On the platform at Capitol Hill Station during a summer of 2015 media tour
CHS got its first look — and first pictures — inside Capitol Hill Station in the summer of 2015. It was beautiful. Not every moment from the project over the past seven years of demolition and construction has been so photogenic — but a lot of it has been interesting to watch. CHS feels fortunate to have been here from the first day the old buildings along Broadway were knocked down to the two-year tunnel boring process to the start of construction of Capitol Hill Station at Broadway and John. Some of our favorite images from our 270+ CHS posts of light rail coverage leading up to this week are below. Saturday, you’ll get your first look inside the station and on the new subway set to serve thousands of riders every day. We’re looking forward to covering that, too — and the more changes to come as the developments arise around the station.
Capitol Hill artist Ellen Forney created the giant walking fingers panels on display inside the station (Image: Ellen Forney)
(Image: Ellen Forney)
Capitol Hill Station will be art-filled including a sculpture made from a reinvented fighter jet. Here, Mike Ross and crew in 2010 after after receiving the A4 fighter jet for the future installation in Capitol Hill Station (Image: Kat Nyberg Photography with permission to CHS)
Peter Rogoff, then with the Federal Transportation Administration, got to hold the sparkly in 2011 (Images: CHS)
21-foot-diameter boring machines Brenda, Balto, and Togo did the nearly flawless work to complete the twin tunnels beneath Capitol Hill (Images: CHS)
(Images: CHS)
The tunnel boring machines arrive (Image: Sound Transit)
(Image: Sound Transit)
One of the TBM being removed from the work pit near the Downtown Transit Tunnel (Image: Sound Transit)
The cement ring sections placed to form the tunnel by the TBMs (Image: Sound Transit)
Pre-hole through downtown
The downtown work site (Image: CHS)
May 2012 — Boring’s end marks midway point for bringing light rail to Capitol Hill (Image: CHS)
With a 250-foot arm, the giant Capitol Hill Station crime was part of the neighborhood skyline for 3 1/2 years (Images: CHS)
A child watches work at the station site through one of the construction wall’s viewing windows (Image: CHS)
Cal Anderson’s much-loved Chinese Scholar Tree was protected through the construction process (Image: Brendan McGarry)
Renderings and designs of the station’s features
A concerned resident’s map of noise and vibration measurements from tunnel boring work beneath the Montlake neighborhood
(Image: CHS)
The old Broadway Jack in the Box — last to fall
A laser art installation appeared on the site at Broadway and John just in time for Halloween 2009 (Image: CHS)
The Broadway lot was capped with asphalt in 2009 (Image: CHS)
The red wall art was a celebration in community — even when a protester attempted to rip down one work commemorating the AIDS epidemic
The first day of construction on Capitol Hill in 2010 came with little fanfare (Image: CHS)
Artist Baso Fibonacci assesses his canvas before work starts on what would become an iconic image in the neighborhood (Image: CHS)
Sound Transit showed off some of its monitoring equipment to help quell community concerns prior to the start of construction and tunnel boring at Capitol Hill Station (Image: CHS)
A monitoring well along E Pine used by Sound Transit during tunnel construction (Image: CHS)
Catherine Hillenbrand was honored for her work to represent the community in planning development around the light rail station (Image: Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce)
(Image: Andrew Taylor)
(Image: CHS)
“Otters Holding Hands” by artist Vida Rose (Image: Sound Transit)
A local building owner threatened legal action over worries about damage to his Broadway apartment building (Image: CHS)
(Image: Sound Transit)
(Image: Sound Transit)
(Image: CHS)
A lucky few — including King Count Exec Dow Constantine — have been inside (Images: CHS)
