It’s unclear why some of the new station houses are recycling elements of the older structures and why others are starting from scratch. At Sedgwick, the original masonry facade remains, and a period interior—incorporating wood floors, beadboard wainscoting, crown moldings—has been handsomely re-created. The design scores functionally, too, for clever adaptive reuse: The original roof has been removed and the rear wall pushed back, fluidly integrating the turnstiles areas with the actual platform access. Best of all, the relocated wall makes an excellent venue for Dzine’s mosaic—a dazzler literally (it’s filled with mirrored and reflective glass tiles) and figuratively. Dzine, who gained fame for his graffiti-inspired murals, reveals himself here as an artist whose “street” sensibility has been warmly adopted (which is not to say co-opted) by the mainstream.

The Montrose station is entirely new construction, but—tucked under the tracks, with a floor-to-ceiling glass facade—is so minimal it almost disappears. This not only makes for a friendlier street presence, but offers a perfect stage for Jason Pickleman’s intriguing exercise in typography. Pickleman is known more as a leading visual communications designer than as a “fine” artist, although his ideas recall the kind of text-based work identified with contemporary stars like Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger. “I’ve always thought of words as pictures,” Pickleman says, “and to draw a picture of a neighborhood, you don’t have to fall back on pictorial iconography.” His piece is a field of continuous capital letters that seem to form familiar fragments, but never, apparently, complete words. On closer inspection, you realize the text incorporates the street names in the neighborhood. It abstractly conveys the random and orderly qualities of urban life and acknowledges the inescapability of modern sensory overload; it’s the consummate urban statement.

The plans for the remaining stations look equally promising. Joanna Goebel, the DCA’s project manager for the Art in Transit program, says the Public Art Commission, which selected the artists, tried to commission works that made sense for each stop. The goal was to find art that reflected the diversity of the neighborhoods the Brown Line serves—work that she says is “informed by many cultures and aspects of the urban experience that bring it outside the white-cube experience”—i.e., the typical setting where we get our art fix.

Although it’s always hard to get city officials to comment on public improvement projects, the CTA’s press office was particularly tight-lipped in response to our queries about the renovation. (DCA reps were much more forthcoming.) As for the architects, it’s mysterious. Gonzalez & Hasbrouck, credited for the Sedgwick station, appears to have ceased operation: Its phone was disconnected and it has vacated its last address listed with AIA Chicago.Representatives from Earth Tech, a Los Angeles–based engineering and architecture firm with a Chicago office in charge of several stations, didn’t respond to messages.

It’s hard to say why everyone appears to be unwilling to talk about this project. Maybe we’ll discover layers of corruption and incompetence as the project continues, but for now, it looks to be on the right track.