There's a sheltered stop at the lower end of the tunnel leading to the East Side, said tunnel only being used by buses. Twenty odd years ago a decoration project was done on it. Shells were pasted to the posts in front of it. The wall behind was covered with ceramic tiles personalized by Providence residents. You could sort of date it because there were some 9/11-related tiles: sentimental, not jingoistic.
For several months the tunnel was shut down and buses were rerouted around it. A renovation project. The inside of the tunnel itself got reflectors and yellow paint to make it brighter. The shelter was stripped down. No more shells or tiles. The wall is now bare brick.
To be honest, it looks better. Having an element of the city's infrastructure personalized by people living here was a nice idea but it didn't pan out. Dirt, graffiti, things breaking: these are all facts of life, and they make an already busy design look somewhat cruddy. The return to basics was probably the right move.
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I remember the bus tunnel that went up to Thayer St and back, one of those odd parts of the urban landscape that made H.P. Lovecraft's vision of the city that much more believable. I read a bit about the renovation this afternoon - from March to almost November and a cost of $15million to $25million depending of which news service one reads.
Your description of the shelter made me curious but I must say the search for what it looked like before the renovations was worthwhile. Believe it or not it turned out wikipedia had the clearest image of the tiles and the shell covered posts. I could see although it may once have looked okay it was time for a change and the results of the restoration are a big improvement. There's no doubt the whole tunnel is safer now too.
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