Stephan Vanfleteren fashion portraits at Weststation. Photo by Hannes De Geest
For those dealing with the frustrations of commuting to the east side of Manhattan on a daily basis, here is a view of how one small country gets things done. While New Yorkers have been waiting almost a century for the 2nd Ave Subway line, in the 9 years since The Guy and I left Brussels, the Belgians have opened five new stations including the hub Gare de l'Ouest/Weststation, extended two lines and just this past weekend implemented a totally revamped metro system. 
Sculpture of a Brabant Horse by Rik Poot at Herrmann-Debroux station
Their underground has horses (I spent many mornings admiring this one), Icarus, a provocative sculpture and modern art in all the stations 
Not to mention stations named after famous Belgians.
And your cellphone will work down in the metro, too.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Going Underground
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5 comments:
Subway as art gallery... now why didn't we think of that!
To be fair, the NYC subway has some art and I have this book Subway Style: 100 Years of Architecture & Design in the New York City Subway that features the great tile work in some of the stations.
You can use your cell on the Paris metro too. The iphone would be super awesome if they'd ever get it running on the NYC subway...
We have art in LA subways too! The catch is that the subways don't go anywhere most people want to go. I guess you can't have it both ways, unless you're in Belgium, where you can have your waffle and eat it too.
Unfortunately in NY they have chosen market forces over customer service, something I have a hard time explaining to our visitors who thought the US led the world.
You might want to visit this site to see how little will there is for progress on this issue.
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