Here’s something you don’t see every day. Or, well, ever. This photo of NYC’s Grand Central Station was taken yesterday after the MTA system shut down at noon as Hurricane Irene approached the city. It doesn’t seem that alarming until you realize that this was a Saturday afternoon, when business around and in and out of the city should have been in full swing. Here it looks more like a picture in a history book — of a forgotten civilization wiped out by a natural disaster, perhaps? Well, we won’t go that far. New Yorkers aren’t scared of a little rain. The MTA however…
Since we’re fairly well known to love all things typographic, most things minimalist, and many things relating to the cities we adore, perhaps it’s not surprising that we’re totally into these classy minimal typographic transit maps, which we spotted over at Colossal. Simple and sleek (and effective as functional art, if you already have a basic understanding of where things are in your city), we think they would fit nicely in any modern home, whether you prefer the Boston, Chicago, London, New York, San Francisco or Washington D.C. varieties. Click through to see a few of the designs, and head over to TRNSPRTNATION to buy one for yourself.
For Metrobench, a sculptural installation created by Stephen Shaheen for the previously mentionedSingle Fare 2: Please Swipe Again show at Sloan Fine Art Gallery, the artist asked New Yorkers to donate their used Metrocards via Craigslist. He then hand-stitched the 5,000 discarded cards into a usable bench that’s intended to represent the unifying nature of mass transit. “There is something very personal about handling so many small belongings that were once riding around in peoples’ pockets,” he explains. “There are untold personal stories in that inconspicuous, flimsy plastic.” Click through to get a better look.
Ever wish your $2 million luxury apartment could be more like the subway? If so, have we got the place for you. Sotheby’s is selling a pretty gorgeous penthouse in New York’s West Village, designed by architect Adam Kushner, that features subway tiles and doors throughout. The MTA never looked so lovely. Drool over some more photos of the place at The Observer.
1. Poison lead singer and current Celebrity Apprentice contestant Bret Michaels suffered a brain hemorrhage over the weekend, describing the headache that precipitated the injury as “like [getting] hit in the head with a baseball bat over and over again.” [via People]
2. NPR is streaming the New Pornographers‘ first album since 2007, Together; guest spots include St. Vincent and Beirut. [via NPR]
3. Why does Josh Groban get to be in a movie with Ryan Gosling? I want to be in a movie with Ryan Gosling (and Steve Carell and Marisa Tomei and the funny girl from Superbad). [via Variety]
4. The New York City MTA just released its findings in subway traffic for 2009: the Brooklyn-bound J/M/Z line experienced record highs while Financial District stations dropped off significantly. [via New York Times]
5. For those of you who prefer your series finales spoiled, check out the leaked call sheet from the last episode of ABC’sLost. [via Gawker]
Today at Flavorpill, we peeped Jason Shelowitz’s etiquette posters for Toronto’s public transit system and compared them with the posters he created for New York City’s MTA. We hyperventilated when we saw this LOST character map. We listened to “Werner Herzog” read Where’s Waldo? to children and found it creepily existential. We wished that we had been ballsy enough to ask Conan O’Brien to prom. We wanted to high-five everyone at AMC Theatres when we heard about their newest program, AMC Independent. We were overly excited by the news that past contestants from So You Think You Can Dance will be returning to partner with new contestants when the show comes back in May. We chuckled over these humorous marathon spectator signs. Mostly because we didn’t realize people who watch marathons are so funny. And finally, we enjoyed this round up of the best Eyjafjallajokull-related memes. Happy weekend!
The New York City public transportation system has perks (sprawling network of routes, same admission price for every trip) and drawbacks (odd smells, transients, weekend service changes). And while most passengers channel rage in a highly passive-aggressive manner, we prefer something a little more subtle. Please. Jason Shelowitz is granting our wish with a public art campaign launching citywide via a limited run of hand-pulled, four-color screen prints extolling the virtues of Subway Etiquette. They’re visually similar to the ubiquitous flyers posted by the actual MTA, so pay close attention. Three samples and our own warning after the jump.
Dutch designer Bob Noorda, who, with Massimo Vignelli, designed the official look of New York’s subway system, died earlier this month at the age of 82. If you’re obsessed with Helvetica, or suffering from fatigue thereof, you can probably blame Noorda, who modernized the MTA with an iconic visual language using the sans-serif font. Not only does his work direct the traffic flow of around 5.2 million subway riders daily, but he’s also been collected by MoMA and credited with injecting Modernist thinking into the corporate world as an “early proponent of unified branding.” More words and pictures on Noorda, after the jump.
If this is what the infamous Second Avenue subway line is planning to look like, then we’ll gladly wait until 2012 2034 when it’s finally finished. Dubai’s new luxury metro opened last week and the features are duly impressive. Stats and more photos after the jump. Read More »
