metro

Design and project management for a large scale public artwork, for Ball Nogues Design Studio.

This project was installed in Summer 2019 on the facade of a new Los Angeles Metro building in the Arts District.

Appearing as colored light cast across the North and West facades of the building, this dynamic mural changes subtly from different viewpoints and as the sun moves across the sky. From historic streetcars to contemporary trains and buses, the composition incorporates an array of intersecting vehicles, based on photographs found in the collections of the Los Angeles Public Library and the LA Metro Transportation Library and Archives. These documents were turned into illustrations by Nathan Peyton which, in turn, were extrapolated by a custom built digital scripting tool, to translate each drawing into an array of pixels.

The pixelated imagery is constructed of tens of thousands of translucent acrylic chips which project from integrated panels on the surface of the building. Tapping our collective memory and imagination of public transportation in Los Angeles, the fluctuating reflections from these colored chips create a powerful optical effect that seemingly dematerializes the building facade. Because the pixels are oriented differently for each train and bus, the movement of the sun combined with the viewer's line of sight causes each of them to light up and vanish independently. I devised the acrylic pixel system, developed the fabrication methodology and managed the project from conceptual design to the start of fabrication.

Medium: acrylic chips on anodized aluminum panels

Dimensions : 100' x 25' approx.