Metro Center Station – Friday, March 27, 2015 – Red Line to Glenmont
Tag Archives: lighting
Station cleaning – the end product
Today’s snow storm means Metro’s been limited to their underground service map only. Given that buses are out of commission, this low level of service is the only real way to get around town. It also means there’s plenty of time to spend in the stations waiting for trains.
So, while waiting at Potomac Avenue, I couldn’t help but snap a few pictures of the newly cleaned and whitewashed vaults, all part of Metro’s earlier noted station enhancement program. For Potomac Ave in particular, the mid-way photos already showed a huge improvement over the dirty and grimy concrete vaults. Given that Potomac Ave was one of the stations Metro painted years ago to improve light levels, the last step was to essentially whitewash the station vaults to complete the cleaning process, and then light those vaults up by replacing all the burnt-out light bulbs.
The difference is stark. Today:
Whitewashed and illuminated vaults at Potomac Ave
The mid-way progress:
Steam cleaning in progress at Potomac Ave
And the original, dirty station:
Dirty station vaults before cleaning
For a synopsis of the station enhancement process, check out this WaPo article.
Warming up Metro
Metro’s signature indirect lighting scheme is getting a little brighter. Over at GGW, Matt Johnson notes upgrades to the Judiciary Sq Station mezzanine as a means of better illuminating the darker areas of one of the darker stations.
Judiciary Sq Station
I haven’t yet checked out the new mezzanine lighting in person, but Matt’s photo raises a couple of questions and concerns about Metro’s design legacy. One is a concern that Metro’s new lighting is too cold – meaning, the color temperature of the resulting environment is cold, while Metro’s original design with the concrete, brass, tile, and carpet was very warm.
Conversely, Metro’s most recent design changes seem to get colder and colder. It’s hard to judge these new lights by just a photo, but this isn’t the only case. In my post on Metro’s 7000 series designs (here and at GGW), Laurence Auerbach noted in the comments about Metro’s recent trends towards cooler lighting schemes:
I’ve ridden in the 7000 series design prototype, and it was a truly oppressive experience. A big problem is the color of the walls, partitions, and seat backs. In the old cars it is a warm beige-white that softens the fluorescent lighting. In the new cars the wall color is a cool grey-white that makes the fluorescent lighting even flatter and harsher than it normally is.
…
My favorite Metro car design is the 6000 series (the most recent), even though I prefer the original orange seat colors. The 6000 series has the best combination of efficient layout, comfortable style, quiet operation, and high quality technical/mechanical features. Metro should build on that success; it should only change the floor material to make it easier to maintain.
The change in visual experience from the original, orange color scheme is indeed striking:
The newer cars, with the white walls, are indeed much brighter. However, when compared to cars without the red carpet flooring, the color experience is much more harsh:
Wondering out loud – could Metro do hard flooring in a red-ish color that’s true to the original train design?