Willowbrook / Rosa Parks Station Improvements
This station evolved from a neighborhood station into the fourth most heavily used station in the Metro system. The Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Station Improvement Project provides significant upgrades to this busy station, expanding its multi-modal capacity and role as a quality community resource, ushering it into a new era of Metro Rail.
Agency
Metro Arts + Design
SKA Design
Practice Area
Client
LA Metro
Industry
The Challenge
The project incorporated an existing station site with architectural upgrades to infrastructure as well as a new community plaza and campus, the challenge was to bridge the environmental graphics program between these two elements and create a seamless journey. Reconfiguration of station amenities to streamline rail and bus multi-modal transfers included wayfinding considerations from the very beginning of the project, and entailed a great degree of collaborative work between the various project disciplines.
Project Vision
Approximately one thousand (1,000) signs were programmed, designed, and constructed, comprised of over 120 different sign types ranging from station identifiers to tactile/Braille room IDs and interior wall graphics. Due to this added complexity, three separate environmental graphic design packages were required by the project team, and continuity between the three packages was of paramount importance to assure a seamless wayfinding system.
Mobility Hub Signage
LA Metro
Plaza Under Construction
LA Metro
Plaza with Mobility Hub and Customer Center
LA Metro
Rosa Parks Dedication Plaque Design
RNL/LA Metro
Design + Execution
In addition to adapting Metro’s signage standards to these specific site conditions, the project team developed a number of new design variations. Ranging from a slightly smaller map case design to allow for better integration into planned customer information portals, project identifying monument signage, canopy-mounted signage identifying the Rosa Parks Customer Center, identifying signage for Metro’s Mobility Hub, and a further refinement of the Metro. Combined, these elements draw together a thread of visual continuity throughout the site that allows visitors to easily identify and find their way to the various functions and services provided.
Rosa Parks Customer Center Entrance Canopy Signage
LA Metro
A Line Platform Overhead Destination Signage
LA Metro
Project Details
Transportation signage truly serves the public good, but transportation graphics are never easy and don’t allow for much in the way of creativity. Kudos to the LA Metro Design Team for developing bold design solutions within the myriad constraints of transportation signage, and may their efforts help open the door for other transportation EGDers to innovate just a little more in the future.
Design Team
Metro Arts + Design Team, Jorge Pardo
Metro Arts + Design Team, Lance Glover
Metro Arts + Design Team, Holly Hampton
Metro Arts + Design Team, Katherine Kwan
Metro Arts + Design Team, Kimberly Bueno
Metro Arts + Design Team, Krzysztof Sadlej (project management)
Metro Arts + Design Team, Sharleen McLaughlin (design)
Metro Arts + Design Team, Caroline Mallari (design)
Metro Arts + Design Team, Raymond Dang (design)
Metro Arts + Design Team, James Wong (design)
Metro Arts + Design Team, Margaret Lee (design)
Metro Arts + Design Team, Tom Kracauer (design)
Metro Arts + Design Team, Elizabeth Medvedovsky (design)
SKA Design Team, Joseph Stoddard (project management)
SKA Design Team, Jenna Goodman (design)
SKA Design Team, Rameen Khan (design)
Collaborators
CA Signs (fabricator)
RNL (architect)
AHBE Landscape (landscape architect)
SKA Design (environmental graphic design)
Photo Credits
LA Metro (photography)
RNL/LA Metro (rendering)
Open Date
November 2020