bland tiles some years back, and the top layer was removed in renovations these last couple of years, so as you passed through the stations, you could see the station names spelled out in black on white with the borders. The new tiles in Kenmore aren't as dark and rich as the old Park Street tiles or as chic as the really old Arlington and Copley tiles, but I applaud the return of more interesting tiling nonetheless.
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