Wilshire/Vermont (LA Metro Red & Purple Lines)

Wilshire/Vermont is a split-level Red Line Subway Station and is the first stop on the extension that formed today's Purple Line full length (called the red line and then a branch of the red line until this came began in 2006) opening on July 13, 1996. It is the only station on the Metro system without a single island platform for trains, instead to facilitate the spiting of the lines just west of the station, the Red Line Curving North, the Purple Line staying west, the tracks and platforms are stacked with Union Station-bound trains on the Upper Level and North Hollywood/Western-bound trains on the lower level.

The entrance to the station is inside a large plaza that is a new development at the NE corner of Wilshire Blvd and Vermont Avenue bounded by 6th Street and Shatto Place. The station was designed around this plaza and lacks any mezzanines for the TVMs and turnstiles. Instead passengers pay their fares at TVMs at street level. This plaza beneath the modern buildings also includes well designed and disguised ancillary equipment like ventilation shafts with colorful tiles around their bases. The turnstiles have been installed at the top of the single escalator/stairs entrance and at a single entrance to the small fenced off landing (with an awning over the ADA turnstiles themselves) for the two elevators. The two elevators lead directly down to two underground levels with a landing for each of the platforms.

To enter via stairs and escalators passengers go through the turnstiles and head down a wide staircase with an escalator on each side to a narrow intermediate landing. Above the escalators and entrance area are sculptures Los Angeles Seen, 1996 by Peter Shire with various objects 'floating' about the ceiling. Here are the doors that are at the entrance to every underground Metro station and a staircase and two escalators down to the upper level Union Station-bound platform plus a set of two escalators that lead directly down to the lower level North Hollywood and Wilshire Western-bound platform. For connecting passengers (or those who choose stairs) two additional staircase/single escalators connect the two levels of the station. Each platform has two columns that are covered in tiles with various symbols on them by Bob Zoell.

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