apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Yes sophisticated without the urine marks

At least Jessica is catching onto the "We" early!

haha, no it is a good post. Very nice interior.

I don't know any of these places or what a BART is, but train stations in Australia are ugly places where I certainly would never want to run my hands along the wall.

The BART is the Bay Area (California, hence AT SF) rural transit. I've never been on it but I'm sure we, as human beings, are always too busy pissing on things to realize the beauty in their design.

The decor reminds me of my parents living room set in the 80s. All browns and yellows and dark oranges with mushrooms and critters.

I agree that most subway stations aren't very inspiring. Like Boston's T stations. The only cool T station I can think of is Porter Square, with their bronzed "debris" scattered along the escalator railing areas.

The BART system at least makes an effort. My favorite BART station decor is in the SF Airport station. Unbelievable. I wish I had a picture, I'm sure there are a lot on Flickr. Millions of tiny circular mirrors all attached to each other and dangling from some support system. And the station is open to the air, so every time the wind blows, you're in a sea of tiny mirrors. It almost makes it worth going to the airport.

BART stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit, not Rural, but I only know that because I grew up using it.

As for public transportation interiors...the Metro in DC (modeled after BART) has some great architectural features as well. Most stations are really non descript except for the great molded pieces that adorn escalator corridors and waiting area.

Thanks for the post, reminds me to keep my eyes open for design and inspiration in the everyday.

following whatsupitsme's post, i agree that the metro in dc has some great architectural features. l'enfant plaza, while the metro itself isn't that great, has some great features when you get into the shops area.

galleryplace-chinatown metro also sticks out to me, perhaps just because of the gorgeous bright chinese fan-like lights that are prominent.

the dome like ceilings also always grabbed my attention.

Great post! I love the idea of finding inspiration in an unlikely place. I must admit, I am a transportation engineer, so I'm just a little bit biased. Living in DC, I have to echo the sentiments about the Metro and say that it is the most attractive transit system I've seen. San Juan, PR has a similar one though, just executed in metal instead of concrete, which was an interesting update on the design. http://someoneelsehaslmcwethy.blogspot.com/2008/05/san-juan-part-ii.html

This post is such a great idea but, uhh, could it be any less informative? It contains one photo, brief mentions of other interesting stations, which have probably never been seen by most of the readers, and very little context for the larger point being made. It's difficult to judge a blogger who's trying out, and it's also sort of dissatisfying for the audience. I'd love to see more examples to support the writing.

I agree with visualingual on the desire for a bit more depth. Good topic, though, and based on itsakitty's post, I went searching on Flickr for images of the BART SF airport terminal. All those mirrors sounded beautiful!

And they are, here is a video of them in action - so pretty!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccaffry/2864420618/

I love the BART entrance at SFO (This picture is from Eric of SF's photostream on Flickr):

oops didn't work. the url is http://farm1.static.flickr.com/8/12593793_c791260d35.jpg

I agree with visualingual and Nesser and would have liked more depth. I think images of the specific BART stations mentioned in the post would have gone a long way in making up for the succinctness of the post. The topic of finding inspiration in public and usually overlooked spaces has been covered many times on AT, so I would definitely expect a new post on the subject to be brilliant or provide us with some good eye candy, at the very least. I was disappointed to click through to see that the rest of the post contained no more images, and not many more words!

In general, I find the "Tile Vault" posts much more informative. The on-location photos create a connection between the writer and the subject for the reader.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/tilevault/tile-vault-sams-bargain-town--055999

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/tilevault/tile-vault-the-division-street-post-office-043678

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/tile-stone-countertops/tile-vault-ventura-public-bench-029061



In terms of the actual writing, I really find sentences like "The 24th Street Mission station sports some tile work that would make for a sophisticated mod palette for a living room that we're digging" to be atrocious stylistically and in terms of content -- "a living room that we're digging" means what exactly?

