Does anything gladden the wonkish heart quite like the introduction of a new bus shelter, such as we now see popping up — literally overnight — throughout the five boroughs? Most of our citizenry, used to being bullied by reality into unquestioning obeisance to the status quo, view these sudden additions to the urban landscape in the same way they see buildings and trees, as an act of God that is suddenly there and that has little or nothing to do with human intentionality. But to the wonk, the matter is fraught with far-reaching implications, about which he has definite ideas. Everything from seating and signage to the sliding scale of ad revenues thrills him in all their infinitesimal permutations.

And yet, there are a number of reasons why average citizens — the ones who ordinarily have better things to do with their lives — might wish to take a moment to consider and rejoice in our sparkling new bus shelters. For one thing, many of us will be spending a certain parcel of our days standing under them. We can be thankful then that the new shelters are somewhat more capacious than their predecessors, and that they have seating, though it is for only three backsides at a time. In addition, each shelter is equipped with admirably legible signage and bus routes.

But best of all is the sheer crystalline loveliness of these spectral structures, as wraithlike and immaterial in appearance — if not in fact, for they are quite sturdy — as the laced wing of a damsel. The design is the work of Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, whose eminent firm, Grimshaw Industrial Design, brought us the luminous design for the Fulton Street Transit Center. This firm has distinguished itself in that project, no less than in these new shelters, for its graceful and tactful use of the neo-modernist idiom, one that resurrects the geometric integrity of midcentury modernism, but that adds a grace and a skillful construction that were absent in the past.

Structurally, the new shelter is similar to the old, but in spirit it could hardly be more different. It consists of a cantilevered roof attached to a glass wall at the back and bordered on one side by an illuminated wall. In tone, color, and detail, the art historical precedent for the old shelter would seem to have been the minimalist cubes of Tony Smith and Robert Morris. The existential brooding of its dark brown forms was up to date in the ’60s and surely seemed appropriate to the End of Art crowd. But in the context of urban mass transportation, the effect was hugely dispiriting. The best that could be said for these shelters is that they did indeed reflect a certain grittiness that was undeniably a part of the New York experience a generation back.

But the city has changed greatly since then, and the new shelters express that shift. Just as the city has become safer and cleaner than ever before, so the most recent shelters exult in openness and light. A generation back, such an expanse of glass would have been seen as a call to batting practice for vandals in all five boroughs. Now a very different civic sentiment reigns in New York and with it the expectation that these seemingly defenseless walls of glass can survive intact. Unlike the older versions, which were lit on only one side, light now comes from two sources, with the result that they add welcome clarity at night, and a sense that the street is safer and more inviting than before.

In the fullness of time, 3,300 of these shelters will adorn the city, through a complex and mutually beneficial deal that the city has made with the Spanish firm of Cemusa, Inc. For the right to advertise for more than 20 years, this company will pay the city nearly $1 billion in cash, and nearly $400 million worth of in-kind services, among them advertising of the city’s tourist industry throughout the world.

“Cemusa’s first new bus shelter marks the end of decades of inertia for street furniture,” deputy mayor, Dan Doctoroff, said in a press release. “This is about improving our quality of life, enhancing our image, and generating revenue for the City. It’s a win all around.” Well, almost all around. This being New York, a rival company tried to stall the deal, citing unfair bidding practices. But the matter was decided in the city’s favor, and we are all the better for it. So much so that, in the coming months, we can even look forward to the deployment — by the same firm — of that Holy Grail of street furniture, the public toilet, not to mention spiffily appointed newsstands.

jgardner@nysun.com