January 31, 1995
With the construction of the new Muni shelter at the SF State streetcar station, the M-line resumed service Jan. 28, much to the relief of students who waited six months for its completion.
"I was hoping that it would be done soon. Doing the transfer thing in the rain was hell," said junior Erik Gibson, who was on campus Saturday.
Gibson was referring to the additional transfer to M-buses that outbound passengers had to make at St. Francis Circle.
The reward for everyone's patience is a larger shelter that will include more seating, a video monitor, a pair of binoculars, planters for vegetation and display cases for student artwork and university notices, said Muni spokesperson Hannah Silverman.
"We wanted something permanent, attractive and more comfortable for riders," Silverman said.
While the stations at SF State and Stonestown Galleria look similar, don't bother looking for the video monitor or planter boxes at the Stonestown station.
These items are exclusive to the SF State station because the university has agreed to maintain the station at no cost to Muni.
In exchange for the maintenance of the station, Muni will allow the university to display student artwork and notices in the display cases, meaning that there will be no advertisements at the SF State station.
According to Silverman, this is the first time Muni has worked with another institution to develop such a partnership.
Another first for Muni was the hiring of two artists to design the shelters for the outdoor stations.
The two artists, Professor Leonard Hunter of SF State and Sheila Ghidini, a former art lecturer at SF State, were selected by the San Francisco Art Commission.
The artists worked together with a group of university and neighborhood representatives to come up with a suitable design.
"The idea of involving the community and involving artists is something we would like to do in the future, so this project has been a prototype for that," Silverman said
Artist Ghidini says working with community representatives sometimes made things difficult.
"There were a lot of cooks in the kitchen. Everyone had different tastes and we all had to work together to find a common ground," Ghidini said.
A curatorial board made up of representatives of Muni and the community will be set up to choose the displays, but Hunter says the displays will "principally be a showcase for student work."
Hunter says the first display will be a photo documentary of the workers who constructed the shelter.
But even though M-line service has resumed, students may not see all these amenities for a few weeks.
"It will physically be operative before it's actually finished as a station. It's going to be a little while before it's all the things it's supposed to be and it's also going to take a little while before we get all the bugs out of how the curatorial process will work," Hunter said.
The completion of the stations marks the end of Muni's $10 million project to install new track and build bigger platforms and shelters at two of its most heavily used stations.
Muni eventually hopes to extend service of its J-Church line to 19th Avenue in 1996.