Apple invests $4 million to restore North/Clybourn, a run-down subway station near its newest Chicago store.

The North/Clybourn CTA station was once so dirty and dingy that subway riders used to exit the train a stop early or late just to avoid walking through it, reports the Chicago Tribune.

In a unique marketing/community enhancement experiment, Apple Inc. agreed to invest the funds needed to rehabilitate the station in exchange for exclusive advertising rights.

Now, climbing the stairs out of the station, potential buyers of iPods and iPads get out only to see a “giant, glowing box of glass, stone and polished steel”: the new Peter Bohlin-designed Apple store, reports The Dirt.

Aside from the carbon emissions that are saved when people utilize mass transit options, subway systems on opposite sides of the Atlantic are harnessing heat and kinetic energy to generate power and funnel it back into the grid.

As you might expect, Red Line riders on their way to the new store will have time to prepare themselves for the technological innovations that await them before emerging from the station. The new Apple name and logos are visible everywhere inside the station that now fits the crisp it's known for in other media.

So far, there are no plans to call it the iStation, although the City of Chicago has already agreed that Apple would get the right of first refusal for a new name.

What would you call it? Share your ideas in the comments!