Maryland Transportation Department Unveils Design Concept for 91直播 Road-UMGC Purple Line Station
Soon after construction on the station is complete, a work of art by Shane Allbritton and Norman Lee will be installed at the new 91直播 Road-UMGC-UMD Purple Line stop. The artists, co-founding partners of the Houston-based studio, , told 91直播 of Maryland Global Campus that while their data-based design has evolved during the lengthy submission and review process for the Purple Line Art-in-Transit Program, their concept has mostly remained the same.
Allbritton has connections to the national capital region. She was a senior graphic designer at Gallagher & Associates in Washington from 2006 to 2010. Years ago, well before the Purple Line project materialized, she and Lee had been selected to work on a project for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority鈥檚 Red Line. But that Metro project was scrapped.
Their involvement in the Purple Line project began six years ago when they responded in 2014鈥攁long with more than 700 others鈥攖o the Maryland Transportation Department鈥檚 call for art. They were among the 80 artists chosen to submit design concept proposals by a selection committee that included members of the Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration (MDOT MTA) and the Purple Line team; art professionals, representatives from the arts councils in Montgomery and Prince George鈥檚 counties and other communities across Maryland, representatives from the 91直播 of Maryland, and community members along the 16.2 mile project corridor.
The multi-stage selection process included opportunities for community members to attend public meetings where they could meet some of the artists and view and comment on their proposals, and designs were uploaded to a public website for further comment. The committee made its final selections in 聽May 2017..
An Idea Takes Root
To begin concept development, the RE site duo took data they received from UMGC on the university鈥檚 student demographics, including headcounts by location in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Allbritton and Lee then used that information to craft a data visualization.
Detail showing the relationship between panels, sprouts and leaves scaled according to the student headcount by location, and the primary and secondary network of 鈥渞oots鈥 that connects students, UMGC locations and loosely defines continents
The concept behind the resulting graphic, titled 鈥淕ermination: Global Campus + Growing Minds,鈥 is literal and figurative鈥攐n one level an artistic presentation of the university鈥檚 size and scope, on another, an 鈥渙rganic鈥 representation of UMGC鈥檚 import. The design consists of a series of glass panels covered with circles and dots depicting the volume of students at a given UMGC location.
But the focus of each panel is one 鈥渟prout鈥 that connects UMGC locations through a primary 鈥渞oot鈥 visualization. A secondary network of lines resembling thinner, fibrous roots connects UMGC student locations and loosely defines continents. There are also metal 鈥渓eaf鈥 structures, which are scaled relative to the headcount of students connected in each geographic location, according to the Re: site proposal. The organic whole of sprouts, circles, roots and leaves 鈥渞einforce the global community theme of the design,鈥 the artists told UMGC.
Allbritton and Lee said their design is mostly finalized. They are working on the next phase鈥攑roducing the files for future fabrication.
The Metro Authority created the purple line program to 鈥渕ake public art an integral part of the transit project,鈥 according to literature provided to UMGC by Gary Witherspoon, a MDOT spokesperson. A wide variety of art is being incorporated into the features of Purple Line stations, too鈥攆encing, canopies, windscreens, wayfinding, and platforms. The overall effect is designed 聽to 鈥渆nrich the aesthetics of the light rail system and support neighborhood identities.鈥
As described in the literature, the typical cost of the artwork is between $100,000 and just over $400,000, 鈥淭he concepts were finalized at the end of 2018, although some are still being refined. We think that what we came up with reflects the best-of-the-best artists.鈥
About the cover image: This approximated visualization was composed for conceptual purposes only and accurate data is being developed for the final design. It is shown here by permission of the Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration.
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