History:

The O'Hare Terminal in 1985. For a larger view, click here. (Photo by Olga Stefanos)

This unique station was designed by the architectural firm of Murphy/Jahn. To obtain a column-free platform, the structural system developed consists of large post-tensioned concrete girders which transfer the parking structure (located above) columns above the train room. It was constructed using an open cut excavation, resulting in sloping berms sprayed with concrete.

The design utilizes these spaces by providing curving glass block walls that are backlit by light fixtures in the berm space. These walls vary in shape, pattern and color. The pedestrian concourse becomes a transitional space between the train room and the airport through the use of horizontal bands on the glazed brick walls. Exiting the station, the stairs and escalators at the end of the platforms ascend through a gray metal wall that mimics an airplane fuselage to deliver passengers to the fare controls and out into the airport terminal. The design of this terminal station permits passengers to enter it from moving sidewalks under the garage after using escalators from several of the O'Hare terminal buildings. The station's design firm, Murphy/Jahn, won two architectural awards for the station: the AIA National Honor Award in 1987 and the NEA Presidential Design Award in 1988.

In the station, there are two island platforms surrounded by three stub tracks. There's an interlocking just east of the station, before is ascends above ground.

Originally, the O'Hare Extension was to be constructed so that it could be easily extended beyond the airport. However, construction was hurried by then-Mayor Byrne so that it would be finished by election time and the design had to be altered so that it dead-ended in the airport. Ironically, it still wasn't finished in time, she lost the election and Mayor Harold Washington cut the ribbon.

Looking toward the airport on the platform between the #2 and center tracks on December 6, 2003 with the AV equipment installed in 2001 in place. For a larger view, click here. (Photo by Graham Garfield)

In 2001, the CTA^® made improvements at O'Hare that included new primary and auxiliary decorative lighting and station-wide telephone and public address system improvements. The new A/V signs, which announce train arrivals and other important information, were installed around March. Other work to the telephone system and communication equipment were completed as well. The last remnants of the work were completed on May 1, 2001.

In 2002, O'Hare became part of the RTA's Active Transit Station Signs (ATSS) project, becoming one of four project test sites. The ATSS signs provide real-time transit and traffic information on a demonstration basis. They display a countdown of the minutes until the next departing train, travel times to Forest Park and 54/Cermak, fare information, service disruption or delay messages or any other number of messages the CTA^® chooses to program into the signs.

One of the interesting aspects of the O'Hare and Midway ATSS signs is that the ones in the transit station look like those at the other two test stations. But the signs in the airport are designed to harmonize with the existing signage already in the airport (which, coincidentally, are of a completely different design at the two airports). The signs on the platforms are not currently programmed to display the time until next train like the other stations' signs, since the airport stations are at the end of the line and there is usually a train waiting to depart. As programmed, these merely take the place of the backlit "Next Train" signs that they replaced, with one side saying "Do No Board" and the other "Next Train" with arrows pointing to the appropriate tracks. There is a sign posted over the entrance to the station from the concourse and will display the time until the next departure. There are also signs posted in the passageways leading to the station from the airport terminal, in the lower concourse passages that connect the terminals to the CTA^® station and short-term parking garages. Both airports also have ATSS signs in the baggage claim areas. These signs are not programmed to give the time until the next departure, since in many cases it would take so long to get from the airport to the station that the next train probably would have left (plus, many people can't accurately judge how long it will take them to get to the station from the terminal anyway). Instead, they give the service interval (how frequently the trains run), travel time to the city, and display other CTA^® and travel information.

A view of the station entrance from the lower level airport corridor on June 3, 2005 shows the new farecard vending kiosk and new Visitors Pass Machines that have cleaned up and improved the appearance and operation of the facility. Note how the kiosk is tiled to blend in with the design of the hallway. For a larger view, click here. (Photo by Graham Garfield)

In the 1990s and early 2000s, there was talk of extending the Blue Line beyond O'Hare station to Schaumburg. Although this had been discussed as early as the 1980s when the O'Hare extension first opened, previous plans involved branching the line off between Cumberland and Rosemont -- essentially creating a new branch rather than an extension -- due to the high cost of tunneling out from the existing station under the airfield. However, with the advent of Mayor Daley's proposal to reconstruct and reconfigure O'Hare runways, the possibility of a cheaper cut-and-cover alternative surfaced and the possibility of a direct extension became possible. The possibility of this occurring, however, was all but derailed when a proposed 55-mile Metra route that would run from O'Hare International Airport to Joliet -- the so-called "STAR Line" -- was approved in May 2003 by the Northwest Transit Corridor Municipal Task Force, a consortium of northwest suburban mayors, and by the Regional Transportation Authority board in June 2003 as the preferred alternative for serving the congested and transit-poor Northwest Corridor along I-90 between O'Hare airport and the northwest suburbs.

During mid- and late-2004, the CTA^® improved the lighting levels on the O'Hare platform by replacing the overhead lights and brightening the mutli-colored glass-block walls along the sides. In late May 2005, CTA^® forces rearranged the TransitCard Automated Vending Machines (AVMs). which had been temporarily standing in the airport corridor outside the station, hooked up with exposed electrical conduits, since the "L" converted to the electronic farecards back in 1997. Tradesmen erected a new kiosk in the corridor, centered between the orange columns that form a colonnade in front of the station, which was tiled in the same pattern as the airport corridor, making it blend in and look coherent with the rest of the facility. Conduits and cables were concealed within the new construction. The AVMs -- four from the hallway and two from in front of the Customer Assistant booth, which had blocked the view through the booth's front window -- were moved inside the specially-designed kiosk. The two existing Visitor Pass Machines (VPMs) were moved against the columns, one each facing the airport corridor. The kiosk was outfitted with signage, system maps, placards instructing customers how to purchase their fares, and CTA^® advertising.

Shortly after the installation of the AVM kiosk and relocation of the VPMs, the existing Visitor Pass Machines were replaced with new models. The larger, sturdier, more sophisticated VPMs, produced by fare equipment manufacturer GFI Genfare, can take credit and debit cards, in addition to cash, the first electronic farecard vending machines on the CTA^® to do so. At the same time, these new VPM models were also installed at Rosemont, Cumberland, Midway, and Chicago/State stations, as well as the Chicago Water Works Visitor Center and Union Station.

A view down the platform from the paid area of the fare control mezzanine on December 6, 2003 shows the undulating multicolored glass block walls that line the three-track, two-island platform station. The large black and white banners hanging down from the concrete beams are advertisements for De Beers diamonds. The O'Hare station, with its vaulted ceilings and high passenger volume, are frequently sold for "ad blitzes", large-scale advertising contracts. For a larger view, click here. (Photo by Graham Garfield)