When you step off the escalator at Wilshire/La Cienega, you face sketches of the Saban Theatre. Todd Gray's Mining the Archive: S. Charles Lee, Architect fills the glass entrance plaza and the escalator landing walls. It sets S. Charles Lee's archival architectural drawings and historic photographs of the theater, once the Fox Wilshire, against textile patterns from around the world. The Los Angeles Times described the pieces as Lee's original preliminary sketches for the building. So the first thing the new station shows you is a Wilshire Boulevard landmark a few blocks west.

The station opened on May 8, 2026, as part of Metro's D Line Extension Section 1, along with Wilshire/Fairfax and Wilshire/La Brea. In its rider guide on The Source, Metro places Wilshire/La Cienega in eastern Beverly Hills. For anyone living near it, the station changes the effort it takes to reach the museums along Wilshire. The Miracle Mile used to mean driving and finding parking. Now it is one stop east.

The station is part of the outing

Each of the three new stations has three Metro Art commissions. The art is meant to be worth your time. Metro deputy executive officer Zipporah Yamamoto, who runs the agency's public art program, told the Los Angeles Times that the goal was a "world-class experience" for riders, on par with the museums the line now reaches. The same article reports that more than 1,200 people answered Metro's call for artists. Finalists were judged by a panel that included curators from the Miracle Mile museums.

At Wilshire/La Cienega, there are two more works past Gray's entrance, according to Metro Art:

• Soo Kim, Night / Quartz. On the platform. Kim cuts and collages her photographs of the dense buildings along the Wilshire corridor with images she has taken around the world.
• Mariana Castillo Deball's four-image work. Its panels are titled Fossil Ground, Woven Cienega, Medicinal Flora and Urban Desert Fauna. They are combined into two collages along the north and south walls of the concourse.

Each piece has a metal placard with a QR code that tells you more about the artist.

Up on the street, Metro's guide notes that the station is next to "Restaurant Row" on La Cienega, including Lawry's. Lawry's The Prime Rib at 100 N. La Cienega Blvd. currently posts dining, brunch and to-go hours, so dinner can bookend a museum afternoon without moving the car.

One stop east, three museums in a few blocks

Metro describes Wilshire/Fairfax as "literally steps" from the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, LACMA, Craft Contemporary, the La Brea Tar Pits and the Petersen Automotive Museum. LACMA's David Geffen Galleries opened on April 19, 2026, so this is the first fall a Beverly Hills resident can reach the new building by train.

Here is what's on as of mid-October 2026, sorted by closing date, from each museum's current listings:

The closing dates help with planning. The Petersen's America 250 show and LACMA's Eileen Cowin exhibition both close around the holidays. The Academy Museum's documentary show follows in mid-January. If you want to see one of these on a weekday afternoon instead of during the holiday rush, the next two months are your window. The Academy Museum's horror and zombie exhibitions opened September 26, 2026, so they also suit a Halloween-week visit.

Wilshire/Fairfax's art comes from LACMA's collection

The Fairfax station continues the idea from La Cienega, where the art draws on what sits above ground. At La Cienega, Gray works from the Saban Theatre's archive. At Fairfax, Ken Gonzales-Day's Urban Excavation is a glass-tile mural built from enlarged images of objects in LACMA's collection. Karl Haendel's Hands and Things, a larger-than-life composition, covers the entrance pavilion and the escalator landing walls. Susan Silton's WE, OUR, US completes the station's three commissions. Yamamoto explained the thinking to the Los Angeles Times: "Without artwork that is specific in its reference to place, all the stations would look the same."

One stop on the usual Museum Row loop is different this year. The La Brea Tar Pits is in the middle of a two-year renovation. Indoor exhibitions, ticketed experiences and general museum admission are paused. Some outdoor areas and excavation sites are still open, and the museum offers Insider Tours of the work underway. If you're bringing out-of-town guests to see the fossils, an outdoor walk or an Insider Tour is what's available until the building reopens.

Ridership points to weekend use

The early numbers suggest people are using the line for outings like these, not only for commuting. In a post on The Source, Metro said its May 2026 rail ridership was the highest in more than six years. The three new stations added an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 daily rides. D Line ridership in May 2026 was up 62% over May 2025, and up nearly 80% on weekends. Weekend ridership grew faster than overall ridership in the line's first month in Beverly Hills.

Service details that matter for planning, from Metro's rider guide:

1. Hours. Trains run from about 4:10 a.m. to about 12:30 a.m., every day of the year.
2. Frequency. Every 10 minutes for much of the day on weekdays and weekends, and every 20 minutes early in the morning and later in the evening.
3. Downtown. Wilshire/La Cienega to Union Station takes just over 20 minutes in either direction. Metro says that is less than half the typical driving time at most hours.
4. Connections. Transfer at 7th/Metro for the A and E Lines, and at Union Station for Metrolink and Amtrak.

The rest of Section 1 is useful too. Metro notes that Wilshire/La Brea is near the El Rey Theatre and the Marciano Art Foundation. Wilshire/Fairfax is a short bus ride or walk from The Grove, the Original Farmers Market and Pan Pacific Park.

Next: stations in central Beverly Hills and Century City

The museums are one stop away today. Section 2 will bring the line further into the city. Metro's September 9, 2026 community meeting presentation forecasts Spring 2027 for the Beverly Dr and Century City stations, and Fall 2027 for Section 3 to Westwood/UCLA and Westwood/VA Hospital. Metro labels all of these dates subject to change. The City of Beverly Hills also lists Spring 2027. It says the Beverly Dr station entrance will be at the southwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Reeves Drive, with no current plans for a north portal at the former Canon Yard. The Century City station entrance is planned for the northeast corner of Constellation Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars.

Some finishing work is already visible on the street. Metro's October 2026 look-ahead for Beverly Drive lists tree planting from El Camino to Crescent and a landscaped Wilshire median between Crescent and Reeves. It also says two lanes in each direction will stay open on Wilshire between Beverly and Crescent, with possible sidewalk closures and overnight lane reductions. In Century City, Metro plans south-side sidewalk work on Constellation between Avenue of the Stars and Solar Way from October 15, 2026, through January 15, 2027. Southbound Avenue of the Stars loses two lanes starting at Constellation. Pedestrians walking from the Fairmont Hotel to Constellation are detoured south to Olympic. If you walk that corner for Westfield or a lunch meeting, expect that detour through the holidays.

Metro has a free online webinar on the Beverly Hills stations on November 18 at noon. Registration is on the D Line project page.

New stations change the streets around them, and that is something I watch closely, having been appointed to the Beverly Hills Design Review Commission. If you'd like to talk about how the Beverly Dr and Century City stations may change the streets near your home, or how they fit into a move you're considering, Marshall Peck is glad to help. Let's Connect.