(rshsdepot) Bay Street, Montclair, NJ

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

 Lining Up For The Bay Street Station

Wednesday, February 13, 2002

By KATIA RAINA - The Montclair Times

It was once a simple site - a roofed shelter, standing on a small
asphalt-covered area over the railroad tracks. But in just a few months, the
Bay Street Rail Station will complete its transformation into an artsy spot,
taking on a new role as one of Montclair's stops on the much-anticipated
Midtown Direct rail route to and from Manhattan.

Two brick-color towers already rise over the train station, connected by a
glass-covered overpass stretching across the tracks. Each tower holds an
elevator and an adjacent staircase, and will enable pedestrians to traverse
the rail line between the eastbound and westbound platforms.

Dark green fence around the station, matching canopies, and 52 light poles
are already in place. Finishing touches are all that's left, said NJ Transit
officials, and as soon as the Montclair Connection is ready to go, Bay
Street Station will be ready, too.

"What you see is pretty much what's going to be there," said Fred Schultz,
an engineer with NJ Transit.

The station's look was meant to capture the unique character of Montclair,
said Virginia Seminara, an architect who was commissioned by NJ Transit to
design the project.

"What we tried to do was to use some of the materials that were
characteristic of the neighborhood," Seminara said. "Like the cut-stone look
and the 'orangy' color brick, we picked that up from the church around the
corner in the neighborhood."

NJ Transit and township officials promise more glamour, once the station
opens. At the insistence of the township, three artists have been
commissioned to do some work for the station.

"One of the goals of the Montclair Arts Plan is public art," said Paul
Ellis, the township's director of arts and cultural development, referring
to a town-wide cultural program, now in the works, to foster the Montclair
arts scene and promote the township's cultural identity.

"And this is one of the first opportunities for public art that's come
along," Ellis said.

The art projects commissioned by the township for Bay Street Station include
50 concrete stools with ce-ramic tile bands to provide seating for
passengers, ten circular medallions to be placed on the walls, and cylinders
of glass, which will be embedded in spiral patterns on the concrete floor.

On the westbound side of the tracks, right where the platform ends, instead
of traditional railing, there will be a 12-square-foot screen made of
stainless steel and adorned with railroad-related images - everything from
wheels, to lanterns, to conductors. A Montclair sculptor, Tom Nussbaum, has
just started work-ing on that piece.

"There will be a real variety of stuff, just a lot of objects from the
history of train travel," Nussbaum said. "In a way, it is reminiscent of a
big-pieced quilt."

Several plaques may accompany the work, providing the description and
historical significance of each object on the screen, he added.

The concept is for all the station's public art pieces to be connected
thematically and artistically.

The pieces are placed strategically around the station, so light would
bounce between them in "all kinds of crazy light patterns," according to
Ellis.

"So the air itself becomes a piece of art," Ellis said. "This is going to be
outrageous. I think people are going to come just to look at this station."

The makeover of the Bay Street Rail Station has been a long process. The
township spent decades fight-ing the state's plan to establish the so-called
"Montclair Connection," which will link the Boonton Rail Line with the
Montclair Branch of the Morris and Essex Rail Lines in the area around Pine
Street, Bay Street and Glenridge Avenue. Opponents and proponents have long
debated the impact of the Montclair Connection on the surrounding area and
the whole town - a discussion that continues to this day.

Almost four years ago, Montclair and NJ Transit reached an agreement in
which the town assented to the Montclair Connection. The township then got
actively involved in the station's design.

"We worked with the town every step of the way," said NJ Transit's
spokesperson, Michael Klufas.

Township Manager Terence Reidy said the government's involvement was
essential, because NJ Transit's original proposal did not match Montclair's
aesthetic standards.

"The design wasn't imaginative," Reidy said. "When you looked at it, it just
didn't say Montclair.

"But they graciously accepted our feedback," he added.

Today, Montclair government has more plans for the station.

Karen Kadus, director of planning and community development, said the
township will provide a 225-space parking deck near the station, along with
a covered waiting area for Montclair Connection commuters. Kadus said the
project, which is part of the Bay Street redevelopment plan, will be
financed in part by NJ Transit.

"Our developer is going to incorporate a station area into the deck," Kadus
said. "It's going to include several 16-foot-long historical benches that we
saved from the original Lackawanna station."

For the past several years, the benches have been stored in The Montclair
Times' facility, 114 Valley Road.

The developer, Lincoln Property Co., has not started construction yet, Kadus
said, and it is unclear when the work will be completed.

Even though trains have been running at the Bay Street Station - providing
daily service to Newark and Hoboken, as part of NJ Transit's Morris & Essex
Rail Lines - the station's platforms stood virtually empty on a recent cold
afternoon.

This will change with the very first train to Penn Station in just a few
months, NJ Transit maintains.

The transportation network's officials say they hope to open the Montclair
Connection in the spring, de-clining to offer more details.

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