With today's opening of the attractive, $80 million CTA Damen Green Line station at Lake Street and Damen Avenue, in two weeks it will be easy for Democratic National Convention attendees to reach the United Center, two blocks south. That's also where the Chicago Bulls won NBA championships. Since in recent years this 'L' route also got appealing new infill stations at Morgan (2012) and Cermak-McCormick Place (2015), let's call today's milestone a Green Line "three-peat."
Working with the CTA, the Chicago Department of Transportation oversaw the Damen station project, which was bankrolled with tax-increment financing. The Chicago-based architecture firm Perkins&Will designed the facility, and F.H. Paschen was the construction contractor.
The new Damen station fills in the 1.5 mile gap between the existing Ashland and California Green Line stations, bringing back 'L' service to this area for the first time since the original stop at this location closed in 1948. (The Pink Line passes even closer to the United Center, but it doesn't currently stop there.)
And to answer another question you might have had...
The Damen Green station also provides access to Malcolm X College and the Kinzie Industrial Corridor, as well as for residents of the Near West Side community area, which has been getting more housing recently. Across Damen from the stop is the construction site for the Chicago Housing Authority’s Westhaven Park IID, a $50 million, equitable transit-oriented development with 96 apartments. 38 of these will be CHA units, 25 will be affordable to those making 60 percent of the Area Median Income (currently $47,100 for a single person), and 33 will be market-rate.
According to a statement from Mayor Brandon Johnson's office, the Damen station's materials and design elements were picked to make the station long-lasting, easy to maintain, and simple for CTA customers to navigate. The facility has a prominent staircase and escalator, plus a glass bridge linking the inbound and outbound train platforms. Next to the grand staircase is a large vitreous glass mosaic by artist Folayemi Wilson, titled "Promise (for tomorrow from the past looking to the future," featuring children walking across a prairie.
After writing Today's Headlines this morning, I was running a little short on time to catch the Red Line southeast from my home in Uptown to the Loop, and then transfer to the Green Line at State and Lake streets to head west again for the ribbon-cutting. To save time, I rode an electric Divvy bike-share cycle directly from my place to the new 'L' stop.
As I rode south on Damen Avenue, I saw that a worker was dismantling the old Divvy docks at Walnut Street and Damen, a block north of the 'L' stop, which has a new bike-share station. That seemed odd, because a Chicago Department of Transportation email about the ribbon-cutting said, "CDOT is excited to announce the installation of the City's 1,000th Divvy station at the new CTA Damen Green Line Station." Are we really going to have a total of a grand, considering that Walnut/Damen is being removed?
Fortunately, at the 'L' station's plaza, CDOT Coordinating Planner Kyle Peppin assured me we will. "The old station at Damen and Walnut is being sited at one of the Divvy expansion locations," he said. "Those are generally south of 95th Street, so Roseland, West Pullman, East Side."
Local alderperson Walter Burnett, who also serves as Vice Mayor nowadays, kicked off the speeches by saying he started advocating for the Damen Green station in 2004. "I told them, 'We need an 'L' stop!'" he recalled. Discussing the longtime gap in 'L' service between the Ashland and California train stations he said, "Some of it is due to economics, some of it is due to ethnicity."
Ald. Burnett mentioned that he's lobbying for yet another 'L' station in his ward. After the ceremony, he told me he's trying to reopen the Brown/Purple stop near Division and Orleans streets, near the former Cabrini Green housing projects site. "They don't have a stop [on the mile of tracks] between North Avenue and Chicago Avenue," he said. "We've got the money to start working on researching the project, and we'll see how that comes out."
Mayor Johnson, who had arrived earlier at the event by train, then took the podium. He mentioned that he knew Ald. Burnett long ago, when Burnett had already been in office for years, but the future mayor worked at the New City YMCA near Cabrini, and taught at nearby Jenner Academy. "He's... relieved that he was nice to me 20 years ago," Johnson quipped. "Because you have to be careful how you treat people. You just might need them to build an 'L' station." The crowd laughed.
Mayor Johnson praised the new station that will improve sustainable transportation access for a part of the city that was previously "neglected and ignored." He noted that the new affordable housing will help keep the area economically diverse. "Every single Chicagoan should live in a healthy, walkable community."
Embattled CTA President Dorval Carter wore a green necktie to the event. "I am proud of our new Damen station as an equity-centered infrastructure project that will ensure better transit service for those in the community who need us the most," he said. "For decades to come, this station will provide them with an easier and faster way to connect to valuable resources and opportunities across our entire region."
Mosaic artist Folayemi Wilson told the crowd that the colored dots on her mosaic were inspired by an 1892 study that showed the many ethnic groups that lived in the neighborhood at the time. She said the image of the children walking towards the horizon with eyes raised presents the questions, "What new Near West Side might the group of young people be walking towards? What future Chicago might the Green Line take them to?"
After the ribbon cutting, local sustainable transportation advocates shared some thoughts. "This eagerly anticipated addition to the city's train network will bridge a crucial gap between existing stations, providing vital access for residents, workers, and visitors," said Active Transportation Alliance spokesperson Ted Villaire. "As a fully accessible station, it represents an important step forward in creating a more connected and inclusive Chicago."
"We are excited about the Damen green line station (re)opening," said the grassroots transit advocacy group Commuters Take Action (CTAction) in a statement. "It's good to see the CTA increase transit accessibility in parts of the city where it should've never been taken away in the first place."
"It is a little sad that it took the hosting of the DNC instead of the everyday needs of Chicagoans to get this project across the finish line," CTAction added. "But we hope visitors to the DNC will take advantage of transit, and maybe their experience can help push our national policy to better fund transit. We are hoping that the success of this project will encourage the CTA and our leaders to look into reopening other long closed 'L' stations, for example the Racine/63rd station."
Here are some more images of the Damen Green Line station I took this morning.
An inbound train approaches the station *very* slowly from the west. Presumably 'L' operators were told to keep speeds down today as they got used to stopping at the new platforms.
Check out Streetsblog Chicago cofounder Steven Vance's photos of the station here.
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