The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 299

OTOIl ID sunken plazas. In Berkeley's Ashby Station, even the parking lot has been lowered so that the sun can light the mezzanine and platforms. In downtown areas of Oakland and San Francisco, the stations are simple, efficient, and businesslike, brightened by large areas of color. In contrast, stations like North Berkeley, with its domed roof and skylight, or El Cerrito Plaza, with its rich earth coloring, have a more relaxed, residential air. From the brick plaza at Lake Merritt Station in Oakland, you can look down onto an airy fountain with pool and ferns.

This gardenlike area is surrounded by a concrete wall sculptured with birds and fish. Behind this 200 foot mural is BART's computer control center over. But BART's architects, with the help of a $400,000 federal grant, found ways to actually improve these areas. Beneath 2.7 miles of track in Albany and El Cerrito, there are now linear parks'; green lawns, pine trees and flowering shrubs-even a shuffleboard court and a tot lot. Of course, there's a lot more to BART stations than meets the eye.

You can move from one level to another by stairs or escalator and, for the handicapped, there are special elevators set apart from the main rush of passengers. And, for your convenience, there are telephones, vending machines with candy, coffee, soft drinks and cigarettes. Also storage lockers and newspaper stands. We have tried very hard to make BART stations a lot more than places to get on and off trains. We hope you agree the effort was worth it.

TOP LEFT: Bas relief in Altec motif at the Richmond Station. LOWER LEFT: The plaia at Lake Merritt Station. RIGHT: Sunlight reaches below ground platforms at Berkeley Station. BELOW LEFT: Mosaic mural at MacArthur Station. CENTER: Vaulted roofs at 16th-Mission Station.

RIGHT: Super-graphics brighten Coliseum Station. LOWER RIGHT: Map display area and ticket machines at Lake Merritt. -the artist thoughtfully leaving peepholes so passers-by can see what makes the entire system tick. In all, fifteen stations contain works of art specifically commissioned for them. Mac-Arthur Station's mezzanine is brightened by colored mosaics.

Two townscapes decorate Union City Station. In San Francisco, the Mis sion Street Stations are enhanced by giant con crete bas reliefs in an Aztec motif and brightly colored tile. Historically, overhead stations and their tracks have often blighted the areas they pass nr7 Euii i i ii I. 1 1 Mini on pim" mvimm UM3m fcu 4 ilf xM COLfflTfllh'CtrLORTBLACK.