Letter
Dear Dr. Monfort:
Due to the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and national health emergency, the Commission of Fine Arts cancelled its public meeting scheduled for 19 March 2020, and the Commission members were not able to hear a new concept design presentation on signs for wayfinding, visitor gates, and parking lots at the National Zoological Park at 3001 Connecticut Avenue, NW. However, based on their review of the submitted design, the Commission members have voted by poll to provide the following recommendations and comments.
The Commission members recommended approval of the project, expressing support for the responsiveness of the project team to their previous comments to simplify the visitor gateway signs; they said that by emphasizing the animal silhouettes, the result has been to increase the clarity of wayfinding without sacrificing the playfulness and whimsy of the initial concept design. For the blade signs, they recommended further study of the sizes and hierarchy of the typography, which they commented may be too small and difficult to read from a distance as proposed.
This recommendation will be placed on the administrative agenda for confirmation at the Commission’s next public meeting. As always, the staff is available to assist you with future submissions.
Sincerely,
/s/Thomas E. Luebke, FAIA
Secretary
Steven Monfort, Director
Smithsonian National Zoological Park
P.O. Box 37012, MRC 511
Washington, DC 20013-7012
cc: Peter Baker, Ayers Saint Gross