By Oliver Bok

Artists rendering of the new Gilman Square GLX station.

The rumors aren’t true: the Green Line Extension is fully funded and looks set to remain that way.

At least that’s what Program Manager Karen Arpino-Shaffer told residents at a meeting to present the current plans for the Gilman Square and Lowell Street stations at the Armory on Tuesday, June 16.

“We have gotten word from the governor, the secretary, the general manager, from all of those sources, that they are committed to the Green Line and they want the Green Line to move forward,” Arpino-Shaffer said.

However, Arpino-Shaffer also stated that the project team needed to be careful about working within the full-funding grant agreement made with the state late last year.

Both the Gilman Square and Lowell Street stations are now 90 percent designed. The last community meetings took place in June 2013 when the stations were 60 percent designed.

According to Deborah Fennick, the architect on the project, the Gilman Square station will be made with a mix of terracotta and glass. Fennick used terracotta to help the station fit in with nearby brick buildings. The glass is intended to make the station visible from the outside and thus safer for residents.

Currently, the plans for the Gilman Square station have the turnstiles on the upper floor of the station above the tracks. Several residents asked if the team could move the turnstiles downstairs to let people walk through the station without having to pay a fare, allowing the station to act as a bridge between Medford Street and the high school. Arpino-Shaffer responded by saying that the problem with putting the turnstiles downstairs is the lack of width on the platform, but she also admitted that the team had not considered that option rigorously for Gilman Square.

Fennick stated that the Lowell Street station will consist mainly of steel and mesh in order to create open, visible space. The station entrance facing Magoun Square will have a steel overhang held up by vertical white supports. Al Weiss, a Somerville resident and architect, criticized the station exterior for not being welcoming or well thought out.

“It feels institutional, it feels like something out of Berlin of the 1960’s and not in a good way,” Weiss said. “It needs to be reworked.”

The Lowell Street station will also have two elevators and bike storage inside the station. Discussion at the meeting also focused on integrating the station with the Community Path, which will be extended as the new Green Line stations are being built.

Phase 1 construction on the Green Line Extension is already underway, as several utility bridges are currently being built. Arpino-Shaffer mentioned what she described as a “glitch” in recent negotiations with a construction company, but she also said that she expects the project to adhere to the current timeline that has construction complete by 2020.

“For many of us who’ve spent our careers doing transit work, this is a dream project for us,” Arpino-Shaffer said.

The Green Line Extension team will give an update on the latest plans for the College Avenue station on Thursday, June 25 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the St. Clement School in Medford.