CFA 15/MAY/03-7

Location

New York Avenue Metrorail Station- Red Line-between
Florida Avenue and M Street on 2nd Street, NE
United States

Owner
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Property
New York Avenue Metro Station
Description
Public art enhancements (concept) and revised entrance pavilion canopy (final)
Previous Review

Letter

Dear Mr. White:

During its meeting of 15 May, the Commission reviewed the proposed public art enhancements for the new METRO Station at New York Avenue and a revised detail for the cantilever of the structure supporting the roof of the station's entrance pavilion. The members unanimously approved the scheme developed by artist Barbara Grygutis and District of Columbia Poet Laureate Dolores Kendrick for installation in the new station. Its combination of a freestanding sculpture, ornamental paving patterns, embellished fencing and panels of poetry was thought to be thematically cohesive and an appropriate adornment for a transportation facility. It should prove to be an interesting and stimulating addition to the METRO system.

As for the proposed detail for the terminus of the roof support structure, the members found the revised configuration of the end points, with the inset panels, a bit too complicated. They preferred a detail that would simply taper the structure back from the edge of the roof, perhaps at a 30% angle from vertical. The idea was to make the original abrupt ending of the entrance canopy structure more gracious, not more elaborate. Please submit a revised detail to the staff for our delegated approval.

Sincerely,

/s/
Harry G. Robinson, III, FAIA

Mr. Richard A. White
Chief Executive Officer
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
600 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001

cc: John D. Thomas, WMATA, Project Manager
Michael McGill, WMATA, Special Assistant for Regional Coordination
Ed Riley, WMATA, Manager of Architecture
John A. Ferguson, Jacobs Civil Inc.
Barbara Grygutis, Artist