Lastly, did the writer really mean "sightly blackened concrete walls" or "slightly blackened"? Being that I live in SF and am familiar with the Embarcadero station, I'm inclined to believe the latter. At a little over 100 words, it shouldn't be that hard to proofread.

Fun post. I have always had the same thoughts walking through BART. Nice to see the same sentiment!

This post could go deeper into content which would be finding inspiration and learning to take cues from something that is not staged or intimidating (to our wallets) like a CB2 catalog. I think this post needs a third image which would be someone's real life attempt of using this color scheme & texture at home.

I really like Museum Station, in Sydney. As the name implies, it's the closest station to the Australian Museum, and so is decked out as a period station, from the tiling to the gorgeous vintage advertising on the walls. http://www.flickr.com/photos/crispy789/2706613874/

The entire station, including the ticket area above, is in the same style, and the building you come out of is still from the same period.

The next station along, St James, has a fairly similar look. Of course, St James is awesome for other reasons, not least being the hidden tracks under the platform and the unused tunnels that have, over the years, been used for a mushroom farm, WW2 bomb shelter (it's rumoured that General Macarthy had his headquarters down there when he was in Australia), and as a television studio - sound engineers used a chamber and a large thing that looks like an alien spacecraft to simulate the Big Ben, and at one point, the show Police Rescue used it to show the rescue of a boy. In the process, they painted some rather nasty-looking graffiti in it, which the local tabloid later found, managing to convince three girls to say they were witches and had used it for Satanic rites. They looked pretty stupid when the ABC said it was them! Also: one of the tunnels has flooded and now has an underground lake, complete with eels and, apparently, crayfish XD (The water is from irrigation from the park above it, so I have NO idea where the eels or yabbies came from o.o)

...Anyway. History lesson of the day!

Seriously, some people take AT waaaaaay too seriously. I think this post is pretty fantastic, and as a long time AT reader, I haven't seen another post on this topic (on a blog that is notoriously repetitive). What's funny is, if you see folks who have extra-bitchy or negative posts and go look at the rest of their comments, they are typically negative, condescending, insulting, etc. Posting an opinion is one thing, ripping into an auditioning blogger is another. Get over yourself.

I have never been to SF, unfortunately, but I can relate to the sentiment the writer expressed. I hope to read more of her posts!

The obvious care and thought that went into this post can only be a sign of good things to come. I mean, those yellow tiles side by side with those yellow lights and the wainscoting the echos the tile? Come on! This girl's good.

I think Jessica did a great job of bringing to attention the things taken for granted. We pass objects, color patterns, murals everyday that, if noticed, could inspire us to style our homes in a similar light.

I really appreciate a concept like AT that can bring to attention things like what Jessica has presented here. Things that we wouldn't normally think about. I think that's the real magic.

Grammar......well, that can be corrected. Maybe she missed an "L". Let's not throw her to the wolves. Let's focus on the fact that she has a design oriented mind and could be a great asset to AT!

Thanks Jessica! I will now be paying more attention to "urine stained" objects :)

I come to AT for the inspiration to transform the mundane or "oft-overlooked" into something aesthetically pleasing and utilitarian. There are posts that surprise me and provide a spark of "aha!" that fuels the creation of my own spin on the topic. Jessica's post is one of those, and I can't wait to read more from her.
(Ahem, the visual parallels she drew between the tiled wall and the living area? Brilliant. With or without that elusive "L"!)

I agree, hopefully we are all adult enough to be able to take a post and on our own make it relevant to our own lives, or expand it to capture the idea if not the specifics.

Even if I never see a BART station in my life, this is a great reminder to remember to look at things I do see every day for inspiration and details. Way to go, Jessica!

I agree that the juxtaposed pictures given are great, but would have enjoyed photos of the BART stations she mentioned.

salamander, BART tiles have been on AT (SF and NY) before: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/tile-stone-countertops/sf-good-questions-tiles-at-bart-stops-054665