86th Street opened on July 17, 1918 as part of an expansion of the IRT Lexington Avenue Line north of Grand Central–42nd Street. This station underwent three renovations. The first took place with the opening of a Gimbels department store directly above in the early 1970s. The renovation took place mostly in the fare control areas. The second renovation was completed by 1986 as part of a move to prevent the existing New York City Subway stations from falling apart after years of deferred maintenance; this is evidenced by the addition of the then standard orange platform edge in addition to the yellow platform edge that was originally there, as well as painting the I Beams red instead of the original blue and fixing all the other parts of the station. The third renovation was completed by Fall 2004. It consisted of repainting the I beams from red to dark blue, as well as the removal of train arrival devices on the upper level that gave notices of approaching express trains on the lower level, among other things; the latter was replaced with countdown clocks, on both levels, which performed the same function.
Station layout
This underground station has two levels. Each level has two tracks and two side platforms. The upper level serves local trains while the lower level, located approximately below ground, serves express trains. There is no express service during late nights and the lower level is closed during that period. Four staircases connect the levels on each side. There are no crossovers or crossunders between the platforms, making this one of only three express stations in the system where free transfers between opposite directions are not possible. Each platform has its original Dual Contracts trim line consisting mostly of yellows and browns. Small "86" tablets in a circle run along this trim line. The name tablets have "86TH STREET" in a white serif font on a reddish-brown background with a light-brown inner border and green outer border. Teal columns run along all four platforms at regular intervals. Each upper-level platform has one same-level fare control area in the center. The southbound side has a turnstile bank, token booth, two staircases going up to the southwest corner of East 86th Street and Lexington Avenue, and two more that are built inside a Best Buy store on the northwest corner of the same intersection. The northbound fare control has an unstaffed turnstile bank and two staircases going up to the southeast corner of East 86th Street and Lexington Avenue. An additional staircase and an elevator rise to the northeast corner. The elevator and staircase replace two narrow staircases formerly located inside a now-demolished shopping arcade at that corner. The elevator and staircase installations are part of the construction of a luxury residential tower at 147 East 86th Street. , only the northbound local platform is ADA-accessible, since there is no elevator from the local platform to the express platform and no elevators on the southbound side. Accessibility of the entire station was proposed in August 2019 as part of the MTA's "Fast Forward" program. The 2004 artwork here is called Happy City by Peter Sis. It consists of four different glass and etched stone mosaic murals in the shapes of huge eyes surrounded by various animals and objects. They are located at each stop of the four staircases near the fare control areas that go down to the lower level express platforms. This station was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 2005.
