A shot of the Castro Valley BART escalator today.
The good: BART was built in the 1960’s, and the designers thought they were building the future — a 3.6 mile underwater tube full of electric trains that would connect San Fransisco to the East Bay. The architecture is hypermodern, as architects in 60’s and early 70’s tended to be. White space-age tile, cylindrical concrete benches, the logo. Here, I particularly liked the contrast between the linear, reflective metal and spiraling, grubby tile.
The bad: Transit planners must have been having a laugh when they built the Castro Valley station. I don’t know how else to explain the elevated platform situated in the middle of a 10-lane interstate highway. It’s delightful.
