BART officials are asking for public input this week as they consider ways to modernize San Francisco’s Civic Center station and make improvements to station entrances along Market Street.

As part of BART’s station modernization program, the agency will hold four in-station open house events this week to collect feedback through surveys that will ask people to prioritize improvements they want to see at the stations and provide suggestions for expansion.

BART officials said the goal of the program is to develop a list of projects that would improve the accessibility, security, capacity and appearance of the stations.

As for the Market Street station entrances, BART officials said they want to add covered structures to all 27 Market Street entrances to increase the reliability of station escalators and provide a more welcoming appearance.

Citing the new 19th Street station canopy in Oakland, BART officials said they would be working with San Francisco’s Better Market Street project to create a similar design.

Like the 19th Street Oakland station, the agency said the tentatively agreed upon design would have two sides partially enclosed with glass and sweeping horizontal views. The canopies would also provide escalators with protection from the weather and enhanced security, BART officials said.

The 19th Street station canopy opened in March after being delayed by a few months because of problems with the structure of the canopy, agency officials said.

BART said the first phase of the San Francisco canopy project will be funded with $12 million in Proposition B funds, which would be used for design, engineering and the construction of the first three entrances.

The second phase will be funded by $30 million in Proposition A funds, as well as $18 million in funds from BART’s capital outlay budget.

The first open house will be held Tuesday at the Civic Center station at 7 a.m., followed by another at the Powell Street station at 4 p.m. On Thursday, the open houses will take place at Powell at 7 a.m. and at Civic Center at 4 p.m.

BART officials said the canopy project is currently in an early design phase and won’t be completed until the end of 2017.

(Pic Via: Rob Schwandl)