The Komsomolskaya Subway Station in Moscow, Russia

I’m always impressed by how rarely architecture seeks to inspire or influence us– it’s a shame. For that reason I really enjoyed finding Design Boom’s photo article on subway architecture earlier this morning.

When I lived in Boston I used to ride the subway (or “the T” as it is called there). Occasionally there were some added bits of artwork or advertisements that made the experience more interesting– but usually the best you could hope for was to hear a good musician who decided to play in the station on a given day. I’ve been on New York City’s subway system too and was similarly uninspired by the designs of the underground facilities.

In any case, many of the architectural designs of subway stations you can see by clicking on the link above put the ones I’ve used to shame and give me hope that maybe someday American subway designers will come to their senses. I highly recommend checking out these photos.

Photo Courtesy of Aphexlee on Flickr under a Creative Commons license