163 St-Amsterdam Av
163 Street-Amsterdam Avenue is an overbuilt IND local stop. The station has two tracks and two side platforms, express trains run below on a separate level. The station had a full-length mezzanine with exits to 163, 162, and 161 Street. At 163rd Street there was once a streetstair up to the SE corner of St. Nicolas Avenue and 163rd Street, and two across the street (163rd Street isn't a continuous street)
In more recent times the northern half of the mezzanine has been fenced off with the exit to 163 Street the station's namesake closed, the lights are still dimly lit in this area giving it a dusty feel, and there is still a perfectly useable High Exit gate out of it if you could get into it. Three staircases up to it still exist at platform level and have the closed fence treatment over them. The southern open half of the mezzanine is split, there is no free crossover. Each direction has its own separate turnstiles across from one other where one token booth to one side. All of the black fencing that facilitates this gives the mezzanine a claustrophobic and less than spacious feel. The platforms themselves have yellow name tablets, mini "163" tiled but no yellow trim, all of the many columns in this large, half-closed complex are still painted yellow.
The mezzanine contains 3 still open exits, at the northern end of the mezzanine is an exit through a building and up to a storefront on the west side of the 6-way intersection of St. Nicholas Avenue, Amsterdam Avenue, and 162 Street. At the southern end there is a streetstair up to the SE corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 161 Street (this arrives at the west side of the mezzanine since the station is beneath St. Nicholas Avenue), and along the east side of St. Nicholas Avenue after 161 Street ends at a T-intersection.
Cuomo's Sexy Station: From March 12, 2019 to September 27, 2019 the stop was completely closed to all passengers for a cosmetic retrofit, this included the re-alignment of the fare control areas, to provide a free crossover. There are now two fare control areas with normal turnstiles at each end of the still open mezzanine. The 162 Street end has the station's remaining token booth. This retrofit included removing the visible evidence of the abandoned mezzanine and installing artwork. The columns are now painted a grey color. Black arrows with 163s beneath them still dot the platforms for this closed exit.
Photos 1-3: June 1, 2004; 4-20: May 28, 2007; 21-26: May 24, 2010; 27-30: July 22, 2009; 31-52: October 8, 2018
Arts For Transit at 163 St-Amsterdam Av
me llamo sueño de la madrugada (who more sci-fi than us), 2018
glass mosaic, By Firelei Báez
