"That's the screech," Margie Ruddick explained. She was referring to the No. 7 train. It emitted an ear-splitting sound as we rounded a curve and came to a stop at the Queensboro Plaza subway station.

It wouldn't be quite accurate to say that Ms. Ruddick, a landscape architect who led the recently completed $45 million makeover of Queens Plaza, spoke of the screech with affection. It was more like she was talking about a crazed relative whose existence one is forced to acknowledge when neighbors hear him barking in the attic....