Time Travel

UNIVERSAL CITY — Sometime next summer, people will begin to stream past the history lessons lining the walls of the new Universal City subway station.

They’ll be roughly 153 years too late to witness the moment that paved the way for California statehood, but the second-to-last station on the Metro Red Line aims to remind them.

Though it now sits in the shadow of glitzy Universal Studios, the spot at the corner of Lankershim Boulevard and the Ventura Freeway once hosted American Lt. Col. John C. Fremont and Mexican Gen. Andres Pico. In January 1847, the officers met here at Campo de Cahuenga to sign the treaty that ended the Mexican-American War in California.

In Spanish and English, the story of the events leading to the truce is engraved above a wide stairway leading to the subway platform.

“It gives people a personal connection to the continuum of history,” said Laurie Garris, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority project manager who handled the artwork for this subway segment. “This represents a real triumph in a sense, because the signing of the [treaty] actually brought a peaceful end to the war.”

The $60-million Universal City station is one of the last Los Angeles is likely to see any time soon, due to the passage of a November ballot measure that effectively halted future subway construction. It is part of the final leg of the Metro Red Line, a $4.5-billion project that will link the San Fernando Valley to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.

Today, the MTA will unveil the near-complete station to a handful of residents, members of the Studio City Residents Assn.

“We’re very excited about it,” said Judith Schwartze, a board member. “For most of us who live in this area of the Valley, it’s really going to save us travel time.”

The three stations on the last segment--Hollywood/Highland, Universal City and North Hollywood--are slated to open in May 2000. Gary Wosk, an MTA spokesman, said that the $1.3-billion segment was on schedule and within its budget.

Once the Red Line is completed, it will have 16 stations spanning 17.4 miles. The commute from North Hollywood to Union Station will take 27 minutes.

Los Angeles artist Margaret Garcia and Siegel Diamond Architects designed the historical theme at the Universal City station, a quiet contrast to the flashy yellow brick road and thousands of film reels that adorn the Hollywood station unveiled in September.

The art budget for the North Hollywood segment is almost $4.1 million, slightly less than the $4.4 million spent on art for the eight stations on the Hollywood segment. The Universal City station’s artwork cost $340,000.

At Universal City, letters from the Mayan alphabet are nestled in the cast-iron wainscoting and silk-screened panels flanking the subway platforms.

Columns supporting the station vault to the ceiling like stylized trees, symbolizing growth and the passage of time.

One finishing touch--not yet in place--is a series of colorful tiles depicting Pico, Fremont and other ghosts of California’s past. These images will line the sides of the support columns.

The unopened subway stations have already spurred economic development, including a giant entertainment and retail complex being built at the Hollywood/Highland station and proposed film studios and other businesses in the works for North Hollywood.

Some MTA officials are hoping the renaissance will win the favor of a public soured on the construction problems and cost overruns that have plagued other MTA subway projects.

“People will see the real benefits to being able to park their car and commute downtown,” said John Mazzarella, an MTA public affairs officer. “I think you’ll see public opinion start to turn, and hopefully they’ll carry [the subway] out to Warner Center one day.”