segdDESIGN 34

2011 no.

34

Signs Environments Graphics Designs

Remembering 9/11

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Act Local, Think Global

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Green Lighting

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Parking Garage Graphics

PROVIDING S OL UTION S F OR TH E B U I LT E NV I RO NM E NT

N E W YORK L AW S CHO O L New York Law School initiated an expansion program with a new nine-story, 235,000 sq. ft. academic building featuring classrooms, dining facilities, offices, and a library. The main building identification is a large-scale logotype fabricated in perforated aluminum that vertically ascends the building exterior.

This project features a 32-ft. high, two-story donor wall comprised of 200 suspended cast acrylic prisms, environmental graphics, and wayfinding signage. Designed by Poulin + Morris Inc. 25 Drydock Avenue Boston, Massachusetts 02210

phone 617.542.9620 fax 617.951.0777

10611 Satellite Boulevard Orlando, Florida 32837

phone 407.856.9661 fax 407.856.9617

27 West 24th Street, Suite 804 New York, New York 10010

phone 212.255.3226 fax 212.255.3255

www.dclboston.com

COLLABORATION MAKES PERFECT.

As a leading provider of architectural signage solutions, we are committed to having a strong relationship with the design community.

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1. Stony Brook University Designer: KMA Design

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2. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Designer: Leibowitz Gould Design 3. Medgar Evers College Designer: Poulin + Morris 4. Rockland Ballpark Designer: Workshop Design LLC 6FHQLF +XGVRQ :D\Ă€QGLQJ 3URJUDP Designer: Two Twelve Associates

no. 34

Contents

25

12

48

19

Features 15

38

You are Here?

Research psychologist and author Colin Ellard explains why we get lost, why GPS may be part of the problem, and how we can reconnect with the world around us.

25

Remembering 9/11 Two architects, two memorials, and two visions commemorate loss and foster healing.

38

Act Local, Think Global For companies that aspire to grow, expanding internationally may be an economic reality. Some veterans share 10 strategies for going global.

48

Democratic Design The renovated Oakland Museum of California gets a vibrant new identity and wayfinding program thanks to SOM and about 3,000 stakeholders.

64

68

56

Green Light Sustainable lighting strategies—and creative thinking—can lighten the load for exhibit design projects.

64

Park It A salute to projects that put the fun in functional garage graphics.

Columns 8 10 12 19 62 63 68 72

From the Editor by Jessica W. London Hot Reads Book Review The Language of Graphic Design Short List The Sensorium, 221 London, Glasnevin Cemetery Design Marketplace Ad Index Out There Rescale, Wayfinding Wallpaper, SignAgent Pro Get Lost Avant Disaster

On the cover: The New Jersey 9/11 Memorial is across the Hudson River from the National September 11 Memorial at Ground Zero.

See page 25 for features on both. (Photo: © David Sundberg/Esto)

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Publisher SEGD Services Corp.

Editor in Chief Jessica W. London jessica@segd.org

Executive Editor Ann Makowski ann@segd.org

Editor Pat Matson Knapp pat@segd.org

Design James Pittman, Design Director www.waynewilliamcreative.com

Contributors Sue Gould, Justin Molloy, Jenny Reising, Steven Rosen, Leslie Wolke

Executive and Editorial Offices 1000 Vermont Ave., NW Suite 400 Washington, DC 20005 Phone: 202.638.5555 Fax: 202.478.2286 www.segd.org

Advertising Sales Sara Naegelin 512.524.2596 sara@segd.org

Editorial, Subscriptions, Reprints, Back Issues 202.638.5555 segd@segd.org

segdDESIGN is the international journal of environmental graphic design and the Society for Environmental Graphic Design.

Opinions expressed editorially and by contributors are not necessarily those of SEGD. Advertisements appearing in segdDESIGN do not constitute or imply endorsement

by SEGD or segdDESIGN. Material in this magazine is copyrighted. Photocopying for academic purposes is permissible, with appropriate credit. segdDESIGN is published four times a year by the Society for Environmental Graphic Design. Periodical postage paid at York, PA, and additional mailing offices.

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Postmaster: Send address changes to segdDESIGN, 1000 Vermont Ave., NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20005. © segdDESIGN 2011 SSN: 1551-4595

4 segdDESIGN

2011 SEGD Program Partners Thank you to our 2011 SEGD Partners for helping make our educational programming possible.

360 Architecture 1220 Exhibits 2/90 Sign Systems AD/S Companies AGI APCO Graphics Archetype Arlon ASI Signage Innovations Avery Dennison Big Apple Visual Group Color-Ad Signs & Exhibits Creative Realities CREO Industrial Arts Daktronics Design Communications Four Winds Interactive iZone Jarob Jibestream Interactive John Anthony Signs Jones Sign Company KING Architectural Products Lexington Design + Fabrication Matthews Paint Neiman & Company Nova Polymers Pattison Sign Group Principle Group Prysm, Inc. Rivermeade Signs Signalex Inc. SignComp Sign Media Canada Sign Works Signs of Perfection Systeme Huntingdon The Taylor Group TFN Architectural Signage Urban Sign Company VGS Zip Signs

Society for Environmental Graphic Design The global community of people working at the intersection of communication design and the built environment

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2011 segdDESIGN Sponsors and Patrons Our sincere thanks to segdDESIGN’s 2011 Sponsors and Patrons!

LEAD SPONSORS PATRONS • Pentagram • Jonathan Alger, C&G Partners • Ralph Appelbaum Associates • Calori & Vanden-Eynden • Donovan/Green SPONSORS • FMG Design • APCO Graphics • Cloud Gehshan Associates • Gallagher & Associates For information about • Hunt Design sponsorship, email • Kate Keating Associates sara@segd.org

SEGD BOARD OF DIRECTORS Officers President: Wayne McCutcheon, Entro Communications, Toronto Senior Vice President: Amy Lukas, Infinite Scale Design Group, Salt Lake City Vice President Jill Ayers, Design360, New York Treasurer: Gary Stemler, Archetype Signmakers, Eagan, Minn.

Steve Bayer, Daktronics, Brookings, S.D. Jennifer Bressler, Hunt Design, Pasadena, Calif.

Teresa Cox, APCO Graphics, Atlanta Peter Dixon, Prophet, New York Oscar Fernández, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Michael Gericke, Pentagram, New York Sue Gould, Lebowitz | Gould | Design, New York Mary Grems, FMG Design, Houston Edwin L. Hofmann, Limited Brands, New York Lonny Israel, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, San Francisco Cybelle Jones, Gallagher & Associates, Bethesda Tali Krakowsky, Apologue, Los Angeles Phil Lenger, Show+Tell, New York John Lutz, Selbert Perkins Design, Chicago Tucker Trotter, Dimensional Innovations, Overland Park, Kan. Mark VanderKlipp, Corbin Design, Traverse City, Mich.

Alexandra Wood, The Holmes Wood Consultancy, London Ex Officio Gary Anzalone, Precision Signs, New York Kelly Kolar, Kolar Design, Cincinnati David Middleton, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio Steven Stamper, fd2s, Austin, Texas (Past President)

CHAPTER CHAIRS Lynne Bernhardt, Stephen Carlin – Atlanta Michele Phelan, Amy Files – Boston Jack Bryce – Brisbane , Australia Kevin Kern – Charlotte, NC Jeff Waggoner – Cincinnati Cathy Fromet – Cleveland Heather Chandler – Dallas George Lim, Jon Mischke – Denver Lucy Richards – Edinburgh Duane Farthing – Houston Steve Williams – Jacksonville, FL Rick Smith – Kansas City Cody Clark, Steve Reinisch – Los Angeles Adam Halverson – Minneapolis Michael Clarizio – Montreal Gary Anzalone – New York Justin Molloy – Norman/Oklahoma City, Okla.

John Bosio, Barbara Schwarzenbach – Philadelphia Sarah Katsikas, Lauren Kelly – San Francisco Cynthia Hall – Seattle Andrew Kuzyk – Toronto Danielle Lindsay-Chung, Daniela Pilossof – Vancouver

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no. 34

From the Editor

Acting Global O

ur story “Act Local, Think Global” (page 38) underscores the importance of taking a local approach to international expansion of design businesses.

According to our expert panel, making local connections, building local partnerships, and establishing local bases are the key strategies for going global.

That’s the approach SEGD is taking to its own international growth mission.

With a history and membership base that has long been North America-focused, we’re looking to expand our network because we believe alliances with our design colleagues around the world will strengthen our community. With exciting work in development emerging from Croatia to Africa, we have much to learn from our peers around the world.

Building on our successful International Symposium in London in September 2010, this fall we embarked on a four-city European Tour, introducing SEGD to the design communities in Amsterdam, Berlin, Lisbon, and London. In each city, we were met with enthusiasm for SEGD’s educational initiatives and resources and, based on the response we received, we plan another International Symposium in Europe in 2012 as well as an encore tour in 2013. We believe the result will be not only increased membership, but an even richer diversity in our community.

Our efforts to expand and enrich the SEGD community make sense in light of the increasing international submissions we’ve received in recent years through the SEGD Design Awards program. In fact, the program has a new name reflecting its global scope. We expect to see the world through the 2012 SEGD Global Design Awards. And we look forward to sharing the winners of the 2012 program here, in the pages of our world-class magazine.

Jessica W. London, Chief Executive Officer, SEGD

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no. 34

Hot Reads

What are You Reading?

What’s Gotten into Us? Staying Healthy in a Toxic World—McKay Jenkins “This is an important expose of how we have allowed ourselves to be immersed in toxic chemicals, and what they are doing to us: causing gradual poisonings we never suspected, birth defects and damage to our nervous systems, low birth weight and ADHD, autism and dementia, as well as near-irreparable (and costly) damage to our environment, our drinking water, and our food chain. A wake up call to us all—and I thought I was pretty well-informed!”

—SUE GOULD, LEBOWITZ|GOULD|DESIGN

Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning—George Monbiot “Insightful, relevant, and optimistic but with a clear sense of urgency. Love him or hate him, he provokes new ideas and thoughts.”

—GREG PARSONS, STANTEC

The Elegance of the Hedgehog—Muriel Barbery “Originally written in French, this book offers quiet self-reflection and philosophical thought, while balancing biting cynicism and hilarious insights. The two main characters seem completely different, hiding their true selves from everyone around them but living in the same apartment complex. Two completely forlorn characters who make you laugh and an ending that makes you cry, but with hope and brightness throughout. It’s the symmetry of Barbery’s characters, her style, and the plot that make this book magical.”

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running—Haruki Murakami “This book was quirky and honest. Starting to run more myself, it was good to read about one of my favorite authors’ fitness routine while establishing mine. Murakami gives insight into how he started writing and how he balances his passions of running and work. He also gives progress reports—achievements but mostly disappointments—and information on how he trains for marathons and triathlons.”

—YVONNE TANG, LORD CULTURAL RESOURCES

American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville —Bernard-Henri Lévy “I enjoyed reading about the superhero country—with all its contradictions, peculiarities, and ironies—that could only be ‘made in America.’ It made me wink at the thought of how authenticity—or its lack—can actually define a place and its people so thoroughly.”

—JULIE MARGOT, JULIE MARGOT VISUAL DESIGN

Flatland—Edwin A. Abbott “The main character is a square. Being a geometric shape, he lives in a flat world, where the third dimension does not exist. He narrates all the constraints and aspects of life in his two-dimensional universe. Then, as the ‘chosen one,’ he is taken by a sphere to the threedimensional world. Written in 1884—a good 20 years before Einstein’s revolutionary ideas on space and time—this is the work of a genius as it gives new ‘perspective’ to things. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. Highly recommended!”

