{"id":37709,"date":"2015-07-01T06:00:58","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T10:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uncommongoods.pro\/?p=37709"},"modified":"2015-07-01T09:36:08","modified_gmt":"2015-07-01T13:36:08","slug":"uncommon-design-school-underground-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/2015\/uncommon-design-school-underground-artists\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncommon Design School: Underground Artists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many New Yorkers, if I need to get somewhere, I take the subway.<\/p>\n

Whether I need to hop the train to travel from my apartment adjacent to Prospect Park down to UncommonGoods\u2019 headquarters at the Brooklyn Army Terminal<\/a>, or I\u2019m bumbling through the Big Apple\u2019s other boroughs<\/a> on the weekends, cramming into crowded subway cars is as New York City as pizza pie. And like the more than 5.5 million passengers the system carries on an average weekday<\/a>, the moment I step on the train I succumb to modern \u201ctunnel-vision:\u201d I bury my head in my iPad until I reach my destination. But when I step out of the train, I\u2019m consistently surprised with the rich history laid bare in front of me in the form of the station\u2019s diverse signs, vestiges of past design trends, fashions, and the mores of bygone generations.<\/p>\n

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From its opening on October 27th, 1904<\/a>, New York City had already envisioned the subway as more than a simple method of getting around the metropolis. While urban, the experience of riding the subway was intended to be urbane; from the beginning, the city hired artists to embellish the underground walls with fanciful, yet legible, decorations.<\/p>\n

From 1901 to 1908, John L. Heins and Christopher G. LaFarge<\/a> designed the earliest subway motifs in the popular Beaux-Arts<\/a> style, evoking classical architecture using ceramics, metal, and wood. The Philadelphia-born architects – who are also known for their work in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine<\/a> and the original Astor Court buildings of the Bronx Zoo<\/a> – were heavily steeped in the Arts and Crafts movement<\/a>, an international artistic trend that advocated traditional craftsmanship and striving to create environments in which beauty and technical skill were of paramount importance.<\/p>\n

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Twenty-eighth Street subway sign by Heins and LaFarge<\/em><\/p>\n

Accented with swoops and curlicues, cornucopias and floral medallions, the duo\u2019s elaborate terra cotta signs endure as some of the system\u2019s most recognizable emblems.<\/p>\n

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Tile inspired by the original\u00a0\u00a0Times Sq-42 St station, designed by Heins and LaFarge | Personalized House Sign – Times Square Subway<\/a><\/p>\n

While quiet compared to the glitz and hubbub of Times Square<\/a> above, Heins and LaFarge\u2019s sumptuous mosaic sign is an unmistakable symbol of New York’s vibrant urban fabric. The original sign that inspired this tile is located at at Times Sq-42 Street<\/a>, one of the system\u2019s oldest stations at 111 years old.<\/p>\n

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Bleeker\u00a0Street subway sign by Heins and LaFarge<\/em><\/p>\n

The elaborate tile-workings were not just decorative: each sign\u2019s unique palette and patterns were used didactically to help non-English speakers identify stops.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s successor and owner of arguably the coolest name in New York City history, Squire J. Vickers<\/a> took over as chief architect of the New York City Subway system in 1906. Known as an “underground Renaissance man,\u201d Vickers was responsible for more than 300 stations\u2014the most of any architect\u2014and was the system’s lead designer for almost 30 years.<\/p>\n

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Squire J. Vickers and the “Vickers Eagle” at the 33rd Street Station<\/p>\n

Vickers took the subway on a much more pared-down, modern path than that of his Beaux-Arts predecessors for both aesthetic and economic reasons. As the floriated embellishments that defined the Arts and Crafts style gave way to the slick lines and austerity of the Machine Age<\/a>, Vicker\u2019s signs reflected the era\u2019s dominant graphic trends\u00a0with their quilt-like geometric abstractions and bold colors.<\/p>\n

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Mosaic panel by Squire J. Vickers<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHow grateful to the eye is the wall surface unbroken by paneling, noxious ornament, or the misplaced string course, decorated, if you like, inlaid with color, but unbroken,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Vickers was also imminently practical and, especially during the Great Depression<\/a>, many of his aesthetic decisions were driven by the bottom line. Mosaic elements were flattened, for example, so they would be cheaper to clean (\u201cto avoid dust ledges,\u201d he wrote). The intricate signs could also be set by hand in a factory instead of on the wall tessera by tessera, making them less expensive to install.<\/p>\n

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Wall Street Station sign by Squire J. Vickers<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite budgetary constraints, Vickers, who was also a competent painter, was still able to create mosaics revered as much for their utility as their beauty.<\/p>\n

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Inspired by Vickers’ oringal designs | Personalized House Sign – 59th and Lex Subway<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Vicker\u2019s decorative details underground, at the Lexington Av\/59 St station, complement the sophistication of the Upper East Side above.<\/p>\n

To this day, the MTA commissions artists <\/a>to continue the creative vision that was an integral part of the subway from the very beginning. New works are installed every day, from traditional mosaics, to sculpture, stained glass, and more, giving passengers plenty to see\u2014as long as we\u2019re willing to look.<\/p>\n

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\"TN4JZopxJZRXhpq2R7iUYgCPURYoMPQyHfgQu3ThxfU\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York City subway system is full of interesting works of art\u2014from traditional mosaics, to sculpture, stained glass, and more, giving passengers plenty to see\u2014as long as we\u2019re willing to look.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":37954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[742,24],"tags":[557],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37709"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37956,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37709\/revisions\/37956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uncommongoods.pro\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}