Symphony station will have elevators installed, its stairs renovated, and major improvements made to its general accessibility as part of a one-year renovation.

The station currently has only stairway entrances, four at the westbound platform at Symphony and Horticultural Halls and two at the eastbound platform at Symphony Towers, located at the corners of Massachusetts and Huntington Avenues. Neither is wheelchair accessible.

The train platforms are also too low to permit wheelchair level boarding of new trains. The restroom at the outbound station is nonfunctioning and the inbound station has no restroom. Emergency lighting is generally inadequate.

“This reinforces how noncompliant the station is,” said Jorge Briones Jr., senior project manager of Green Line Transformation, of which the Symphony improvements are part.

The renovated design will have an elevator and stairway at each of the four corners of Massachusetts and Huntington Avenues. The entrances at Symphony Towers will include renovated ramp access to the plazas.

Each platform will have two areas of refuge for emergencies. These will be smoke resistant, have their own ventilation system. and be equipped with Stryker evacuation chairs and emergency call boxes.

Each platform will have an accessible customer assistance area with tactile bars, signage, and wheelchair space. Both platforms will have new accessible toilets.

The platforms will be raised to accommodate level boarding on all Green Line trains.

The fire alarm and life safety systems will be upgraded.

A final design is expected in June and a contract by late summer 2021. Construction is expected to begin by fall or winter of 2021, said Tamieka Thibodeaux, senior director of Green Line Transformation.

Construction will close Symphony station for an estimated thirteen months and be completed by summer 2023. Trains will run past the station during construction.

Connections from Symphony will be replaced by temporary bus service, though the details are still to be determined.

“We would either have enhanced #39 busses or additional private shuttle bus services from that area,” Thibodeaux said.

The redesign will not connect the inbound and outbound platforms. Passengers switching directions will still have to cross Huntington Avenue.

“Unfortunately, the design that's in place is not going to have that inbound/outbound mezzanine that you have at Arlington station,” Thibodeaux said. She added that the new entrances would be more protective against falling snow.

Asked whether a Covid or recession related budget crunch could imperil the Symphony project, Angel Peña, Chief of Green Line Transformation, said, “As of today, it continues to be part of our capital program and continues to be a priority for the MBTA.”

Northeastern University at Horticultural Hall, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Christian Science Monitor have all signed off on the improvement plans.

More than twenty million Americans aged 18 and older, 7%, reported serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs in 2015, according to Pew Research. This number is expected to grow faster than the total population as the average age rises.