—MATTEO ROSSO, HOLMES WOOD

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no. 34

Book Review

SEGD

On Principle(s) In his new book, Richard Poulin finds a new and engaging way to teach the language of graphic design.

BY SUE GOULD

The Language of Graphic Design: An Illustrated Handbook for Understanding Fundamental Design Principles

By Richard Poulin, Rockport Publishers, 2011 12 segdDESIGN

Fellow Richard Poulin (Poulin + Morris, New York) has created a handsome and ambitious handbook of basic graphic design principles. It is a rich selection of examples, references, aphorisms, and sidebar profiles of important graphic designers and projects with special relationships to the elements under discussion.

This is in no way a vanity book, but rather a distillation of Poulin’s many years of teaching at the School of Visual Arts and The Cooper Union, among others. It’s a serious effort to explain design principles not only in verbal language, but by using an enormous range of focused examples from designers both living and dead.

Poulin’s text seeks to clarify the often-obfuscated language used to describe and critique graphic design. It defines and is organized by 26 basic terms, such as point, line, shape, form, light, color, texture, scale, movement, space, balance, symmetry, tension, contrast, etc. This accessible and innovative organization makes it an excellent reference book.

Each section opens with a dictionary definition and a well-chosen aphorism about the term, with observations from the likes of Magritte, Walt Whitman, and a wide range of others, even Horace. (One can only speculate how Poulin must have collected these over time, and marvel at a mind that would note these as they were encountered.) Introductory discussions about the importance of each element are followed by a focused range of images demonstrating how these elements can be effectively manipulated in successful designs.

The examples form the meat of each section, drawn from the work of not only prominent designers, but lesser-known designers as well as students. Illustrations include projects ranging from stationery to posters and advertising, corporate identities, and even scribbles out of notebooks.

Three-dimensional applications include illuminated signs, exhibitions, and large-scale branding applications on vehicles and buildings.

Each section also includes an historic sidebar profile of a prominent designer, such as Sussman/Prejza’s work for the Los Angeles Olympics in the color section, or Max Huber’s innovative designs for the Monza Grand Prix posters in the section on movement.

I must confess that when I first picked up the book, I tried to randomly scan through sections to see if I could derive the titles from the examples— an unsuccessful effort except for the most obvious ones. However, once you know the topic, the selection of examples becomes clear.

With such appealing imagery throughout, I suspect few will take the time to read the main text: as we all know, design students are notoriously averse to reading (and the text continuity is interrupted in many places by changes of fonts and formats).

Ironically, my only quibbles with this volume are graphic—or rather, typographic. The table of contents is a low-contrast listing of sections in light white type on a light gray field. It’s elegant as hell, but a killer to try to read in low light. Similarly, the introduction is set as single full-width columns of very large text in the same light font, also very elegant, but the line length is uncomfortable, and not conducive to reading.

While the text is presented as the professed raison d’etre, it is really the icing on the cake. The selection of examples, with their captions, is so effective in most sections that a continuous narrative is almost redundant, putting words to what your eyes already understand.

Sue Gould is the president of Lebowitz|Gould|Design (New York) and a member of the SEGD Board of Directors.

(Editor’s note: Poulin is working on his second book, Graphic Design in the Built Environment: A 20th Century Design History, to be published in Spring 2012.)

Below: Poulin’s book is divided into chapters focused on fundamental principles of graphic design. The chapter on color cites environmental graphic design work by Sussman/Prejza (left) as well as brand identity and book cover design.

Bottom: To illustrate the principle of scale, Poulin shows the dramatic photo montage/timeline designed

by Volume Inc. for permanent exhibits at the California Academy of Sciences (right).

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no. 34

Up Close

Colin Ellard

You are Here?

Research psychologist and author Colin Ellard explains why we get lost, why GPS may be part of the problem, and how we can reconnect with the world around us.

C

olin Ellard is a research psychologist and director of the University of Waterloo’s Research Laboratory for Immersive Virtual Environments (RELIVE). He spent many years researching how animals understand their surroundings and how they use this knowledge to solve the basic problems of life, such as finding food, shelter, and sex. In recent years his focus has shifted to human wayfinding, humans’ understanding of place and space, and how their surroundings affect their feelings and behavior.

His book, You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon but Get Lost in the Mall, explores how, over centuries of innovation and in spite of (and because of) new technology, humans have lost the instinctive ability to find their way. He identifies the disconnect and illuminates how our innate talents and challenges could lead to new ways of thinking about architecture, design, and how we plan our built world.

Ellard was a keynote speaker at SEGD’s Xlab 2011: The Design of Location, November 3, 2011, in New York. He spoke recently with segdDESIGN.

“ Traditional wayfinding cultures, such as the Australian aborigines or Arctic Inuit, embed their cultures in the landscape in very literal ways. One place is connected to another by an arc of narrative, and different parts of a single place are knit together with story elements.”

Q How did you become interested in human wayfinding?

From the beginning of my career I’ve been interested in how minds, human and animal, deal with problems of space. Early on, much of my research focused on the animal realm and on fairly lofty theoretical issues related to brain evolution. Those issues still interest me, but I’ve also felt increasing desire to move from theory to practice: how can what we understand about how minds work help us build a world that’s healthier and happier?

Q You explain that humans commonly find their

way through a kind of “storytelling” approach: connecting different types of images to places with stories that link one place to another. How can this storytelling approach be leveraged in wayfinding systems?

That’s a great question. I think if you look at traditional wayfinding cultures, such as the Australian aborigines or Arctic Inuit, you’ll notice that they embed their cultures in the landscape in very literal ways. One place is connected to another by an arc of narrative, and different parts of a single place are knit together with story elements. The same kind of thing can work for the design of modern wayfinding systems. A skillful designer could find ways to join a set of graphic elements together, for example, that would amplify whatever place attachments might already be present in a neighborhood or a building. I’m no graphic designer, but I would suggest that one of the keys would be to really understand how the local culture works and to tap into that pre-existing network of connections and feelings, rather than try to overlay something completely novel and artificial on what’s there. segdDESIGN 15

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Q What do the work of Christian Nold and his

“biomaps” tell us about how to design immersive environments?

Christian Nold has done some groundbreaking work by making us more aware of how the body itself responds to different kinds of environments. He’s done this using sensors of a type that have been around for a very long time—essentially devices that can measure our levels of arousal by monitoring our sweat gland responses (the lie detector principle)—but marrying those signals with information about location derived from GPS signals.

Up Close

I think Nold’s main agenda was to find a way to make people more aware of how their surroundings affect their feelings. But those same types of devices, and others, are now appearing in greater numbers and in very small and robust formats. I think that such tools can be used to great advantage by design researchers who are trying to understand how environments affect our feelings. For example, much of environmental graphic design is concerned with managing anxiety levels by making sure that our environments are legible and that we are well oriented. Being able to monitor a person’s physiology in a very unobtrusive and non-invasive manner is a tool that has great potential as a testbed for design decisions.

I think almost everyone has a story like that, and it points to one of the limitations of GPS technology used all by itself. The best kinds of electronic wayfinding systems will be designed to encourage self-reliance. Imagine a device that not only shows us an overhead view, but also shows us how things will look from the ground as we move toward our goal, perhaps pointing out some of the salient landmarks along the way. An aid that helps us to understand our environment, rather than just give us a dot or arrow to follow, is likely to be much more effective in the long run and to keep our anxieties about disorientation well in check.

Q As you walk down streets or in airports, malls, or

We are working hard to understand some issues in wayfinding and cognition, and also on trying to understand how manipulation of the appearances of environments can affect feelings and arousal. For example, we’ve known for some time now that most people find some kind of contact with nature to be restorative and healthy, but we still don’t know exactly why this is. Some of our virtual reality experiments are designed to address this question.

hospitals, are you aware of wayfinding systems?

How effective do you generally find them? How would you improve them if you could?

I try to be as aware of such wayfinding systems as I can be—it’s an occupational obsession with me—but I think that it’s a bit like a well designed musical score in a movie. When it’s working well, you may not notice it but it’s making the journey easier for you. I think we all become acutely aware of wayfinding systems when they fail.

Q We’re already seeing location-based tools such

as GPS that help people navigate not only outdoors, but in complex indoor spaces as well.

How do you see wayfinding systems evolving with new technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality?

GPS systems can be fantastic wayfinding aids, but they’re certainly not a panacea, and they can encourage a tendency for us to ignore our surroundings. For example, a few days ago I had a meeting at the city hall in Kitchener, where I live. I drove to a parking lot that I remembered was close to city hall, but I couldn’t remember whether it was north or south of the building. So I did what many of us might do; I pulled out my phone and checked with Dr. Google. I was a bit taken aback when the display told me that the building was 50 yards away from me and I realized I was standing directly in front of it while looking down at the blue dot on my screen.

“ GPS systems can be fantastic wayfinding aids, but they’re certainly not a panacea, and they can encourage a tendency for us to ignore our surroundings.”

Q Tell us about some current work at RELIVE that

may affect human wayfinding/navigation?

One of our most exciting agendas right now is to bring the kinds of tools we use in the virtual world back into real life by using mobile platforms and sensors. For example, one of my major projects this year has been to design a study of the influence of environment on feelings and cognition on the streets of New York City. In collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum, I’ve been collecting data looking at how one’s location in the city and what is happening there influences one’s arousal levels and one’s ability to think and pay attention.

Q You also talk about the intersection of the

physical and virtual worlds, and how this may lead to challenges. How can we balance the two, mindful of where technology can lead us but also aware that we must live in the physical world and continue to make it better?

In spite of the deep penetration of location-based technologies into everyday life, we haven’t lost sight of the importance of physical place. In fact, I think there’s tremendously strong interest in good principles of placemaking in the academic world, in the world of design, and in everyday life. So I don’t think we’re in any real danger of being swept off our feet by technology.

But we do need to be mindful of the risks, and it would be good to think about how to design technology so that it can give us the environmental support we need for good wayfinding, but not dominate our experience of the street. I like Mark Weiser’s idea of calm technology—tech that supports but does not dominate our awareness or attention. I think that would be one good way of finding the balance you describe. segdDESIGN 17

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no. 34

Short List

Wish You Could Smell this Page H

ow do you make scent visible? What does smell sound like? Sephora and fragrance maker Firmenich asked experience design studio The Department of the 4th Dimension (Los Angeles) to transform the emotional alchemy of scent into a physical experience at The Sensorium, a pop-up “scent museum” just around the corner from Sephora’s new New York flagship.

After passing through a scentdeprivation chamber, visitors experience two multisensory exhibits. For Life at First Scent, The D4D collaborated with famous perfumiers to create short films that bring their earliest scent memories to life.

Large-scale video projection in a forced-perspective hallway combine with six original fragrances to immerse visitors in the memories of 6:01AM, Bacon & Biscuits, Spring is Back, Summer Vacation, and other scent stories.

Lucid Dreams explores the very personal nature of fragrance. When visitors sniff from sculpted-flower orbs that contain sensors, sounds and images on custom rearprojection screens are activated based on the velocity and sound of their sniff. Getting the experience right required extensive R&D but, like the fragrances it celebrates, will create lasting memories.

(Photos: The D4D)

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Short List

White Stripes T

he striped façade of 221 London, a recently refurbished office building in Canberra, Australia, makes a strong impression in the city’s central business district. For developer Molonglo, Frost Design created a bold blackand-white graphics program that includes a custom font and a supersized building address that weaves in and out of the facade like a ribbon.

Inside, graphics fold and overlap, using positive and negative space to create drama at entry points and in public areas.

Floor identities are oversized ribbon-like numbers. Black-andwhite striped symbols and wall treatments reinforce the scheme.

