At the CTA, you can rehab in any color - as long as it's white

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The CTA is in the middle of Red Ahead, a welcome $86 million upgrade of 10 Red Line stations - not total rebuilds, but extensive repairs and reconfiguration, with new lighting, doors and finishes.  All in all, this has been an attractive alternative to such money-pit projects as the estimated $200 million+ cost of renovating the Wilson station.  [The Chicago Sun-Times has recently been reporting on how money gushes like a geyser in the city's Public Building Commission.]

At Argyle, as in the other stations in the rehab, there are new, handsome glass-filled entrance walls renovated platforms and canopies, and a clean, open design, all accomplished, as in the other stations, during a fairly short six-week shutdown.

The only thing missing is color.  About 20 years ago, as part of renovation that cost all of $250,000, the Argyle station , which serves a neighborhood with a substantial Vietnamese, Cambodian and Chinese population, was repainted in colors associated in China with good luck and keeping away evil (red), and with longevity - also infidelity, jealousy and lust - take your pick (green).

The new Argyle is white, white, white.   Very nice, very generic.  Would it have cost that much more to give each station a bit of personality?  There are a lot of blank walls, so maybe the color will come from the $525,000 in artwork the CTA is currently considering for seven of the rehabbed stations, including Argyle.