Underground, the design suffers from the architecture's desire to compete with the power of the simple concrete form of the station itself. The white, branch-like beams that span the platforms overhead look flimsy amid all the concrete. The rails, in fact, include symbols that represent the last initials of the artist and architect, a clever act of vanity whose Old World aesthetic underlines the provincial aura of the entire system. In North Hollywood, architecture firm Tanzmann Associates and artists James Doolin and Anne Marie Karlsen were able to accomplish more with the limited tools at their disposal. But underground, the large rotunda, capped by an oval stucco dome, is more effective as a collaborative effort.
Natural light spills down from the center of the dome, which is painted a soft, squishy orange.
In one mural, a collage of grapefruits and peaches gives the space a burst of color. That image is picked up again as you approach the train platforms, where the massive columns that support the structure are sheathed inside oval orange panels, a simple gesture that gives the room a cheery glow. There is no sense of the structural subtlety that gives important architecture its power. Yet the design has little pretense to high architecture. Its lighthearted touch, instead, is somehow fitting given the limits of the task.