Briarwood (IND Queens Boulevard Line)

Station layout

This station has two side platforms and four tracks. The platforms have Slate Blue columns, a Jasmine Yellow tile trim with black borders, and name tablets containing "VAN WYCK BLVD." in white lettering on a black border with matching yellow trimming.

The full-length mezzanine is directly above the platforms. It is separated into three sections with two black fences. Fare control is in the middle due to the requirement to have a pedestrian underpass under Queens Boulevard, so there is no free transfer between directions. The station is directly under the Van Wyck Expressway's southbound service road at this point, however.

The station mezzanine has hosted the NYPD Transit Bureau's District 20 station house since the mid-1990s.

Exits

The full-time exit is via a long passageway to Main Street and Queens Boulevard. Another pair of exits exists at the southwestern corner of Queens Boulevard and Van Wyck Expressway, one next to Maple Grove Cemetery, the other next to the Van Wyck Expressway. Another entrance on the north side of the Queens Boulevard overpass over the Van Wyck Expressway formerly existed, but was later demolished.

Track layout

To the west of this station are track connections from both the express and local tracks to Jamaica Yard.

Just to the compass south (railroad north) of this station, the IND Archer Avenue Line splits from the Queens Boulevard Line in a flying junction; trains to/from the Archer Avenue line can serve the station as local trains or bypass it as express trains. At the split, the Archer Avenue tracks split from both pairs of express and local Queens Boulevard tracks. The connection uses trackways that were constructed at the same time as the station, part of the section of the Queens Boulevard Line from Kew Gardens–Union Turnpike to 169th Street. The provision (then known as the "Van Wyck Stub") was intended to be used by the proposed Van Wyck Boulevard Line going towards Rockaway Boulevard, part of a planned major system expansion that was never built. When construction of the Archer Avenue Line began on August 15, 1972, as part of the Program for Action, the original tunnels were used for the project, and new tiles and tracks were added. These tunnels are now used for trains going to and from Jamaica Center–Parsons/Archer, opened in 1988. There are punch boxes on the Jamaica-bound track of this station to allow trains to go to either the Hillside Avenue or Archer Avenue lines.

The Van Wyck Boulevard right-of-way, which was proposed from the station's construction, is currently used by the elevated AirTrain JFK, though it makes no stops along the corridor.

Renovation

The station was rebuilt, with new exits, as part of the $147 million Kew Gardens Interchange reconstruction project, which includes bridge replacement of the Queens Boulevard overpass over Van Wyck Expressway. The contract for reconstruction of the station, was bid on and won by Ecco and cost $9.9 million. In 2011, the north entrance was demolished as part of rebuilding the interchange, leaving the southern exit bordering Maple Grove Cemetery as the sole entrance and exit. A new entrance is being built next to Archbishop Molloy High School on Main Street; another exit on the same site had been closed since 2010. Another new entrance currently exists on the south side of Queens Boulevard between the Van Wyck Expressway service and main roads.

Renovation, started in 2010, was to be completed by 2016, with a new elevator entrance and rebuilt, widened mezzanine corridors. However, delays abounded, including the fact that the new Main Street exit was delayed, having been pushed back from August 2012, to October 2013, and then again to March 2014; lead paint needed to be removed, costing $0.3 million; and plans were changed during construction, costing $1.7 million. The opening of the new Main Street exit was subsequently pushed forward to February 2014, then back again to May 2014 with elevator work to begin after the new entrance opened; the elevator was to be complete by late 2014 or early 2015. A new entrance was opened in December 2014.

Naming

The station's original name was Van Wyck Boulevard. Van Wyck Boulevard was the name of the wide thoroughfare that existed when the station opened in 1937. The Van Wyck Expressway was built over the boulevard in the early 1950s. The name was changed to Briarwood–Van Wyck Boulevard in 1998 to avoid confusion with Jamaica–Van Wyck on the IND Archer Avenue Line.

Since 2008, community members had been pushing to rename the station again to simply "Briarwood" since it better reflected the neighborhood of Briarwood, served by the station, and since "Van Wyck Boulevard" does not characterize the area well (the now-expressway runs through several other neighborhoods in Queens). State Senator Tony Avella and local community groups pressed for the name change. The legislation, proposed in January 2013, passed the New York State Assembly on June 19, 2014. In August 2014, it was announced that the station would be renamed Briarwood. The station was formally renamed on April 17, 2015.

In popular culture

In the 1988 comedy film Coming to America, Eddie Murphy's character, Akeem, tries to persuade his love interest to marry him and go to Zamunda, a fictional kingdom in Africa. He follows her onto the Briarwood station. When Akeem jumps the turnstile, "Van Wyck Boulevard" can be seen in the background above the token booth. They board the train which next stops at the Sutphin Boulevard station where she gets off. This scene, however, was actually shot at the unused platform and tracks of Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets station in Brooklyn.