Map at Penn Station
Environmental Graphics
Illustrated detailed map for Long Island Rail Road Entry Hall at the 34th St. entrance at Penn Station. This project was done in partnership with Creative Source, a multi-discipline design agency.
The designers of Creative Source, Inc. were responsible for branding the space for the Long Island Rail Road Entry Hall at the 34th St. entrance at Penn Station. The design concept selected for the spandrel is a detailed map of the greater New York City Metropolitan area. The map includes, in great detail, geographic information from West Point, NY, down the Hudson to Staten Island, NY, and out to the Robert Moses Causeway on Long Island, NY. This design concept was selected in part for its aesthetic composition and also for its inclusion of the majority of Penn Station’s ridership.
“When riding the escalator, there is the sensation of traveling through the interior of a three-dimensional painting, several stories high,” says Carol Smith, president and creative director of Creative Source, Inc., one of the companies involved in the design and installation of this experiential, transformative graphic illustration.
Press
Penn Station Map Welcomes Visitors
“Creative Source, a multi-disciplined design firm, was selected to design the experiential graphic illustration by global engineering consulting firm WSP USA. Led by president and creative director Carol Smith, Creative Source also designed the iconic gold-and-blue MetroCard for the MTA some 22 years ago.
Smith notes that the Creative Source designers confronted many challenges, none more daunting than accommodating the double compound curve of the ceiling area surrounding the spandrel to include as much of the New York region as possible without distortion.
The result is “spectacular,” concludes Smith. “For visitors just arriving at Penn Station, the map serves to welcome them to New York as they ascend up into the city via the new entrance.”
— Graphic Design USA
Spandrel Graphic Moves Toward a
Full-scale Mockup at Penn Station:
“The design firm Creative Source, led by Carol Smith, has developed dozens of blue palette variations designed to ensure the piece will pop and provide passengers with a wow factor as they enter or exit. They’ve also had to design with the curved shape of the ceiling in mind trying to include as much of the region as possible without distorting the image.”
— A Modern LI
On The Map:
“Creative Source designers knew that they were going to need to come up with a dramatic design experience on the East End Gateway spandrel that would benefit the enormous size of the entrance. This funnel-like shape of the spandrel surrounds the 72-1/2-footlong escalators (with a vertical rise of 29-1/2-feet) and stairway, between the shoulders of adjoining arches and the ceiling above.”
— Sign Builder Illustrated
39 Reasons to Love New York Right now.
“The jury’s still out on what exactly will become of the Empire Station plan, pushed by Andrew Cuomo in peak Robert Moses–Howard Roark mode and now proceeding with slightly less bullheadedness. It’s inescapably true that Penn Station is still overloaded, that the Hudson River tunnels are crumbling, that Moynihan Station added exactly zero new-passenger capacity.
But here’s a little thing: If you’re getting on the Long Island Rail Road at Penn Station, the particulars of the experience are less dank than they were for decades. The corridors that seemed to have five-foot ceilings have had their lids lifted off and, owing in part to the new East End Gateway at 33rd Street, there is some actual sunlight and air down there. We’re a long way from a finished concourse and even further from a rationalized, functional Pennsylvania Station complex. But (to paraphrase the old line) arriving in the city now seems a bit less like scuttling in like a rat. — Christopher Bonanos”