Other signage includes a foyer directory and café signage as well as identification, directional, statutory, and operational signage. (Photos: Frost Design)

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University of Michigan sharpening their Image…Café University of Michigan used Sunrise tickers to jazz up their newly renovated North Quad building. Recessed and tipped on end, the L-shaped tickers blend into the architecture of the space. Twitter feeds, news headlines and weather updates add a techy flare to their Image Café where students lounge and study.

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no. 34

Short List

For the Living W

ith its iconic stone walls and watchtowers, Glasnevin Cemetery is Ireland’s largest cemetery and the final resting place for many of the country’s notable figures.

It also contains the world’s first cemetery museum, designed to celebrate and engage visitors in its colorful history.

For Dublin firm Martello Media, the project demanded a sensitive but engaging approach.

Martello struck the right balance using dramatic lighting, interactives that allow visitors to access a rich cemetery archive, and an experience sequence designed as a journey from darkness to light.

Visitors start in the basement with an evocative underground exploration of the graveyard, gradually ascending to luminous galleries where they can access layered interactives,

some built into gravestones.

A 10-meter-long interactive timeline records the lives of 200 of the cemetery’s most notable residents. And the museum’s final experience, the Prospect Gallery, offers an elevated panorama of the cemetery and encourages visitors to explore the tranquil landscape.

(Photos: Peter Whittaker)

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The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 endure as indelible visions of chaos, destruction, and unimaginable loss. About 2 billion people—one-third of the world’s population—watched the day’s tragedies as they unfolded live on television and online.

While the world watched in the days and weeks afterward, two architects in New York City began to draw.

“It was my way of getting it out, Two architects, two visions, and two memorials commemorate what was seared in my memory,” loss and foster healing. BY LESLIE WOLKE says Frederic Schwartz, principal of Frederic Schwartz Architects and longtime SoHo resident. He began by drawing the collapsing towers and over time, “I started to redraw the skyline. I started to draw what should happen,” he says.

A couple of miles away in his home on the Lower East Side, Michael Arad, two years out of architecture school and employed at the New York City Housing Authority, began to sketch “a pair of twin voids tearing open the surface of the Hudson River. This inexplicable, enigmatic image seemed to capture a sense of rupture, loss, and persistent absence and stayed in my imagination.”

A decade of consequences and contemplation have passed and those early drawings by Schwartz and Arad have transformed from paper musings into the two most profound memorials to the victims of September 11th: Arad’s National September 11 Memorial at the World Trade Center and, across the Hudson River, Schwartz’ New Jersey 9/11 Memorial in Liberty State Park. Both were dedicated and opened to the public on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

The purpose of modern memorials is two-fold: to commemorate the grief of victims’ families today and to convey the gravity of their loss to future generations. It is a daunting assignment to design for both of these intimate and immortal roles, and even more challenging to do so within the vortex of political, social, and cultural distress unleashed by these attacks.

Both Schwartz and Arad entered this vortex through public competitions. For the 2003 WTC site memorial competition sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Arad submitted his concept for the twin voids, named Reflecting Absence. After six weeks of deliberations by the 13-member jury and some modifications to the concept, his design was chosen as the winner among the eight finalists.

In 2004, Frederic Schwartz Architects submitted a memorial design entitled Empty Sky to the New Jersey 9/11 Memorial Foundation public call for entries. The concept, a pair of steel walls framing the view of where the towers once stood, was unanimously selected by the foundation’s Family & Survivor Committee.

REMEMBERING

9/11

Leslie Wolke, SEGD (leslie.wolke@gmail.com) is a consultant who specializes in wayfinding technology and interactive donor recognition systems.

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Intimacy and Immortality Arad’s vision honors individual loss and creates a “latticework of human meaning.”

rom his earliest sketch to the fully realized incarnation, Michael Arad envisioned Reflecting Absence as a plaza framing the two sunken pools that articulate the footprints of the towers. Streaming down the granite-clad walls from each side is a curtain of water, bathing the plaza with the constant sound of rushing water. From the bottom of the waterfalls, the water drifts toward the center, where it drops into what appears to be a bottomless chasm.

Outlining each tower’s footprint is a bronze parapet, angled outward and bearing the names of the 2,983 victims—including those of the three attacks on 9/11 as well as those from the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. The organization of these names presented the most charged and complex challenge of the entire project. Arad remembers asking, “How could we arrange the names of the victims to reflect this terrible and enormous toll, while still honoring the individual and unique aspects of each and every loss?”

Early on, Arad and his design team dismissed common patterns of categorizing names on memorials; date of death, as in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, did not apply in these tragic

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circumstances. Another standby—alphabetical listings—would not honor the individuality and singularity of each person.

Knowing that 40 percent of the victims’ families had no remains to bury, Arad grasped that this memorial would be used as a gravesite for grieving and remembering. The act of scanning an alphabetized column, such as one that would include the three people named “Michael Lynch,” would diminish that sense of intimate connection to a single person.

In his effort to achieve a “deep, personal, particular meaning in the arrangement” of names, Arad created the concept of “meaningful adjacencies.” Following the wishes of the families, the names would be collected in nine groups: the two towers, the four flights, the Pentagon, the 1993 victims, and the first responders by department/division. Victims in the north tower would be recognized on the north pool panels, and victims in the south tower at the south pool. Within each group, names would appear to be randomly placed in staggered lines across five rows. The randomness paralleled the indiscriminate and arbitrary killing of these individuals.

Above: Streaming down the graniteclad walls of the reflecting pools are curtains of rushing water that drop into what appears to be a bottomless chasm. (Photo: Joe Woolhead) Top left: Just two years out of architecture school on 9/11, Michael Arad drew this sketch of a pair of twin voids where the World Trade Center towers had been. For the memorial foundation, his concept captured the sense of rupture, loss, and absence the tragedy evoked.

(Image: Handel Architects) Left: An aerial rendering shows how closely the realized site resembles Arad’s initial vision. The wedgeshaped building is Norwegian architect Snøhetta’s Memorial Pavilion. Landscape architecture was by Peter Walker and Partners.

(Image: Squared Design Lab)

Knowing that 40 percent of the victims’ families had no remains to bury, Arad grasped that this memorial would be used as a gravesite for grieving and remembering. segd segdDESIGN DESIGN 27

A statistician hired by the memorial foundation concluded that there was zero chance of completing the puzzle to everyone’s satisfaction.

But within this seemingly haphazard arrangement, Arad wanted to create a more intimate narrative for those who grieved the most. “I decided that we should reach out to family members of the deceased and ask if they wanted the names of their loved ones to be arranged adjacent to other victims that the deceased had known during their lives.”

“A latticework of human meaning”

In 2009, with Mayor Bloomberg’s help, the wishes of the families were collected; more than 1,600 requests poured in. Requests to connect brothers, fathers, and daughters, fiancés, friends, colleagues, and strangers who tried to help each other on September 11—hundreds of stories and personal relationships to be honored.

At the time, no one knew whether it was logistically possible to accommodate all the requests, especially within the nine groups as already defined. A statistician hired by the memorial foundation concluded that there was zero chance of completing the puzzle to everyone’s satisfaction.

That’s when Jake Barton, founder of Local Projects (New York), got a call from the foundation. His media design firm was 28 segdDESIGN

Below: Outlining each tower’s footprint is a bronze parapet, angled outward and bearing the names of the 2,983 victims. Arad chose Optima Medium Standard as the font for victims’ names.

The names are cut through 1/2-in. bronze panels illuminated from below. (Photo: Joe Woolhead)

already working with Thinc Design (New York) on the exhibits for the National September 11 Memorial Museum that will open in 2012, directly beneath the memorial plazas (see sidebar). His expertise in storytelling, digital media, and complex content qualified his firm to address the name-adjacency challenge, and his team took on the project with conviction. It was their task to render an undifferentiated list of names into what Barton described as “a latticework of human meaning.”

Local Projects created a complex algorithm that sorted the victims’ names by affinity: police officers near other police officers, victims in the South Tower with their co-workers, passengers on the flights, etc. A drag-and-drop software tool tracked each request and maintained a tally of how close any composition came to fulfilling every adjacency request. Users of the tool could “pick up” a name, place it in a new location among the rows and panels, and see whether a given move improved or reduced the percentage of met requests.

With a deadline to complete the memorial by the 10th anniversary—and without knowing whether 100 percent of requests could indeed be fulfilled within the geographic and physical constraints of the design, Arad and Barton undertook

NATIONAL SEPTEMBER 11 MEMORIAL PROJECT AREA 8 acres PROJECT COST $575 million CLIENT National September 11 Memorial & Museum LOCATION New York DESIGN TEAM Handel Architects LLP (design architect): Michael Arad (designer/partner in charge); Gary Handel (principal); Amanda Mangold-Sachs, David Margolis, Robert Jamieson, Cristobal Canas, Garrett Brignoli (design team) Peter Walker and Partners (landscape architecture), Aedas (associate architect), Snøhetta (Pavilion architect) CONSULTANTS Local Projects (names arrangement software, mobile app, Memorial Guide), DEW Inc. (fountain design), Fisher Marantz Stone (lighting designer), Lord Cultural Resources (museum planning)

parallel high-tech and low-tech sprints. “It was a tremendous gamble,” Arad remembers. Having expressed his intentions to the families, “we became engaged in months and months of hard work” to make it all happen.

On the high-tech route, foundation members and Arad’s team used Barton’s software tool to program the North Pool. At the same time, Amanda Mangold-Sachs, an associate at Arad’s firm Handel Architects, began to compose the South Pool by hand by herself. Using quarter-scale cards that included the person’s name, group, and adjacency requests, she spent months shifting and sorting the arrangements on 2-1/2 ft. racks. “It was a labor of love that took patience and perseverance,” Arad remembers.

Both the high-tech and low-tech efforts succeeded in fulfilling all the requests; the composition was as complete as what Arad called “an endless ribbon with a regular grain, or visual density.” The names are cut through 1/2-in. bronze panels illuminated from below at night. Arad selected the font Optima Medium Standard and his designers modified it into a stencil to accommodate the counters (the enclosed negative space within letters like “a” and “b”) with discrete pinned supports. Group names are CNC-milled as raised and attenuated prismatic letters.

To find an individual’s name, visitors to the memorial can get directions from the Memorial Guide website and mobile app designed by Local Projects, as well as from several onsite kiosks that use Local Projects’ interface design.

Beyond their role in name arrangement and wayfinding for the memorial, Barton and his firm have taken on the role of storytellers and archivists of September 11. In partnership with StoryCorps, the nonprofit national oral history project, Local Projects has developed what Barton describes as “storytelling engines—participatory interfaces that are open and dynamic, that correspond to the fluid and interdependent nature of storytelling.” Their efforts to record, catalog, and publish stories about the events are to serve a universal mission: “tell the enormity and diversity of the tragedy—to dimensionalize each individual and their story.” People will interact with this living archive, and add to it, on websites, apps, and in the museum when it opens next year.

In a project full of challenges, one of the most complex was finding a meaningful way to arrange the 2,983 victims’ names.

Arad committed to a system of “meaningful adjacencies,” and he worked with victims’ families to ensure names appeared within affinity groups such as the 1993 WTC bombing, Flight 93, the North or South Towers, or first responders. (Photo: Joe Woolhead)

Local Projects created a complex algorithm that sorted victims’ names by affinity. A drag-and-drop tool tracked each request and maintained a tally of how close any composition came to fulfilling every adjacency request. (Image: Local Projects)

Local Projects’ mobile app allows users to search for victims’ names and listen to stories about some of the victims. (Image: Local Projects)

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Empty Sky Across the Hudson River, New Jersey poignantly remembers loss and refuge.

