Subway Map Floating on a NY Sidewalk Part 5 [A Brief Overview of the NYC Subway Map]

Because Schien's work depicts a subway map, it is only appropriate to talk about the evolution of the NYC subway map in general.

The subway map has undergone many changes over the years, dating back to when the IRT built the first subway. In the first half of the century, there were actually three competing subway companies in New York: the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit), IND (Independent Subway) and BMT (Brooklyn Manhattan Transit).

[Fun fact: You can actually tell which subway company built a specific line from the number or letter of the route. The numbered routes are IRT services, while the lettered routes A-G are IND services. The other letters in use today are BMT services.]

Here is a brief video by the MTA which explains the three competing subway companies and how to tell which line was run by which company:

Each company created its own map, and this was the norm until the IRT and BMT became bankrupt in 1940. This meant that the subways had to be unified into one entity by the city. (NYC Subway)

IRT map from 1906 (NYC Subway)

IND Map from 1937 (NYC Subway)

BMT Map from 1912 (NYC Subway)

Under Mayor LaGuardia, on June 1, 1940, the subways were officially unified into one distinct City-owned subway. (Feinman) The unified map looked like this:

Subway map from 1948 (NYC Subway)

The map underwent a few more revisions, until Massimo Vignelli stepped in in the 60s to design a revolutionary map that featured clean lines at 45 or 90 degree angles only. His map was based on the successful London Underground map designed in 1933 by Henry Beck. However, this approach ran into some issues, notably with maintaining geographic accuracy. (Bierut) For example, Central Park is depicted as a square, when in fact is it three times as long as what is shown on the map.

Vignelli subway map from 1972. (Bierut)

This inconsistency led to the modern style of map being created and put into use in 1979 by the TA. (Beirut) To this day, as subway routes were created and retired, the map underwent changes to its routes, but the design stayed the same. A notable change occurred in 1986 when the use of double letters on route symbols and the map was eliminated, and all routes carried single letters or numbers only.

1979 redesigned subway map (Merideth)

Today's subway map

Works Cited

Baber, Merideth. "Designing the New York City Subway Map." Urban Omnibus Designing the New York City Subway Map Comments. Urban Omnibus, 8 Dec. 2010. Web. 14 Aug. 2014.

Bierut, Michael. "Mr. Vignelli's Map." Design Observer. The Design Observer Group, 28 Oct. 2004. Web. 14 Aug. 2014.

Feinman, Mark S. "History of the Independent Subway." Www.nycsubway.org. NYC Subway, 1999. Web. 14 Aug. 2014.

Heller, Steven. "For New York's Straphangers, Bluer Water and a Fatter Manhattan." The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 June 2010. Web. 14 Aug. 2014.

"Subway FAQ: A Brief History of the Subway." Nycsubway.org. NYC Subway, n.d. Web. 14 Aug. 2014.

Subway Map Floating on a NY Sidewalk Part 4 [The Meaning Behind the Work, Another Sponsor, and Even More Art!]

In Subway Map Floating on a NY Sidewalk, the artist Francoise Schein states that her premise in creating the work was to make a declaration of human rights. Most of the artist's work contains the ideas of human rights embedded in the work. It is difficult to see the underlying human rights premise in the Subway Map, but the "plaque" seems to make it obvious:

(This was taken by me)

According to the "plaque", creating this work inspired Schien to incorporate the theme of universal human rights in her future works, specifically five subway stations around the world. I came up with a good explanation for the supposedly "invisible" human rights concept embedded in the work.

To make this explanation, I had to think of the lines and stations as more than just a subway map. I saw the stations as individual people that differ in race, creed and origin, just like the unique character of each of NYC's subway stations. However, the subway lines running between the stations are supposed to represent the similarities between all people and the fact that we are all part of the human race. Because of the fact that we are all human, we all deserve to have human rights. This is my interpretation of the message of the Subway Map. Because, of course, each person can interpret the work differently, many different theories and explanations of Schein's message of human rights abound.

Schein is the founder of the INSCRIRE organization, which promotes universal human rights through artwork. The plaque does not mention the organization, but according to the Inscrire website, it seems she created the work in order to draw inspiration from it in creating future works. Those future works include subway stations in various cities around the world, such as Stockholm and Berlin, and the Concorde station in Paris. This station supposedly has the entire text of the Declaration of Human Rights on the walls. (Inscrire)

I forgot to mention that the work is also sponsored by Goldman Properties, which maintains the work. 

Tony Goldman, the founder of Goldman Properties, commissioned and funded the work. (Schein) Goldman Properties is actually based at the building behind of the work, at 110 Greene St! There are also some other public works based here, and the building itself is loaded with art. Subway Map is just one of a large collection of pieces based at 110 Greene St. A sculpture by Kenitchi Hiratsuka is based here which towers over the Subway Map. The art inside the building includes works by various artists such as Logan Hicks, Henry Chalfant, and Martha Cooper. (SoHo Building)

The presence of these artworks help to solidify SoHo's reputation as a center for not only resident artists, but also their public art.

