2023-2025 ROUTE: 8th Avenue
Base map by Jake Berman.

↘ ABOUT
↘ REFERENCE
↘ MEMORY

NEWSSTAND

SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS:

✺ BOOK LAUNCH Friday, August 22

✺ April-June Bulletin: Proofing, Maps, MetroCard Machines, and WET PAINT

✺ August 2025: Printed references will be mailed out. If you request(ed) a copy of the booklet, a tracking number will be sent to you upon release. Thank you for your patience.

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"Our concern is the interaction of color; that is, seeing what happens between colors... Colors present themselves in continuous flux, constantly related to changing neighbors and changing conditions. As a consequence, this proves for the reading of color what Kandinsky often demanded for the reading of art: what counts is not the what but the how.” - Josef Albers, Interaction of Color (1963)

ABOUT

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The Subway-Color-Archive (S-C-A) aims to chronicle the layered chromatic and sensory-based elements of MTA platforms. 8th Avenue Independent Line (IND) stations between 207th St. and Jay St. Metrotech have nearly a century of color history, now dissected and revisited. Studies from 2023-25 highlight the columns that support this massive system and their expansive colorscapes.

✺ Contact

↘ This research is supported by the 2023 Independent Projects program, a grant partnership of the New York State Council on the Arts and The Architectural League of New York. Independent Project grants are made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State legislature. The S-C-A is not affiliated with the MTA.

Columns from 207th St. to Jay St. Metrotech (2023-2024)

3D prints (2024)

(2020)

WET PAINT

The path to pursue the S-C-A surfaced in a seminar called The Polychromatic Reconstruction of Architecture (Spring, 2020) taught by David Gissen at the Yale School of Architecture.

The pilot project developed during this time, “Wet Paint: A Study of Subway Columns,” focused on the 23rd Street E/C station, a local stop with moderate foot traffic. Paint chips were collected from the platform, dissected, and examined for chroma, thickness, and texture. Seven unique color phases emerged. Each progressive column reveals a new portal to the layer below.