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ust west of the tip of lower Manhattan and at the confluence of the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, Liberty State Park played many roles in the events of September 11 and its aftermath. During the attacks, Jersey City residents and office workers gathered on the shore, witnessing the burning and collapse of the towers. Soon after, dozens of private, commercial, and Coast Guard boats shuttled evacuees from lower Manhattan to the docks at the park in the largest boatlift ever undertaken. In the following days and weeks, volunteers manned a family assistance center in the former railroad terminal on the grounds while spontaneous memorials sprung up at the waters’ edge.

The families of the New Jersey victims of the attacks organized as the New Jersey 9/11 Memorial Foundation and chose this site to honor their dead. In June 2004, they selected Frederic Schwartz Architects’ design, Empty Sky. Two 210-ft.-long, 30-ft. high walls shelter and frame a 12-ft.wide granite path. The board-formed concrete exteriors of the walls cut through a gently sloping hill planted with flowering cherry trees on axis with the memorial. Marine-grade stainless steel panels brushed to an ethereal matte finish make up the interior walls. Schwartz believes that stainless steel is the optimum material for modern memorials: “It reflects the light of the day and the finish is neither too shiny nor too flat.”

Below: Frederic Schwartz’ earliest sketches for the New Jersey 9/11 Memorial were of three distinct and interrelated elements: the land, the river, and the city. In the days following 9/11, dozens of private,

Left: The corridor formed by the walls of the memorial draws the eye, like a diagrammatic one-point perspective, to the cavity in the Manhattan skyline where the twin towers once stood. (Photo: © David Sundberg/Esto)

NEW JERSEY SEPTEMBER 11 MEMORIAL

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Above: The site and its orientation toward the towers was the starting point for Schwartz’ design. (Image: Frederic Schwartz Architects)

PROJECT AREA 2 acres PROJECT COST $11.5 million CLIENT State of New Jersey LOCATION Liberty State Park, Jersey City, N.J. DESIGN Frederic Schwartz Architects (architects and planners) DESIGN TEAM Frederic Schwartz, FAIA (principal), Jessica Jamroz (associate)

commercial, and Coast Guard boats shuttled evacuees from lower Manhattan to the docks at the park in the largest boatlift ever undertaken. (Image: Frederic Schwartz Architects)

CONSULTANTS Alexander Isley Inc. (graphic design), Ove Arup & Partners Consulting Engineers PC (structural engineers), Arnold Associates (landscape architects), Langan Engineering & Environmental Services (civil engineering and permitting), Fisher Marantz Stone (lighting), VJ Associates (cost consultant), Tender Creative LLC (computer programming) FABRICATION Crystal Metalworks (stainless steel fabrication, finishing, installation), Great Lakes Etching & Finishing (etching)

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Left: Schwartz and Isley wanted to make the names as large as possible. At a cap height of 3.6 in., the names may be the largest found on a civilian memorial.

Isley chose ITC Bodoni 12 for its powerful verticals and rounded serifs. (Photos: © David Sundberg/Esto)

To frame the Empty Sky of its title, the corridor shaped by these walls draws the eye, like a diagrammatic one-point perspective, to the cavity in the Manhattan skyline where the twin towers once stood. The site and its orientation toward the towers was the starting point for Schwartz’ design.

“The empty space left by the towers is as significant as the towers themselves,” he explains. With 1 World Trade Center (formerly the Freedom Tower) rising to the north, this area of the horizon is still void.

A single row of 4- by 8-ft. stainless steel panels at eye level bears the 476 names of the New Jersey victims in random order. Schwartz and his graphic design partner Alexander Isley (Alexander Isley Inc., Redding, Conn.), labored over the meticulous composition, starting with the intention to make the names as large as possible.

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At dusk and at dawn, an otherworldly halo effect touches the memorial. As the sun hits the parallel steel walls, it reflects radiant arcs that move ahead of visitors as they walk along the granite path. (Photo: Frederic Schwartz Architects)

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Schwartz and Isley also knew victims’ families and friends would want to make charcoal rubbings of the names. The ITC Bodoni also provides sufficient contrast to make rubbings legible. (Photo: Frederic Schwartz Architects)

No Day Shall Erase The National September 11 Memorial Museum will provide a first-person encounter with the events of 9/11, but won’t try to recreate the “there and then.”

On

September 12, 2012, a year after the opening of the National September 11 Memorial, the National September 11 Memorial Museum will open in a 110,000-sq.-ft. space 70 ft. below ground, directly beneath the memorial plaza. Designing exhibits for the museum required a delicate balance of journalism and curation, immersion and avoidance.

Tom Hennes, principal of lead exhibition design firm Thinc Design, spoke with segdDESIGN about the project.

Q Your audience will range

“Presenting the inscriptions at a large size forces you to contemplate, to pay attention,” explains Isley. At a cap height of 3.6 in., the names may be the largest found on a civilian memorial. At design reviews with the foundation, Schwartz presented the full composition with every name in place. “I’m very proud that the names are so big—these are individuals and now they will never be lost.”

Isley chose ITC Bodoni 12 for its powerful verticals and rounded serifs. “It softens the expression of such a cool material [steel] with its curvature and nuance while providing the contrast required for readability and charcoal rubbings.”

Challenges and revelations

From concept to construction, Fred Schwartz faced a number of challenges: from opposition against the location of the memorial by a local park group to the spiraling costs of stainless steel during the worldwide building boom. “I felt like a commodities broker watching prices. They dropped during the crash in 2008 and we were lucky to come in under budget.”

While Schwartz captained every aspect of the project, he was caught by surprise by one remarkable phenomenon near the end of construction. At dusk and at dawn, he describes, “a miraculous and blinding halo of light touches each name.” When the sun is just right, the parallel steel walls reflect its light in radiant arcs that move ahead of the visitor as they walk along the path. “A lot of people lost their faith that day, but the way it touches every name,” Schwartz trailed off, “there’s a religious quality.”

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from people who knew a victim or escaped the towers, to those who simply have vivid memories of the day, to (in later years) people who weren’t even born when it happened.

How did you balance that in your design?

As exhibition designers we know that what people do in museums and what they learn and what they take away depends largely on their perspective going in—their entering narrative, if you will. So you always need to provide a variety of entry points into any subject. But with this museum, the challenges were magnified by the social trauma and the immediacy. You not only have to deal with the cognitive aspect of people’s interest, but also the emotional resonance of the day, which likewise includes a wide range.

From a design perspective, that means understanding that some of these positions and entry points are contradictory.

The visitor who had no personal connection to the event may want a more immersive experience, while for someone who escaped from the rubble or lost a family member, the last thing they want to be exposed to is a re-experience.

This means both providing a range of experiences and giving

visitors the means to regulate their own experience. If there is difficult material, we can’t shy away from it, but we must be sensitive to its difficulty. And we need to give people choices to opt out of areas that might be painful or traumatic.

Q Can you give us an

example of this?

A really basic example is the entrance to the museum. Most people will land at the main exhibit level near the East Chamber (Memorial Hall). It has a big quote on the wall—forged out of steel from the wreckage— that reads, “No day shall erase you from the memory of time” [from Virgil’s Aenid]. And there is a sign that lets visitors know that behind the wall is a repository of unidentified remains from the attack. It’s a very emotionally laden place and, for some people, that may be as close as they want to get to confronting the victims. There are many other instances where the content quietly announces itself, or there is actual signage that lets visitors know they can choose to experience it or not.

Q Media plays a big role

in this museum, for obvious reasons. What was your media strategy?

I asked Local Projects to join us on the team because we knew media would be monumentally important. This event was documented in a way that was unprecedented in history. It has a very palpable presence in digital form, with extensive oral histories, documentation of the sites, testimonials from families and survivors, and ongoing media attention. Media artifacts are on par with the physical artifacts in this case. The question is, what do you do with them?

NATIONAL SEPTEMBER 11 MEMORIAL MUSEUM Opening September 11, 2012 LOCATION New York CLIENT National September 11 Memorial & Museum ARCHITECTURE Aedas (museum architects), Snøhetta (pavilion) EXHIBITION DESIGN Thinc Design (lead exhibition designers), Local Projects (media) CONSULTANTS Lord Cultural Resources (institutional planning) IMAGES Thinc Design with Local Projects

One of our earliest breakthroughs was that the experience of the museum in the “here and now”—the visitors’ experience with this place— should not try to replicate the “there and then.” It should be completely distinct from the events of 9/11.

Our challenge was to use media to create a very personal, measured experience but not attempt to recreate the events of that day.

Q What is your basic palette

for the exhibition design?

The palette is very simple. In the museum are the remains of the tower footprints, some of the original slab, the slurry wall, and other physical remains, visible and exposed and accessible.

From our perspective, it was very important that we didn’t try to embellish what’s there. We make it visible. We accord it as straightforward a presentation as possible, not putting a gloss on it.

The two most common materials on the site are steel and concrete, so we’re using them too. We allow concrete to be concrete, usually in a relatively unfinished form. Reforged steel letters and hot-rolled steel provide a warmer aesthetic, the notion that a human hand was involved.

We wanted to create a simple formal language that would present the objects in the most unadorned, straightforward way possible, while retaining a sense of warmth, reassurance, and strength.

Q What were the physical

challenges of designing in this underground space?

Aedas’ space design is very clever and highly textural. Spaces vary widely, from tall slender volumes up to 60 ft. high to relatively low ceiling heights of 9.5 ft., as well as more conventionally scaled galleries that are essentially found space under the memorial pools and between them. The stepped depressions created by the pools above form large volumetric shapes that are the exact size of the former tower, hovering about 12 ft. above the floor. We could think of this variety as a challenge or an opportunity, and we have found it to be the latter.

Above left: In some cases, physical and media artifacts merge in the exhibition. Here, a huge chunk of steel from the World Trade Center is used as a projection surface.

Above: The foundations of the World Trade Center towers are prominent in the museum design by architects Aedas. Visitors will be able to see the original column bases and concrete footings that supported the towers.

Below: The In Memoriam exhibit features backlit portraits of the 2,983 victims. Inside, interactive tables allow visitors to learn more about the victims’ lives.

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www.segd.org

Act Local, Think Global For many design businesses, international growth is a “survive-and-thrive” strategy.

The challenges can be daunting, but the rewards can be great. A group of veterans share 10 key strategies for going global.

Patrick Gallagher, Gallagher & Associates

BY PAT MATSON KNAPP

It’s

no news flash that the world is indeed becoming flat. Globalization is an economic and cultural reality. And many design businesses that have traditionally focused their efforts on North American markets are finding the soil may no longer be as fertile as it once was.

“In the next 10 years, the landscape will change for all of us, both those selling services and those buying them,” predicts Patrick Gallagher, principal of museum planning and exhibition design firm Gallagher & Associates. “If you aren’t pursuing new markets and new relationships, you may not be able to ensure your company’s survival.”

Gallagher chaired SEGD’s Eighth Annual Symposium on Exhibition and Experience Design (August 11-13, 2011), themed “Act Locally, Think Globally.” To explore the challenges and opportunities of working internationally, Gallagher invited a cast of consultants, clients, and design firm leaders who have navigated the headwaters of international expansion and were willing to share what they’ve learned. Design firm principals Jan Lorenc, David Vanden-Eynden, and Tracy Turner, and designer Ericka Hedgecock also shared their insights on working internationally. Collectively, these thought leaders amassed 10 key strategies for international growth.