Works Cited

"Art." The SoHo Building. The Soho Building, 2014. Web. 11 Aug. 2014.

Schein, Francoise. "Inscrire." INSCRIRE: TO WRITE THE HUMAN RIGHTS. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Aug. 2014.

Schein, Francoise. "Subway Map Floating on a NY Sidewalk." (2013): n. pag. 2 June 2010. Web. 11 Aug. 2014.

Subway Map floating on a NY Sidewalk Part 3 [The Neighborhood of SoHo]

Last week, I talked about Francoise Schein's Subway Map Floating on a NY Sidewalk itself. This week, I would like to give some background information and a bit of history about the neighborhood that the work is located in, SoHo.

Soho was originally the site of a grant of farmland given to free slaves by the Dutch West India Company during the colonial period. It turned out to be the first free Black settlement in Manhattan. Serious development in the area did not begin until Collect Pond was finished being drained in about 1813. After the pond was drained, Broadway was paved and more people began to settle in the area around Broadway and Canal Street. (Wikipedia)

In the mid-19th century, after this influx of settlement, commercial establishments such as Lord and Taylor began to open, as well as theatres and hotels, and along with this came the beginning of the famous SoHo cast-iron development. With the rise of the commercial district, brothels began to open up, and the area became one of the city's red-light districts, especially on the side streets off of Broadway. The establishment of the brothels drove out the area's middle class, allowing small manufacturers to pour in such as cabinet and china makers. (Wikipedia)

This process contributed to the decline of the area in the second half of the 19th century, especially with the Panic of 1873 and the Civil War. Large textile firms moved into the area towards the end of the century, but this did not change the course of the area as the firms moved to the South and the commercial center of the city moved uptown. After World War II, the area was an industrial wasteland with the big textile and small manufacturing firms replaced with such things as gas stations, auto repair shops, warehouses, and sweatshops. It was not until the 1960s when artists began to be interested in the empty manufacturing lofts that Soho's character began to change again. (Wikipedia)

The Lower Manhattan Expressway was slated to destroy most of the cast-iron architecture of the area, but civic and community leaders as well as the artists that lived there helped to defeat the proposal, leaving artists with the upper floors of abandoned Manhattan lofts to reside in. (Wikipedia)

And this is how SoHo gained its status as a center for art...

... but how does this apply to Subway Map Floating on a NY Sidewalk?

As stated in my first post, Subway Map Floating on a NY Sidewalk was installed in 1986 at 110 Greene St, in front of the SoHo Building. Since I would like this post to sum up the impact of this work on the community, I would like to talk about how Soho was affected by this piece of art.

While searching for information for this post, I came across a blog similar to this one. It states that "most busy New Yorkers rushed by... children, teenagers and tourists were fascinated." (Urban Media Archaeology) When I went to photograph the piece a few weeks ago, there were tourists milling about the area, but many of them failed to notice the Subway Map. Most of them kept on walking, oblivious to what was under their feet. I disagree with the statement by Urban Media Archaeology about how the work is easily noticed, but I did see one person take a picture of the work with their phone. Maybe I'm just bad at telling a tourist from a New Yorker, but I did notice that most people walking along Greene St. didn't bother to look under their feet, which is why I also believe that this excellent piece of public art deserves a little more recognition, and maybe a "renovation" of sorts that would allow the LED stations to come on during the daytime to make it really stand out from the sidewalk.

Unfortunately, as this would be considered a "minor" work of public art (unlike some huge pieces such as the 2005 Gates in Central Park) , not much information is available about the actual impact of the work on the neighboring area. However, I did find out that the entire block was dug up in order to make way for it in 1986. I doubted the authenticity of this claim in my first post because the work is "only" 87 feet long, which would be roughly 1/5 the total length of this particular block [I actually measured the distance on Greene St. (where the work is located) between Prince and Spring St. with Google Maps, and the length of this block came out to be approximately 520 feet long.]

In short, I conclude that this work of art had a major impact on this particular block, as well as a mention in a few NYC tourist guidebooks, but its total impact was relatively limited in scope. It definitely did not bring in a quarter of a billion dollars in tourism revenue like the Gates in Central Park did in 2005, but the work still stands as a nice SoHo "Easter egg" of sorts. It is not totally under the radar, however, as it had gained moderate amounts of attention by the art world and the SoHo community.

In the next post I will examine some other works of art located in the immediate area of Subway Map Floating on a NY Sidewalk.

See you next week!

Works Cited

JONATHAN. "Subway Map Floating on a NY Sidewalk." Web log post. Urban Media Archaeology. N.p., 12 Nov. 2011. Web. 04 Aug. 2014.

"SoHo, Manhattan." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 08 Mar. 2014. Web. 04 Aug. 2014.