CHATSWORTH : Train Station Design Includes Child Care

An architect’s proposed design for a Metrolink commuter railway station in Chatsworth, unveiled to the public this week, recalls an 1890s-era original, updated with the inclusion of a child-care center.

Aleks Istanbullu, the Santa Monica-based architect who was hired to design the station, said his proposed plan owes its existence to an uncle with a passion for model trains.

Istanbullu said he was flipping through his uncle’s train magazines and happened across a photo of Chatsworth’s original Southern Pacific Station No. 222, which was torn down in the early years of this century. The picture, and later historical research, provided the basis of design Istanbullu has proposed for the new station.

A citizens’ committee reviewed the design Thursday. Members responded favorably, suggesting only that the architects give further thought to ways of sheltering the site from relentless Chatsworth winds.

The $1.3-million train depot and child-care center, now in the beginning stages of development, will replace a platform and canopy now on the station site on Devonshire Street.

When completed, officials hope the train station will become the first building in a proposed town center on the site. Portions of the site may eventually pass to private developers to build living spaces, restaurants and shops.

Istanbullu’s design is for a single-story 12,000-square-foot building and child-care play yard separated from the tracks by a nine-foot high wall. The building would have wood siding, a pitched roof and a two-story entry hall. Half the building would be devoted to child care--an innovation introduced on the theory that more parents will ride the trains if it is convenient for them to drop off their children at the same time.

Eventually, the station will be one among a planned 60 stations scattered throughout the Metrolink system.