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Rick Lincicome, AECOM

Jan Lorenc, Lorenc + Yoo Design

Brad King, Lord Cultural Resources

Hernán Saurit, Gallagher & Associates Asia

Tracy Turner, Tracy Turner Design

1

Act local. For the largest architectural practice on the planet, going global means thinking local. AECOM’s international growth strategy follows the philosophy created by EDAW founder Joe Brown, whose company merged with AECOM in 2010. “Go local, regional, national, and global. And keep doing it over and over again,” says Rick Lincicome, executive vice president and principal of the Planning Design and Development business line at AECOM. AECOM identifies emerging geographies, analyzes the hierarchy of need, and determines where its services can fit in. This approach requires the company to make local connections, establish local partnerships and bases of operation, and be culturally aware. “To be relevant, you have to be culturally aware.

That’s why it’s crucial to have a local base.”

“Follow the relationships, not the competitions,” advises Lincicome.

“Eighty-five percent of our work comes from small projects, and we get those by making phone calls, making connections, every day over many years.” Almost half of AECOM’s 45,000 employees work outside the U.S. Lincicome also advises going global with your existing clients and partners as they expand internationally. “For example, we’re seeing globalization of the U.S. government. We’re doing lots of work for U.S. government in Guam and the Far East.”

David Vanden-Eynden, Calori & Vanden-Eynden Design Consultants

Ericka Hedgecock, ESI Design/Ralph Appelbaum Associates

“We’re presently focused on Asia because that’s where our best opportunities have emerged. If you’re risk-averse, the U.S. is where you want to be. But if you’re ready to work really, really hard, Asia is where it’s at.”

—JAN LORENC

2

Track economic growth. For

large design and planning firms like AECOM and consultants such as Lord Cultural Resources, tracking economic growth is the most effective way to focus international marketing and growth efforts.

Brad King, vice president, management consulting for Lord Cultural Resources (Toronto), the heritage, cultural, and arts consultants working in 49 countries worldwide, says GDP was solidly concentrated in North America and Europe in the 1980s, but has been shifting eastward since then.

By 2050, it will be focused in Asia, particularly on Western China.

King’s firm also tracks the progress of the world’s largest cities. Today 380 of the world’s top 600 cities in GDP are in developed countries and 220 are in developing countries. By 2025, the

pendulum will swing in the opposite direction: only 130 of the top 600 cities will be in the developed world, while 470 will be in developing nations.

“We’ve grown up in North America with the idea of western hegemony, but I’m convinced we’re in the middle of a major sea change,” notes King. “These developing countries are getting richer all the time, and the development of new cultural institutions is following the growth of GDP.” AECOM monitors growth in the world’s cities, particularly in the developing world. The population of Shenzhen, China, for example, has grown 3,000% percent in the last 30 years.

“In this exploding growth, you need to identify the hierarchy of needs that will arise and identify where your company fits in,” Lincicome advises.

Gallagher & Associates Asia, a subsidiary of Gallagher & Associates (Silver Spring, Md.) completes its Asian projects with the help of local offices in Shanghai and Singapore. China is investing heavily in preservation of its wetlands, and the National Wetland Museum of China near Hangzhou is the first museum dedicated to these important natural resources. Gallagher was responsible for the museum planning and exhibition design. (Photo: Johnny Ma, Gallagher & Associates)

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3

Recognize that cultural and educational improvements follow the wealth. The

explosion of high-profile cultural institutions in the Middle East illustrates the basic premise that where there is wealth, cultural and educational improvements will follow. Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island cultural district, the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim, the Performing Arts Centre by Zaha Hadid, and the Louvre Abu Dhabi by Jean Nouvel are all part of a strategy to promote tourism in this city-state.

“Abu Dhabi has 9 to10 percent of world’s known oil reserves. Its leaders are thinking ahead to when the oil dries up or the demand decreases, and planning to be a major cultural hub for the Middle East,” says King. “They’re looking at economic diversification through tourism development, and you will see this trend spreading.”

Educational improvements will also follow, he notes. “In Saudi Arabia, for example, the current educational system is rote and Koran-based. They need to educate and develop their youth—they have a very young population—in order to make progress.” Projects like the King Abulaziza Center for World Culture in Dharan are part of this trend.

As emerging economies continue to grow, these nations will also begin to promote ideological or political goals—a trend illustrated by a new museum in Patna, India. Two millennia ago, Patna was the cultural capital of India, home of the founder of Buddhism, and the place where the Kama Sutra was written.

Today, it is the poorest state in India, with the lowest literacy rate in the country.

A progressive state government wants to reclaim its glory days, and believes a world-class museum will help.

Projects in Asia often come with big budgets and a high degree of creative freedom. Lorenc + Yoo’s work for Vanke, China’s largest real estate developer, includes this resort, spa, and villas in Guangzhou, China. The project included branding, wayfinding, entry features, and site sculpture. (Photos: Lorenc + Yoo Design)

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“In previous years, being a U.S.-based EGD firm was an advantage. Some Asian clients still like the bragging rights of having a Western design team but that is diminishing as local design firms hone their skills.”

—DAVID VANDEN-EYNDEN

4

Understand the financial and legal hurdles. As any firm

that has investigated doing business internationally knows, the financial and legal challenges can seem overwhelming. Draconian tax and employment laws, complex banking regulations, the need to limit financial risk, and even the potential for political regime change or revolution can be major issues.

“A lot of our business is with governments, so that seems low risk.

But we also know that governments can default. To hedge your risk, it’s worthwhile looking into securing foreign receivables,” says King.

International clients may also want guarantees that your company is financially stable. And you may not be able to command as high a percentage of upfront fees as you would like. When King’s firm was hired by a client in India, after an extensive process, “they agreed to pay us 10% up front but wanted a bank guarantee of the same amount.”

Lincicome cautions to never proceed with work unless and until a contract is in hand and the up-front payment is made.

“Get it or don’t go ahead.”

But in China, cautions Jan Lorenc, principal of Lorenc + Yoo Design (Atlanta), projects can be so fast-paced that “you may not have a contract in place before you are finished designing. If you choose not to begin designing before a contract, you will not get the job.”

He adds, “I’m not sure if a contract really matters because if you team up with the wrong client you may not get paid. Legal action is not worth it. This

means we must finance our operations internally when taking on work overseas.

And regardless of the situation, payment will always be three to six months behind.

And if there is an economic collapse like in Dubai, you may also need to be prepared to lose your fee altogether or have to accept much less than was billed.”

Before going in, you should also be aware of the local tax implications for your corporation, and for individuals.

Some countries have prohibitively high withholding tax rates. “Malaysia was 20% for a Canadian company for a while,” King notes. In India, tax status changes according to the number of permanent employees in the country. And if you set up an office, you may be liable for double taxation: both in that country and in your home office.

The bottom line: do your homework.

If you company lacks the resources to do the research, hire someone familiar with the local laws, tax structure, contracts protocol, and banking system.

And a final word of caution from Lincicome: “Learn how to negotiate, and walk away from bad business.”

Gallagher & Associates worked with architects SmithGroup on the Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center in France. The project was for the American Battle Monuments Commission, a U.S government agency that maintains 24 World War I and II cemeteries worldwide. (Photos: Guillame Murat)

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5

Understand the human resource challenges. Human resources

are another huge issue. Who will actually do the work? Will you fly your staff in for short periods of time, or work with a local firm? Is it worthwhile to establish a project office for one project? Or are the opportunities so awesome that you may want to incorporate in that country? What is the cost to your employees in terms of the stress of travel, time away from home and office, and productivity?

The answers depend on the particular project, of course. For very large, longterm projects, clients often require staff in residence. “The benefits are tremendous both for the firm and the individual because there are so many things you cannot learn as a fly-in consultant,” says Gallagher. “This can be an amazing growth opportunity for you and your staff, and better prepares your company to work in other cultures.”

Lorenc + Yoo Design is so committed to its work in China that it has hired a Mandarin-speaking architect/designer who works from the firm’s Atlanta office but travels with Lorenc on every trip to China. “It’s crucial that the person 42 segdDESIGN

translating also understands the language of design.”

Having employees physically in place overseas brings another set of challenges: visa requirements, innoculations, local laws and customs, and housing to name just a few. In addition to its headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., and an office in San Francisco, Gallagher’s firm has offices in Singapore and Shanghai. In five years, he predicts 30% to 50% of his firm’s work will be overseas.

Ericka Hedgecock, who now works for ESI Design from its New York offices, spent two years in Ralph Appelbaum Associates’ Beijing office, working primarily on the China State Shipbuilding Corporate Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Learning Mandarin and experiencing China’s unique cultural and business challenges were life-changing for her. “China is a complex machine, rapidly changing and morphing, and I found myself constantly engaged and stimulated,” says Hedgecock. “A major challenge was finding balance between work and personal time in an environment that is constantly in flux.”

For the Azia Center, a high rise in Shanghai’s rapidly developing Pudong financial district, Calori & Vanden-Eynden created a stylish logotype and brand identity and signage elements that complement its sleek, crystalline design (by Kohn Pederson Fox Associates).

6

Partner strategically. For

many companies, especially smaller firms, finding the right partnerships is the most important strategy for working internationally.

“By finding good partners, you can leapfrog some of the challenges and, while the process may be slower than pursuing work as a prime contractor, the results will come,” says Gallagher.

Gallagher lived in Singapore in the early 1980s and maintained the connections he made there. “Those relationships allowed me to build new connections, establish banking and legal connections, and have a leg up in the real estate market. We started with a Calori & Vanden-Eynden created layered, fanshaped signage to reinforce architectural cues at the massive new international exposition center in Suzhou, China, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The super-sized primary site identification sign pylons, more than 80 ft. high, match the scale of the complex. (Photos: Robert Frost/SOM)

joint venture office and later purchased it outright and became a wholly owned subsidiary.”

“Partnering is definitely the way to go for a firm of our size,” says David VandenEynden, principal of Calori & VandenEynden Design Consultants (New York).

“Larger firms can more easily absorb a money pit like a branch office.”

Tracy Turner, Tracy Turner Design (New York) says most of her work is now international, resulting from strong and longstanding relationships with architects like I.M. Pei and Cesar Pelli, as well as with developers. “Of course everything we do is about relationships, and providing good work that sustains those relationships.” She lived in India for three years in the late 1990s, “and I was able to develop some strategic partnerships while I was there.”

Cultivating local partners has been Lorenc + Yoo’s primary strategy for international growth. After initial assignments in South Korea, the firm has

Working with long-time collaborator I.M. Pei, Tracy Turner Design (New York) completed a broad range of design services for the Suzhou Museum in Suzhou, China, including branding, signage, and exhibition graphics. (Images: Tracy Turner Design)

gone on to do work in the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Japan, and China.

Local partners provide key local connections, are helpful in translating and decoding the language, and serve as local content experts. Lorenc + Yoo’s Korean partners, for example, participated in the design process and construction administration for the UPS pavilion at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. “This allowed us to be there, in a sense, every day without spending months away from home.”

Forging the right alliances can be tricky, but thorough research of potential partners—including references, their experience in the local culture, and their past performance on similar projects—is essential to forging good partnerships.

segdDESIGN 43

“India is a very unique situation. They’re not quite ready to pay the fees that foreign consultants are used to getting.

But there’s a lot of money being made there and the scope and nature of projects are changing.”

—TRACY TURNER

7

Cultivate relationships, not jobs. “At the end of the day, your

clients aren’t buying design,” says Gallagher. “They’re buying service, and they want to know you’ll be there to meet their needs.”

That means committing to the proposal process fully, making serious “face time” commitments once the project is secured, and extensive travel. “But if you’re the kind of person who loves to experience new cultures and wants to give yourself and your staff room to grow, you’ll find your passion.”

