Convention Center | ||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Convention Center station platform | ||||||||||||||||
General information | ||||||||||||||||
Location | 600 North 6th Street St. Louis, Missouri | |||||||||||||||
Coordinates | 38°37′49″N90°11′22″W / 38.630224°N 90.189362°W | |||||||||||||||
Owned by | Bi-State Development | |||||||||||||||
Operated by | Metro Transit | |||||||||||||||
Platforms | 2 side platforms | |||||||||||||||
Tracks | 2 | |||||||||||||||
Connections | ![]() | |||||||||||||||
Construction | ||||||||||||||||
Structure type | Underground | |||||||||||||||
Accessible | Yes | |||||||||||||||
History | ||||||||||||||||
Opened | July 31, 1993 [2] | |||||||||||||||
Passengers | ||||||||||||||||
2018 | 1,309 daily | |||||||||||||||
Rank | 12 out of 38 | |||||||||||||||
Services | ||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
|
Convention Center station is a light rail station on the Red and Blue lines of the St. Louis MetroLink system. [3] This subway station is located beneath the intersection of 6th Street and Washington Avenue in St. Louis' Central Business District.
Convention Center was built within the historic Downtown Tunnel, constructed in 1874 to carry trains between the Eads Bridge and the Mill Creek Valley rail yards. [4] The tunnel closed after a final Amtrak train passed through in 1974. Rehabilitation began in 1991 in preparation for the opening of MetroLink in 1993, which now uses the tunnel to connect communities in Illinois and Missouri via downtown St. Louis. [5] In July 1992, just east of this station, a 175-foot section of the tunnel beneath Broadway and Washington Avenue collapsed, injuring no one. [6]
On January 20, 2023, Metro Transit announced that Convention Center will receive a cleaning and rehabilitation. [7] [8] Major projects include removal of aging escalators, construction of new staircases and upgraded lighting and way-finding. [9] Work began shortly after the completion of the 8th & Pine station rehabilitation, with the station closing to the public on January 6, 2025. [10] The station reopened to the public on June 2, 2025. [11]
The station's westbound platform is accessed via an entrance in the base of the former Stix, Baer, and Fuller flagship department store building, now known as The Laurel. The westbound side can also be accessed via a set of subway stairs on the northeast corner of 6th Street and Washington Avenue. The eastbound platform is accessed via a set of subway stairs, an escalator, and an elevator in the public plaza of 600 Washington in addition to another set of subway stairs across 6th Street.
In 1997, Metro's Arts in Transit program commissioned the work Birds in Flight by artists Peter Tao, Helen Lee, and Stuart and Stacey Morse for installation in the tunnel between the Convention Center and Laclede's Landing stations. [12] The painted panels are meant to mimic the motion of a flying bird. [13]
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)