Beginning in 1901, Heins & LaFarge designed subway stations and buildings for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company under the direction of the chief engineer, William Barclay Parsons. When the Interborough Rapid Transit's original line opened on October 27, 1904, its showpiece station was City Hall, designed by Heins & LaFarge using uninterrupted sweeping Guastavino-tiled arches and vaults which incorporated shaped skylights and mosaics and polychrome terracotta panels. Throughout the original stations the polychrome faience panels (from Grueby Faience Company, Boston, and Atlantic Terra Cotta Company of Staten Island and New Jersey) were designed by the firm, using several tile patterns. The partners' control house for the IRT is at Bowling Green station under Manhattan's Bowling Green at the corner of the Battery in the Dutch Renaissance manner reminiscent of New Amsterdam. A few Heins & LaFarge subway entrances survive, including the one at 72nd Street and Broadway. After Heins died in 1907, LaFarge decided to pursue a solo practice and in 1908 was replaced as architect in charge of the IRT project by Squire J. Vickers.