Face time is extremely important to many international clients, and titles matter. “They want to know the head of the company is actively involved in the project and available to them at any time,” Gallagher adds. “Relationship building at the top is very important.” A current contract in Israel requires Gallagher to be in country once a month.

Vanden-Eynden says that while email, Skype, and video conferencing can make communication easier, there’s no substitute for “real” face time. “I once flew to Shanghai to meet with a prospective client because I knew that unless I met face-to-face with the design team and the client, I had no chance at the job. It cost thousands of dollars in travel costs and several days out of the office, but we did get the job.”

Lorenc agrees and adds another piece of advice. “Show up in person—and bring your own translator.” He also stresses the importance of connecting personally with your clients—an even more difficult task if language is a barrier. “You must share a meal, share experiences, and laugh together.”

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8

Actively develop cultural intelligence. Local manners and

customs are important, but cultural differences often operate on a deeper level than, say, bowing properly or not handing anything to anyone using your left hand.

“Sometimes clients have been educated in the West so they seem much more Westernized than they really are,” says King.

“The tendency is to let your guard down, but that is a big mistake.” He remembers asking an Asian client for feedback on a project; when he didn’t receive it, he went ahead with the concept. “It eventually came back as a complete rework,” he recalls.

“They thought it was more important for them to redo the work than to cause me to lose face. If I had been paying attention, I might have seen the signs. I was fooled because they seemed completely Westernized.”

King keeps journals while he’s traveling.

“I find that helps me think through things…why they laughed or didn’t laugh… why this worked or not…I find that personally very useful.” He also makes it a point to read local papers and watch local television and, of course, to learn a few words of the native language. “It’s a nice lubricant.”

Hernán Saurit, director of Gallagher & Associates Asia, says he has learned how deep cultural differences can go. “In China, for example, it’s so hierarchical, you are never going to make contact with the real decision-maker. Lower-level staff are sort of like the food tasters for senior management, but there’s no direct input from the top.

That results in a lot of redesign.”

Keeping staffs culturally diverse is important, he adds. “In Asia, they want the U.S. business philosophy and talent, but with a local presence. So finding the right mix of Western and Asian staff is important, and training and transfer of know-how are key.”

Ericka Hedgecock, who had worked in Italy and Finland before working in Beijing for two years with Ralph Appelbaum Associates, says that language and cultural differences can actually have a silver lining.

“Nonverbal communication is a powerful tool. Images and drawings become your best tool to break language barriers, and provide each person on your team an accessible way to share their ideas and feedback. I found this practice greatly strengthened my own design communication skills, and allowed for improved clarity in the expression of concepts and narratives.”

9

Be prepared to rethink processes and schedules.

Consulting processes and work pace vary widely from country to country, and North American standards don’t always translate across borders.

Be prepared to adapt to 24/7 operation, schedules that seem impossible by North American standards, and widely divergent consulting practices.

“We use the creative workshop as a valuable tool, but it doesn’t work in all cultures,” notes King of Lord Cultural Resources. “In some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, educational systems don’t develop creative or analytical skills, so they want to know why you’re asking their opinion!”

Linciome of AECOM says differences in specs and construction documentation can also be a major challenge. “The whole issue of schematics, design development, and construction documents doesn’t necessarily translate. It’s very countryspecific. In the Middle East, they use primarily European contractors, so the system is based on UK terminology and standards.”

Most dramatic are the tightlycondensed project schedules, particularly in China. “Although project scheduling was familiar for us in Dubai and Korea, the projects in China are four times faster.

You have to be ready to mobilize your staff for quick turnarounds,” says Lorenc.

10

Reap the rewards. While

the financial and personal investments required to do work internationally are huge, the rewards can also be significant.

High fees, generous fabrication budgets, and almost infinite creative possibilities are a few of the advantages. International credibility is another.

“International work has allowed us to work on larger projects with great visibility,” says Lorenc. “And the creative freedom is sometimes incredible.”

Yet Lorenc’s primary mission, he says, is to learn from the context and history of the places he works and travels. Gallagher agrees. For him and his employees, perhaps the richest reward is constant learning about different cultures and ways of life. That learning, he notes, makes his firm’s work better all the time.

The Shanghai National History Museum, with architecture by Perkins + Will and museum planning and exhibition design by Gallagher & Associates, will open in 2012. (Images: Gallagher & Associates)

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SEGD 2012 LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES Knowledge Area

Date

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June 7

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Visit www.segd.org for an up-to-the-minute calendar of events!!

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DEMOCRATIC DESIGN The renovated Oakland Museum of California gets a vibrant new identity and wayfinding program thanks to SOM and about 3,000 stakeholders. BY JENNY S. REISING

A

rchitect Kevin Roche created the now-iconic Oakland Museum of California as a “museum for the people.” With its three interlaced museums tucked under terraces and opening onto gardens, the three-level, cast-in-place concrete building blurred the lines between indoor and outdoor space and provided a much-needed green oasis in Oakland. Its open, porous design allowed visitors to flow freely among the galleries and courtyards and, completed in 1969, it has been hailed as a landmark example of mid-century modernism.

But 30 years later, the once-free arts, culture, and history museum was charging admission. The museum’s five entry points and hodge-podge signage system were wreaking havoc 48 segdDESIGN

on navigation. And the building itself had lost some of its original luster.

“The building is both a blessing and a curse,” says Lori Fogarty, OMCA’s director and CEO. “It was seen as a little tired, a little dated, really significant architecturally, but not very visible. It had a ‘best-kept-secret’ quality to it that we had to overcome.”

When Fogarty joined the museum in 2006, a $62 million master renovation plan by Mark Cavagnero Associates Architects had been underway since 1999. Having been through two previous museum renovations—one with SFMOMA and more recently with the Bay Area Children’s Museum—Fogarty immediately understood the importance of graphics in the redesign. Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP, with whom she had worked on the redesign of the Children’s Museum branding and signage, competed for the project to revamp OMCA’s identity and signage. SOM won the job and turned to Thomas Swan Sign Company—its longtime go-to fabricator/installer—for a seamless realization of its design vision.

Above and right: OMCA’s new orange identity is a nod to the Golden State and conveys a sense of change, placing emphasis on the letters “OMCA” in Benton Sans typeface to encourage use of the museum’s acronym. At the main entry, the identity appears as open-faced channel letters painted in orange and silver and studmounted to the building. (Photos: Tim Griffith)

Above: The design of the threesided, 20-ft.-tall totem at the Oak Street entry is an origamilike folded plane informed by Mark Cavagnero & Associates’ architectural concept for the museum’s $62 million addition and renovation. The sign construction is heavy-gauge ½-in. painted aluminum, with OMCA’s identity appearing as stainless-steel letters stud-mounted on each side. (Photo: Thomas Heinser)

segdDESIGN 49

Design by consensus

Before designing any wayfinding, SOM tackled the delicate challenge of creating a new identity that would speak to the museum’s historic roots yet convey change and a future-forward look. But as a museum for the people, the tricky part was gaining consensus from the various stakeholders.

“We have a lot of stakeholders and it’s part of our mission to have a strong commitment to visitor feedback and community,” Fogarty explains. The museum started by reaching out to the community, enlisting the help of Peterson Skolnick & Dodge to research the museum’s history and speaking with nearly 3,000 individuals to get their input on what OMCA’s story was and how it needed to evolve.

When SOM came onboard in 2007, they expanded on this research through additional workshops and visioning sessions with the museum board, staff, docents, and visitors. Based on the compiled research, they developed a series of concepts, presented them to the core team, and then showed them to larger circles of constituents for feedback. They went through multiple iterations using the same process while narrowing down the options.

Consensus was reached based on which design best met the criteria established from the original research.

“It was a lengthy process, but the culture of the museum is very democratic,” says Lonny Israel, associate director at SOM. “A lot of the staff has been there for a long time and they’re very invested. For the museum to reenergize and make the rebranding successful, everyone needed to be onboard.”

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Above: Working with the Landmark Commission due to the building’s landmark status, SOM’s design minimized the number of attachments used to mount the donor walls to the concrete.

(Photo: SOM)

Right: The primary donor wall along the museum’s central stair resembles abstract ivy and, like ivy, is built with growth in mind. Fourin.-square aluminum extrusions were cut in half and then into 10-in. lengths to create individual “C” channels for each donor, then painted in three shades of green to indicate gift amounts. Arranged asymmetrically, alphabetically, and in a porous pattern, the 800plus concave channels alternate between facing in toward the building and out toward viewers.

(Photos: Tim Griffith)

The color of change

In marked contrast to the museum’s previous navy blue graphics, the orange that SOM chose as the foundation for the new identity is bright and inviting, a nod to the Golden State and a warm contrast to the building’s cold concrete. As an “in-between” color, orange also conveys a sense of change, Israel says.

The use of Benton Sans typeface provides nuanced letterforms and gives the museum a flexible type palette, he adds. The letterform-driven identity spells out the museum’s name but emphasizes the letters “OMCA” to make the acronym more prevalent.

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Simplifying navigation

Once OMCA’s new identity was approved, SOM got to work on simplifying navigation through the complex structure. One of the biggest challenges was the building’s five main entry points.

Cavagnero trimmed the number of entries to three—two for the public and one for school buses only—and incorporated a stainless-steel canopy over the building’s main entrance on Oak Street to lend a sense of arrival and clearly denote the primary entry point.

SOM replaced the building’s previous entrance sign—which consisted of discreet bronze letterforms that had become obscured by overgrown landscaping—with a three-sided, 20-ft.tall painted-aluminum totem in OMCA’s new signature orange, with the new identity in stainless-steel letters. Visible from every angle, the totem reflects the folded form of Cavagnero’s architectural additions, such as the entry canopy. It is also a nod to Roche, who had originally proposed installing an entry totem when the museum opened. The OMCA identity also appears wall-mounted at the main entry in open-faced paintedaluminum channel letters.

52 segdDESIGN

Above left: Digitally printed axonometric maps on every floor simplify the open museum layout and help visitors navigate the galleries. (Photo and map: SOM)

OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA IDENTITY AND WAYFINDING

Above right: A clear, logical wayfinding system orients visitors by way of simple square panels— white for directional information and OMCA’s new signature orange for places of arrival—with extruded channel frames that reflect the new architectural insertions. (Photos: Thomas Heinser)

DESIGN Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP

CLIENT Oakland Museum of California

DESIGN TEAM Lonny Israel, Brad Thomas, Alan Sinclair (designers) ARCHITECTS Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates (original architect), Mark Cavagnero Associates Architects (renovation architect) FABRICATION Thomas Swan Signs

Mark Cavagnero & Associates relocated the ticketing office to a more visible location at the second-floor entry, and SOM created multilingual signage to appeal to the community’s diverse population. The use of stainlesssteel letters complements the museum’s new architectural finishes. (Photo: Tim Griffith)

Once inside, a clear, logical wayfinding system helps orient and direct visitors who are entering and exiting the museum at every level. The system consists of aluminum panels that fit into channels using the same folded-plane design that echoes the architect’s new insertions.

“All of the signs are based on a panel system. If a panel needs to be added, the system looks modular so it won’t appear out of place,” Israel explains. “That simplicity and rigor is also happening within the building itself.” Silver-metallic channels house paintedaluminum panels that are either white (for directional signs) or orange (for arrival signs).

The museum’s map was redesigned for visitors to easily understand the building’s unique layout, Israel says. The digitally printed axonometric maps, which appear on every floor, give an overview of the museum and guide visitors through the galleries.

Pictographic representations highlight amenities (e.g., café, retail, restrooms, and ticketing) and facilitate cross-cultural comprehension. Arrival markers in English, Chinese, and Spanish also support OMCA’s mission to embrace the community in an open manner. And dynamic signage on every level provides timely information about lectures, tours, and educational programs.

