Porter Square Station is a place I pass through nearly every day and is the site I have decided to take on as my next design/illustration project. Since the station is nearby my office, it is how I get to and from my home, and how I get in and out of the city for client meetings. Having spent so much time at this station, I am constantly thinking how I would redesign it. There are a lot of unique parameters that will act as a framework for creating the new spaces and forms. From the triangular shaped site to the layering of transportation methods on top of one another, there is a complexity to the site that I am excited about.
The site is located right on Massachusetts Ave. and sits between Harvard Square and Davis Square. The station serves several transportation systems; Red Line subway, the Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line, and multiple bus routes.
One of the most interesting parts of Porter Square Station is how deep the Red Line Subway sits below ground level. Users have to travel 105 ft. (32 m) on two large sets of escalators to reach the platform. In order for me to really start thinking through the design, I built a model of the existing site so that I could see how the different systems overlap each other and put together these diagrams to help explain.
The station that is currently there was redesigned in 1984 by Cambridge Seven Associates, a well respected architecture office here in Boston. Given what I am sure were tight and constraining parameters such as cost and strict code and MBTA guidelines, the station design still had very interesting and aggressive geometric moves. One of the advantages for me when setting up these imaginary projects on my site is that I get to ignore some of these constraints as I explore the formal and spacial ideas in my head and see what illustrations are generated. I will be designing the new station over the couple of weeks, so stay tuned.
Is there a reason for the colour choice? You say you pass there to and from work everyday – the colour reflects the time of day that I think you see it in!
Love the perspective overlap too
Any particular reason for the colour choice or is it because the dawn/dusk colouring is the only colour you see it in! 🙂
I really enjoy the perspective overlap.
@Preston, The red, yellow, and purple on the transportation represents the color coding for city transportation labeling seen on city signage and maps. The atmospheric coloring was a little less intentional and more about what felt right. I tested out a lot of different scenarios, but ended up with more moody/dusky looks.
Nice!
Also, sorry for the double comment there, I thought the first one got deleted somehow.
how long does something like this process normally take?
@Lucas, a lot of time went into studying the area and developing somewhat accurate 3d models of the station (1 to 2 hours each night for a week). However, once the model was setup, the rest of the illustration goes pretty quickly (about a day for all 3). With that said, I have started to notice that I am spending more and more time playing with color. Probably too much time. I still struggle with color palettes and toning and am quite slow at it.
https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/
this website could help get the job done faster. it takes a while to get to the point where you can just envision the pallet you need, anyways this is where i always start.
-hope this helps.
Beautiful, by the way. Simply Beautiful.
Infographics are nicely executed and elaborated
Alex – If you are intrigued by the geometric complexity of the Porter Square site, you might be interested in the configuration of the north and south vent shafts (not yet in your model) which link the air in the tunnels and the platforms to the surface. Another depth constraint was the height and contour of the bedrock below the surface.The Red Line was originally meant to continue along Mass Ave with a simple shallow station, but once Arlington fought against the extension into their downtown, relocating to Davis Square required the deep bore solution.
@Peter, Thanks for the helpful information. Where specifically are the vent shafts that you described since that would be an important detail to include in the new design. Thanks!
This is really so nice blog and interesting topic thank you so much for this article
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