Donor delight

The museum’s wayfinding and signage program was not only well thought-out, but it was also budget-sensitive. “We knew we needed to be strategic about our impact on the building, and we didn’t have an endless amount of money,” says Israel. “So we were thoughtful about where we have larger signs (the donor wall, the entry signs, the totem) and recognized that other signs could be of modest scale and be effective through repetition and uniformity.”

The donor wall, which appears as an abstract representation of ivy, is a prime example of how SOM created stand-out signage without breaking the bank. In fact, the design resulted in a happy outcome for the museum: more donors and more opportunity to recognize lower-level donors.

“We created a rendering of the donor wall, showed it around, and OMCA got significantly more contributions because people wanted to be part of it,” says Israel. SOM had to quickly increase the size of the sign to accommodate the extra donations, but it was a good problem to have.

The 45-ft-long, painted-aluminum donor wall is impactful in multiple ways. For one, it enlivens the concrete wall on the museum’s central stair—a transitional space that has become a destination point—with three shades of bright green that indicate gift amounts. For another, the alphabetically organized wall allows room for growth, much like the ivy it is meant to represent. And the use of simple materials made it cost-effective as well.

The most difficult aspect of the donor wall was the fabrication and installation. “The donor wall had more than 800 components that scattered all the way up the wall and had to be pop-riveted together,” says Mike Roberts, vice president and owner of Thomas Swan. The concave, angled aluminum “C” channels were cut to 10-in. lengths and alternate between facing in toward the building and out toward viewers. The channels were arranged asymmetrically and in a porous pattern, fastened into eight groupings, then mounted to a rail system that is attached to the concrete wall. Working with the Landmark Commission due to the building’s landmark status, SOM developed a detail that minimized attachments to the concrete.

All the hard work that went into creating the donor wall paid off, however. “All donors are recognized equally, and there aren’t many museums where you can donate $2,500 and get on a donor wall,” Fogarty says. “And once people saw how beautiful it was, they were pointing to their names. It was a perfect reflection of what we’re trying to do.”

Getting it right

Since OMCA’s reopening in 2010, attendance has gone up—with 200,000 visitors in the first year it reopened—and people have embraced the redesign.

“The signage is 100% effective,” Fogarty says. “Visitors aren’t confused anymore, and that makes a big difference in their experience. The renovation has really captured a new freshness, relevancy, and welcoming aspect.”

Jenny Reising is a Cincinnati-based writer and editor who frequently contributes to segdDESIGN.

segdDESIGN 53

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hen trying to define my occupation to the uninitiated, I often use the analogy that light is to the eyes what music is to the ears. Rhythm, tempo, timber, and layers are my toolbox. To me, “going green” is another tool. It doesn’t mean turn down the music; it means turn it off when no one is listening and it means thoughtfully applying light to tasks, objects, surfaces, and environments.

We lighting designers are guilty out of the gate: In that instance when the lights are switched on, energy is being consumed. In that way it seems as if lighting rarely celebrates the notion of a world driven by Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Sure, the design of lighting is more than consuming electricity. Increasingly, designers and engineers seek to harness and deploy natural daylight to illuminate building spaces, but this technique is not a universal panacea. First off, it IS dark for half the day and the designated use of countless interior spaces— from museum galleries displaying sensitive artifacts to office spaces—requires carefully tuned and controlled electric lighting scenarios for the space’s function to be successfully accomplished.

So in a world dictated by legislation, building codes, LEED, clients that seek to be perceived as über-green, and simply wanting to do the right thing, what’s a lighting designer to do? As it turns out, there is a lot a lighting designer—or more precisely, a thoughtfully conceived lighting system—can do to help achieve sustainability goals.

Green Light Sustainable lighting strategies——and creative thinking——can lighten the load for exhibit design projects. BY STEVEN ROSEN

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According to the U.S. EPA, lighting consumes close to 35% of the electricity used in commercial buildings in the U.S.

Why is it important?

Let’s start by asking: Why is it important to worry about sustainable lighting? Besides the fact that scientists overwhelming agree that human activities such as burning fossil fuels to generate energy have created a continually warming climate that manifests itself in debilitating weather patterns of biblical proportion, there is also the notion of just doing the right thing. We live in tough times, and foolishly consuming electricity is both uncool and expensive.

(Like my father before me, I tend to follow my children around switching off the lights they absentmindedly leave on.)

Let’s look at that concept on a grander scale. These days, the typical amount of electricity we need to light an immersive museum environment is anywhere from 2 to 5 watts per square foot, so 30,000 square feet of exhibit space can require an impressive amount of power. It only makes sense to seek ways to reduce energy consumption without diluting the presentation.

If a tree falls in the forest…

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, lighting consumes close to 35 percent of the electricity used in commercial buildings in the U.S. So obviously it’s prudent and economical to design systems that monitor and reduce lighting use in real time.

The most widely employed techniques are systems that react to occupancy, daylight penetration, or both. Although the procedure of dimming electric light when enough daylight is present in the space is more prevalent in commercial offices, there are some instances when daylight harvesting is useful for museum and other exhibition projects—especially in lobbies and other public spaces where daylight is not the enemy of artifacts.

If during initial planning it becomes clear that visitation in a particular gallery will ebb and flow over the course of the day, it may be advantageous to develop lighting control systems that monitor occupancy so when no one is in a gallery to appreciate all that lighting, it isn’t on, or least it isn’t as bright.

A good candidate for this technology was the National Infantry Museum in Columbus, Ga. Occupancy sensors were located throughout a series of galleries to monitor visitor movement. If no movement was sensed by several interconnected motion detectors for several minutes, the gallery lights were dimmed to save energy.

As soon as motion was detected, the light gently faded back up.

An added bonus is that dimming lights also reduces cooling loads, thus saving on air conditioning costs.

Opposite: Dynamic LED color changing is typically made up of three colors: Red-Green-Blue (RGB). But this system can be limiting, as creating many colors (i.e., purple and white light) is virtually impossible. More sophisticated LED color-changing systems—such as this one used at the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial—inflate the deck of available colors to as many as seven hues, exponentially expanding the palette of resultant color mixes. (Architect: Verner Johnson. Lighting design: Available Light. Photo: Steven Rosen)

Above: At the Mariners’ Museum, a kinetic color sequence was created by using LED luminaires, which are especially energy efficient when the desired effect is a color wash. A blue LED natively produces blue light, which is highly efficient, but making blue light from a traditional white light source (like incandescent) requires the use of a color filter that will absorb well over 90% of the luminous energy produced, allowing only blue light to pass. In other words, a 100-watt incandescent light bulb with a blue color filter transmits less than 10 watts of visible light; the balance is lost to heat and is wasted energy. (Exhibit design: DMCD & David Lenk. Lighting design: Available Light. Photos: Steven Rosen)

segdDESIGN 57

Top: Creating an immersive environment of blue light that draws visitors into a magical world of learning and wonder would be outrageously wasteful if the designer used filtered incandescent light. But for the Science Storms exhibit at the Museum of Science & Industry Chicago, Focus Lighting used LED sources for a variety of luminaires, making the ensuing energy consumption palatable and beautiful. (Exhibit design: Evidence Design.

Lighting design: Focus Lighting. Photo: Evidence Design)

58 segdDESIGN

Above: Museums are constantly looking for novel ways to garner attention and increase visitation. But maintenance issues and energy consumption are expensive line items in the budget. Playful, creative, and cost-effective special lighting effects—like those found on the plaza at the Pennsylvania State Museum—can be created using long-life, low-wattage light sources like LEDs. (Design: Vitteta & Krent Paffett Carney. Lighting design: Available Light.

Photos: Steven Rosen)

Diffuse vs. point sources For decades, fluorescent has been the main light source choice for commercial, institutional, and big-box retail illumination. When compared to incandescent lighting, fluorescent lighting is far more efficacious (more light for each watt consumed), and continual improvements to the color-rendering characteristics of fluorescent sources have meant an ever-increasing public acceptance of this technology.

But fluorescent light is a diffuse source that produces an almost shadow-free quality of light that does not lend itself readily to the majority of museum gallery installations. As opposed to the inherent diffuse light quality of fluorescent light, displayed objects in a typical museum gallery are better presented when illuminated with “point” sources (a small ball of radiant energy that is harnessed, focused, and projected via an optical system that includes things like reflectors and lenses). Because the beams of light generated by point sources are highly directional, they emphasize highlight and shadow, dramatically revealing objects in three dimensions and creating lighting compositions that are compelling and memorable.

In the past decade, a number of facility managers, in a valiant attempt to save energy, went through their galleries and replaced incandescent spotlights with compact fluorescent retrofit “swirl” lamps. The result saved energy, but exhibits went from dramatic and appealing to lifeless and dull—a tradeoff that diluted the brand and frustrated many a professional exhibition designer.

For years, point-source technology for museum display was limited to incandescent sources, which produced highly controllable and excellent color-rendering beams of light. Unfortunately, however, an incandescent light source only produces about 10% visible light and 90% wasted heat, which translates to artifact conservation nightmares and financially onerous air-conditioning bills.

Above: A combination of ceramic metal halide spotlights and linear LED sources makes for a compelling composition at the National Infantry Museum. (Exhibit design: Christopher Chadbourne & Associates. Lighting design: Available Light. Photo: Jay Rosenblatt)

LEDs and Sensitive Objects As is true of any new technology, there are numerous companies rushing LED product to market while the lighting industry as a whole grapples with standards of performance, consistency, and quality over the lifetime of an LED source.

Producing white light from an LED is similar to the process of making fluorescent light: luminous energy (in the LED’s case, this energy is actually blue light) excites a cocktail of rare-earth phosphors that in turn “glow” white light to be used for illumination. The resultant color of white light depends on the mix of varying phosphors, the spectral distribution of the native LED, the electrical characteristics of the package, and a whole list of very technical and subtle attributes. Getting a bunch of LEDs to produce the exact same color of light, all the time, is no mean feat, and a lot of very smart people are working diligently to create a dependable outcome.

There is much concern in the museum conservator community over the potential effects of LED light on sensitive objects, and major art institutions are currently researching this issue. If you are contemplating using LEDs to illuminate delicate artifacts, I strongly recommend you perform your due diligence and research the topic thoroughly, including the report presented at the National Archives and Records Administration’s 25th Annual Preservation Conference. The report can be found at http://www.archives.gov/preservation/conferences/2011/ presentations/druzik-miller.pdf.

Above: Because of their low profile and cool temperature operation, LEDs can be packaged and employed in a huge variety of applications. Here, dynamic color-changing step lighting was built into stair treads at the Mississippi Children’s Museum. (Architect: CCD Architects. Lighting design: Available Light. Photo: Tom Joynt)

segdDESIGN 59

Top: Rather than traditional incandescent spotlights, this gallery at the National Infantry Museum is illuminated with ceramic metal halide which, watt for watt, produces 3-4 times the amount of light. (Exhibit design: Christopher Chadbourne & Associates. Lighting design: Available Light.

Photo: Jay Rosenblatt)

60 segdDESIGN

Although arrayed in a linear fashion (similar to uorescent strips), LED point sources, placed at a raking angle to a highly textured surface, dramatically reveal the three-dimensional rock surfaces at Amherst College’s Museum of Natural History. (Architect: Payette. Exhibit design: Museum Design Associates. Lighting design: Available Light. Photo: Steven Rosen)

Although there are still many instances when incandescent light sources are the best choice for a particular project, it is now inconceivable that designers not develop a project without considering sustainability.

Game changers Enter two new light sources that are redefining exhibition lighting design: ceramic metal halide (CMH) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). These two sources (both of which are more than three times as efficient as incandescent) have been undergoing a technical revolution as engineers work to improve color rendering, lamp life, and control schematics. Although CMH has leaped ahead in terms of beam control, brightness, and efficiency, it does come with some not-insignificant limitations, including the fact that it cannot be dimmed, requires warm-up time to come up to full intensity, and when switched off, must cool down before being turned back on. It can also shift in color toward the end of its usable life.

On the other hand, LEDs can be dimmed (though associated technologies are still undergoing much-needed improvement), are available in a greater variety of “white-light” color temperatures and a decent variety of native colors, and have a longer lamp life.

Arrays of small LEDs can be packaged in a variety of form factors, from linear to spotlight.

Although there are still many instances when incandescent light sources are the best choice for a particular project, it is now inconceivable that designers not develop a project without considering sustainability. Like it or not, the role of a lighting designer is to consume energy. But we must all employ the evermore efficient electric light systems coming to market, harness all the daylight we can find, and be more thoughtful about how we apply our design principles. Perhaps it is this notion that makes us that much more valuable to our clients. We must also champion energy that is produced completely by sustainable means. Only then can our profession be truly “green.”

Steven Rosen, IALD, is the founder of Available Light, an awardwinning lighting design firm specializing in museum exhibition, architecture, and corporate communications. He can be reached at steven@availablelight.com.

Top: This illustration shows how daylight harvesting systems use photosensors to monitor daylight conditions. A microprocessor controls dimming based on those conditions. (Diagram: Available Light)

Bottom: At the California Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Steinhart Aquarium, Arup employed a very interesting use of linear LED sources. By continually cross-fading between two parallel runs of contrasting-color LED strips, the three-dimensional wall takes on an almost “living” quality as the dynamic shadows lengthen and shorten and shift with the color mix. Because LEDs are a point source (like incandescent), the effect is more spellbinding than if a diffuse source (like fluorescent) is employed. (Exhibit design: Urban A&O with Thinc. Lighting design: Arup. Photo: Steven Rosen)

segdDESIGN 61

no. 34

Design Marketplace

Graphic Solutions for Architectural & Retail Environments

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Pictured here, the glass is foggy from an angle but is perfectly clear when viewing straight-on.

Logos and unique designs can be cut from Lumisty or printed on the surface, and the film can be combined with 50 different transparent colored films. www.lumistyfilm.com 978-263-9333

62 segdDESIGN

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GraphTec....... Inside Front Cover www.graphtecinc.com

Systech Signage Technology 54 www.systech-signage.com

1220 Exhibits..............Back Cover www.1220.com

Design Communications.............1 www.dclboston.com

iZone .................................................4 www.izoneimaging.com

TFN Architectural Signage ..... 24 www.thirdfloornorth.com

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AD/S Companies ..........................9 www.ad-s.com

Gable Signs ...Inside Back Cover www.gablesigns.com

Matthews Paint ............................. 7 www.matthewspaint.com

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Sign Industries ............................37 www.signindustries.tv

Big Apple Visual Group ..............2 www.bigapplegroup.com

Glass Film Enterprises ............ 62 www.glassfilmenterprises.com

Spectralite ................................... 55 www.spectralite.ca

For active links to advertisers, visit www.segd.org and click on segdDESIGN Magazine!

segdDESIGN 63

Park It

Whether they’re placemaking, camouflaging, or guiding, these parking garage graphics put the fun in functional.

Finding a parking space may be one of the most grueling aspects of urban life. Parking garages, of course, are a necessary and utilitarian solution to the problem. But once you find the (probably dreary) carpark, how to navigate your way through the cheerless concrete caverns and back out again? Can’t someone make the experience more pleasant?

We dug through the segdDESIGN archives for some projects that managed to put the fun in functional.

Here’s our Parking Garage Graphics Hall of Fame.

13-17 West 54th Street, New York (2010) Paula Scher uses large-scale typography as backseat driver and comic relief. Too bad her ideas for exterior typography weren’t realized. (Client: Cohen Bros. Realty. Design: Pentagram.

Fabrication: Mega Media Concepts, Lettera Sign. Photos: James Shanks. Rendering: Pentagram)

64 segdDESIGN

Eureka Car Park, Melbourne (2006) emerystudio’s memorable, Felice Varini-inspired solution uses perspectival distortion to guide drivers through a huge garage below one of the world’s tallest residential buildings. (Client: Eureka Tower.

Design: emerystudio. Fabrication: Consolidated Graphics. Photos: emerystudio)

Seattle Center 5th Avenue North Garage (2008) NBBJ’s design for this LEED-Gold freestanding garage incorporates a glass pavilion that transmits light to all five levels of underground parking. Bold graphics aid navigation and colors subtly mimic the relative penetration of light. (Client: Seattle Center and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Design: NBBJ. Fabrication: Tube Art. Images: Rob Murray/NBBJ)

Cosmopolitan Las Vegas (2010) Selbert Perkins glammed up the parking entrance to the hip new hotel with 12-ft. metallic letters metallic letters. Graffiti artists Shepard Fairey, Retna, Kenny Scharf, and others were invited to get creative on interior surfaces. (Client: Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. Design: Selbert Perkins Design. Fabrication: Casino Lighting & Design. Photos: Selbert Perkins, Cosmopolitan)

segdDESIGN 65

Van Nuys Flyaway (2006) DMJM used a metallic-mesh curtainwall to conceal the unbeautiful contours of this airport garage. Supersized letters are a simple addition, but look suspended in flight on the building, and add a shadowy bonus on the facade. (Client: Van Nuys Flyaway. Design: DMJM. Fabrication: GKD-USA. Photos: ©Tim Griffith)

World Square Carpark, Sydney (2009)

Santa Monica Civic Center (2007)

BrandCulture Communications devised a thoughtful and cohesive wayfinding scheme for a complex tangle of underground garages in downtown Sydney.

(Client: Brookfield Multiplex. Design: BrandCulture Communications. Fabrication: Wizardry Signs. Photos: Kris Baum)

With its colored-glass cladding designed by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners, this garage has transcended its utilitarian purpose and become a key feature of the city’s civic gateway. Beck & Graboski Design Office created handsome signage and wayfinding for the “urban curtain.” (Client: City of Santa Monica. Design: Beck & Graboski Design Office.

Fabrication: C&C Sign, CA Signs, Daktronics, Pulp Studios. Photos: Tom Graboski)

66 segdDESIGN

Kansas City Public Library (2004) An ingenious and bookish solution for a potentially boring structure: 30-ft.-tall literary favorites transform downtown Kansas City into a giant bookshelf. (Client: Kansas City Public Library. Design: 360 Architecture, BNIM Architects. Fabrication: Dimensional Innovations.

Photos: Jim Baker)

Oxford Street Parking, Boston (2005) Arrowstreetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s beautiful solution gives commuters access to the treasures of Harvard Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s museum collections. (Client: Harvard University Planning and Real Estate. Design: Arrowstreet.

Fabrication: Back Bay Signs. Photos: Richard Mandelkorn)

Theatre and Auditorium Poitiers (2009) Playful typography by P-06 Atelier lightens up the garage at this French performing arts center. (Client: Theatre and Auditorium Poitiers. Design: P-06 Atelier.

Fabrication: Demetro a Metro. Photo: SG+FG Architectural Photography)

segdDESIGN 67

no. 34

Out There

RESCALE DESIGN www.rescaledesign.com

R

escale Design is a new division of design firm Infinite Scale (Salt Lake City). Its mission is to help keep landfills clear by turning event graphics made from vinyl and fabric into stylish products.

Using event materials such as banners, signs, and fence wrap, Rescale works with a growing list of U.S.-based manufacturers to produce high-quality, high-style products that can then be sold by the original end-user. These materials cannot be used again as graphics because they were created for a specific event.

“It’s really a big-picture way of looking at what we put out there in the world and how we can minimize waste,” says Amy Lukas, Infinite Scale and Rescale partner. “In thinking through the material life-cycle, we wanted to help clients strategize the possible eco-solutions so dated fabrics and vinyls don’t end up in the landfill.”

Rescale created an opportunity for clients to repurpose the materials as new objects, then use them for charity auction items, corporate partner gifts, or revenue-generating merchandise. Rescale offers two product lines: vinyl and fabric. Each collection includes a variety of products, from duffel bags to passport covers to picture frames. All Rescale products are made in the U.S. “They are everyday functional objects with a unique twist,” says Lukas. “The materials from which they’re made tell the story the recipient is somehow connected to.

So they represent an experience that can›t be replicated, which makes them one-of-a-kind.”

68 segdDESIGN

The Rescale NHL 2011 All-Star Collection including picture frames, padfolios, journals and passport covers.

Left: InďŹ nite Scale designed event graphics for the 2011 NHL All-Star Game held at the RBC Center in Raleigh, N.C. The NHL enlisted Rescale to repurpose the interior graphics into revenue-generating products.

segdDESIGN 69

no. 34

Out There

WAYFINDER WALLPAPER www.mikeandmaaike.com www.rollout.com

F

or partners Mike Simonian and Maaike Evers of industrial design studio Mike&Maaike, Wayfinder Wallpaper is a departure from the typical decorative approach to designing wallcoverings. “We wanted the wallpaper to serve a functional purpose and it seemed natural that the design would convey information,” says Simonian.

“We experimented with applications and information that may be useful to apply to entire walls and in doing this research, we discovered that in 1974, a system of symbols was produced through a collaboration between AIGA and the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“We were also inspired by an application of supergraphics inside the women’s changing room at the Sea Ranch pool, where Maaike and I often go for short summer vacations.

Painted on the walls inside are the most amazing and beautiful supergraphics created by Barbara Stauffacher Solomon in the 1960s. We wanted to apply these nondescript, universal symbols and numbers to wallpaper in a vibrant and colorful way that captures optimism and confidence and creates new possibilities for architects, interior designers, and space planners.”

The line comes in nine colors with the option of reversing the pattern, creating 18 color options total, and supports the full series of AIGA symbols as well as numbers and letters. Symbols can also be combined, for example a wall of repeating arrows with one of the arrows replaced by a coffee cup, restroom symbol, or other symbol.

70 segdDESIGN

SIGNAGENT PRO www.signagentpro.com

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reated by an environmental graphic designer with extensive experience in wayďŹ nding and sign program development, SignAgent Proâ&#x201E;˘ simpliďŹ es and automates the sign programming process. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Having personally endured the mind-numbing task of inputting data for thousands of signs using conventional software, I knew there had to be a better way. I initially developed SignAgent Pro for my own use, but I soon realized I had a valuable product to share with the broader EGD community,â&#x20AC;? says David Jorritsma, developer of SignAgent Pro and principal of Jorritsma Design. The system was designed with a wide range of applications in mind, from hospitals and healthcare facilities to ofďŹ ce buildings, stadia, university campuses, and cities.

The system synchronizes location plans and databases, providing the ďŹ&#x201A;exibility to create or modify signs in its database or directly on the location plan. Its synchronization system will then update other ďŹ les with the new information, eliminating the need to input duplicate data.

It compiles sign program information into detailed reports, including message schedules, sign counts, sign estimates, and defect reports. It also allows placement of PDF sign artwork in the location plan and SignAgent Pro database. Its translation function allows users to enter translated phrases into the SignAgent Pro database, which will then update all matching phrases with the proper translation.

SignAgent Go, a free Mobile Defects App, is included with the software. It allows users to record and photograph sign defects from Apple iOS mobile devices.

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segdDESIGN 71

no. 34

Get Lost

72 segdDESIGN

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